Te Rapa Motor Inn

We stayed for E.H. with our two-year-old and four-month-old, and moved to another motel after a week. That was the best decision we could have made. The room, number 19, smelled of cigarettes so badly that the smell got into our clothes, blankets and pillows. There was blood on the carpet, the blankets were clearly dirty, and the shower door was hanging off. The microwave was balanced on a chair, and we worried our two-year-old might knock it over, so we brought a table for it and took the table with us when we left. It didn’t feel family friendly at all. There were parties, loud music and yelling at 4 a.m., with a lot of drug activity happening openly. It seemed the owners cared only about the money they got from Winz, and didn’t invest in cleaning or maintenance.

The rooms are worn and tired, and the worst part was the noise from other guests all night. You get what you pay for. Stay here only as a last resort.

The furniture needs replacing: couches are missing legs, and the table legs are crooked, flimsy and coming apart. The upstairs windows need safety latches too. Rooms should be cleaned daily, with fresh linen, towels and toilet paper provided as you’d expect at a motel.

We paid $100 for a room I wouldn’t recommend. The parking lot had large potholes, the motel felt creepy, and the lighting was inadequate. Our room was cold and uninviting, with a double bed and a single bed squeezed in and hardly any space to move around. The Rugby in Hamilton meant accommodation was scarce, so we didn’t have much choice. When we arrived around 7 p.m., reception was locked. I called the number on the door and a lady said she’d be there in 10 minutes. Reception was disorganized and messy, with linen spread over a stool.