andrew

They have an Amway convention

markmho

Thanks for the reply Andrew. Now I'm able to find more details when putting Amway on google search.
That means queenstown will be even more crowded during that time

Seems like you are pretty familiar with Queenstown, do you have any good experience with other hotels in queenstown or even in Arrowtown? Right now I'm thinking of Sofitel.
Sorry, not sure if I should ask this question here or other thread or PM you.

andrew

Hi - Only get near this at the end of day- Looking back it looks a bit obnoxious to say we stayed that many times, but assure you it was simply because we live handy (5 1/2 hours ) anyways, in our opinion Hilton is the best Queenstown has to offer - close second would be Milbrook, but you need a rentakl car for that - maybe pm us, Sofitel too noisey right in middle of qtwn and it is boozing capital as well as being sporty capital. How many days and would you car hire ?

54austin

Does anyone know what the spa prices are like? Thanks.

FGunawan

Stayed here twice last week. The second stay was unplanned, it was due to our Air NZ flight cancellation that got rebooked the following day.

For the first stay I booked online burning 26,000 points. We got upgraded to King Lake Wakatipu Suite since no Relaxation Room was available. The suite was nice but we found the terrace to be very limited, certainly not the kind of spacious terrace pictured in the description of the suite. In my opinion highlight of the suite is the lovely spacious bathroom, which feels very outsized in comparison to the rest of the suite.

For the second stay we just showed up at reception after Ubering straight from airport. We paid cash (EFTPos - NZ debit) for the basic category room. They offered to upgrade us to yet another King Lake Wakatipu Suite. I asked whether a Relaxation Room was available (I checked in advance it's available to book), the gracious reception lady checked her system, said it was and happily assigned us one. We absolutely liked it much better than the suite. Besides the jacuzzi overlooking Lake Wakatipu, Relaxation Room offers a semi-private walkway to a trail by the lake. The only thing the suite has over Relaxation Room is the outsized bathroom.

Breakfast at Wakatipu Grill was very nice, one of the nicest breakfast buffets I have experienced in New Zealand (although still pales in comparison to breakfast at Hilton hotels in Southeast Asia). We had dinner at Wakatipu Grill and Me and Mee and they were both generally nice, although Wakatipu Grill tends to be expensive for dinner and I find some dishes at Me and Mee to be more like Chinese food adjusted to NZ tongues, although some other tastes authentic enough.

In general, we were very happy there although I found that reception treatment of us was inconsistent, depending on who we were dealing with. Some were absolutely nice and charming, some were not so keen on granting things such as late check-out. Both times we had to have a lengthy discussion to get late check-out, and always ended up with 1pm. Second time I asked for 1.30pm check-out (our plane left at 2.10) in the light that it was already 12.40, we had to go to reception to get our keys working again for our room and we needed to pack (I expected to actually leave around 1.10-1.15 - just didn't want to leave the room after an agreed-upon time). She threw a big fuss and stuck with 1.00. In the end it was 1.10 anyway when we left our room.

Other than inconsistencies of reception staff, I found other staff here generally very nice and helpful.

Duke787

How do they treat Gold members here? We are headed down next April and currently have 2 of our 4 nights booked at the Crowne Plaza in town and I'm looking to figure out the other 2 nights. The Hilton is available at a reasonable 48k points/night so giving it a look but aware that the base room only books into a King and not into a lakeview (which is what I'd want).

It also looks like the Lake Wakatipu suite is available at a reasonable $350/night (which could be offset by points) which is intriguing.

azepine00

Considering a stay in november there and all rates (including BAR and pints) come up as non-refundable!?!
Has anyone encountered such nonsense there?

:D!

I searched various dates and couldn't find any that didn't have a flexible rate

54austin

Can someone confirm that eforea spa treatments will be billed by the hotel? At some hotels, the spa is a separate business and I want to use my Aspire credit here. Thanks!

Stivelio

Reading posts on this thread the consensus seems to be that hilton resort is better choice compared to the doubletree. Did I get that right?

masamune

Does this place have a lounge?

foolproof100

No, they do not have a lounge

Stivelio

We are family of 4 that includes 2 kids ( 7 and 2) and so when I put kids in the criteria I only see premium rewards rooms(85K) vs standard rate room(35K). Is it ok to book a standard room assuming that it's big enough and the fact that I have diamond status that could help in free upgrade to larger room?

nichojo

spent NYE in the DT whilst our friends stayed at Hilton. We regretted our decision.

sbiddle

Define "better"?

Yes the Hilton has nicer and larger rooms (and a better view if you get the front block) but with facilities shared between both properties it IMHO comes down to the price. There certainly are times where there are vast differences between the pricing of both, and if I'm staying there (I've stayed at both properties regularly) I'm not willing to pay $100+ per night more for the Hilton when Diamond benefits still give you a free drink and full buffet breakfast regardless of what hotel you stay at.