Hideaway of Rotorua

The place felt unfinished and wasn't as advertised, especially given that Google Maps labels it a 4 star hotel. There was ongoing construction, a makeshift office and a disorganized check-in. The advertised guest laundry was basically unusable because of limited hours and having to share it with housekeeping. It's a ten minute drive from downtown and the other hotels and restaurants, so it wasn't very convenient. This isn't really an alpaca farm either, just a motel with a small alpaca pen in the middle. Our room had poor privacy and design, and it wasn't well maintained. There were just two windows: one frosted window stayed blocked by laundry piled outside the whole time, and the other faced the parking lot where guests drive and walk past. The shower was tiny, I hit my head, and there was no proper place to put things. The toilet was loud and whiny, the vent was dusty, and the cheap flooring didn't feel clean under bare feet. There was no power outlet on one side of the bed. The Wi-Fi kept cutting out. After our first night, housekeeping made the bed very sloppily, as shown in the photo. The room didn't feel private or comfortable.

The staff were lovely, kind and communicated well. We had no trouble with Wi-Fi, and the location was great. The alpacas are adorable, and the new rooms being built look promising. It's good value, though our room was upstairs and we had to carry our suitcases up. Ours was old, despite the renovations underway, and the bathroom had mold. The cleaning product smell was overpowering. Staff had left the windows open, and bugs got into the main room where the kids' beds were. The windows were extremely hard to close. They gave us bug spray, and it killed some, but there were probably 100 bugs on the ceiling above the kids' beds, so it didn't solve the problem. The dated room and moldy bathroom were my only complaints.

Our kids loved feeding and patting the alpacas and friendly sheep, and our four year old had a blast on the playground. We booked a deluxe family room for two nights and it was awesome. The service was great, the rooms were beautiful, and it's a neat place for families to stay. Highly recommend!

The animal-petting experience was a nice bonus, and our room was clean and well equipped. It's far enough from the city center that we could avoid the strong geothermal smell. A great place to stay.