Takapuna Motor Lodge

The windows were in bad shape: one wouldn't open because its latch was broken, and another wouldn't close because it had no latch. The room was old, dated and dirty. There was crockery for four but cutlery for only two, a four-element stove and just one 6" saucepan in the kitchen. Water pressure was effectively nonexistent. I had to run around in the shower to get wet. The office never opened during our three days there. I booked and paid for three nights for our 38th wedding anniversary. On arrival they asked for a credit card security deposit. I said the room was paid and I wouldn't pay more, but they manually charged $102 without permission. At checkout I had to call the answering service to get someone to the office to process a refund. They offered $100, saying the other $2 was a bank charge. I refused twice and said they should return the $102 they took. They tried twice to refund $100. Fortunately, just then the police pulled a car over in the driveway. I said, “Oh good, here is the police,” and got the full $102 back within 30 seconds. It was the fastest anything happened there in three days. I've been a motelier for 16 years, and I wouldn't recommend anyone book this motel. I wouldn't piss on the place if it was on fire. Look elsewhere in Takapuna, and booking sites should review the property and ditch it.

At 2am, after an international flight, we got to the property for the after-hours check-in we'd arranged. We opened the key safe and took the only key inside, but it didn't fit our allocated room. We rang the after-hours number, plus 0, half a dozen times, with no answer. We had to find emergency accommodation and pay considerably more. Management wasn't on site. In the morning they said the key worked, though it was with us, and claimed they had no record of our calls. We have the call log. When they saw the key, they said it was for the LAUNDRY. The attitude was disgusting and the customer service was zero. We only read the reviews afterwards and regretted booking. AVOID LIKE THE PLAGUE.

The location was perfect for our stay, but this was the worst experience I've ever dealt with. Nobody was at reception and the door was locked when we arrived. We had to ring customer service, who then had to call someone else to come to the door. They also said my card had declined, although it had more than enough money on it. When someone eventually arrived, he charged us a $100 bond because we didn't have our Visa debit card with us. Yet when I asked about paying for the motel, since it had supposedly declined, he said that payment had already come out. Our room door was extremely hard to open, like it was jammed. He complained when he had to come check it and tried asking if we'd done it. The plates were dirty, and under the beds and behind the drawers were filthy. One child showered in the morning, then I got in and the water was FREEZING!! We won't be back.

The woman there was friendly enough, but reception was never staffed. The cot was a porta cot without a fitted mattress, and the bassinet had a dark yellow stain all across it, so we didn't use either. People park in front of your room in your parking space, which can make getting in and out a tight squeeze.