During our trip to New Zealand, we spent four nights at the Holiday Inn Rotorua. I chose this hotel because I could expect a consistent experience, and the price was in line with other properties in the area. Rooms are available for 20,000 IHG points per night, but I chose to pay cash (since our rate was about $94 USD/night including tax, using points would have gotten a value of 0.47 cents per point, which is below average even without considering the points we earned on the stay.)
Holiday Inn Rotorua. Photo from hotel advertisement in Franchise New Zealand magazine.
Location: The hotel is located about a mile and a half south of the Rotorua town center, right across the street from Whakarewarewa Maori Village and on the edge of the redwoods in Whakarewarewa Forest.
The meeting house at Whakarewarewa
The hotel operates a free hourly shuttle to downtown, and there is a public bus that runs every half hour on weekdays, hourly on Saturdays, and every two hours on Sundays. There’s no Uber or similar services, so you’re limited to these options, a taxi, or a rental car.
The hotel shuttle.
Checkin/Checkout: Checkin and checkout were relatively quick and straightforward. Note that for paid stays the hotel charges a 1.5% service fee for credit cards (this fee is included in advance purchase rates).
Room: The room was fairly standard with a king bed, nightstands, a desk area, TV, mini fridge, hot water boiler, and a bathtub. I didn’t get any photos because we were completely exhausted by the time we arrived.
Food: The hotel offers breakfast and dinner buffets in its restaurant, a limited midday bar menu, and room service (with relatively reasonable prices). There’s not much within walking distance, and we only found one restaurant that would deliver to the hotel.
Service and Amenities: The hotel offers a pool, paid guest laundry (detergent included), mountain bike storage and cleaning facilities, and a fitness center.
Verdict: A solid hotel, but the location’s pretty challenging without a car.
If you have any questions about the hotel, please leave a comment below.
My wife and I are considering this hotel for July. Using points doesn’t make sense for this property.
It all depends on when you stay. We were there in late February when rates were around $300/night so it absolutely made sense to use points. As an IHG platinum (from the credit card status) we received a free upgrade to a top floor room overlooking Whakarewarewa and had awesome views of the Te Puia geyser (saved us admission to two parks). We had a rental car, so the location was fine and convenient for our many activities.
That said, the rooms are not the best. The ceiling is extremely low in the shower. The blow dryer does not have protection on the back so it literally ate my hair and I did not get all of it back. All of the room doors along the hallway make a very loud noise when they are closed, so it constantly sounds like people are slamming their doors (which is not too pleasant at night when you are trying to sleep). One night they hosted a wedding with loud music and noisy guests which went on late into the night and when we asked the hotel if they could reduce the volume it was turned up instead. Equipment in the guest laundry did not work well (detergent was still on the clothes after washing and the dryers required many coins before the clothes were finally dry enough to take out).
You’re right – I forgot that I had to run the dryer twice to get my clothes dry.
Thanks for this review! We’re considering this hotel for a trip we’re planning to NZ. Good to know transportation is a challenge. We’ll probably rent a car.
Definitely a challenge without a car. Did you notice a smell? I felt like the nearby sulfur hot springs really saturated the whole place
I usually only noticed it when I was close to the pools – inside Whakarewarewa or along the walking trail downtown. It’s definitely an acquired smell!
I’ve stayed here. Awesome property – very new, almost “sparkly clean”. I stayed when it was a 10k cat 1, but cash rates were about $80 usd per night when buying 2+ nights. The pool is great. It is thermal heated, and right in the backyard of Te Puia basin. Hotel is really close to redwoods treewalk too. You do need a car to get around Rotorua, and NZ in general.
When we made a trip to new zealand, booked Holiday Inn Rotorua. We stayed there for 2 nights but cash rates were about $80usd for single night stay. The pool seems to be good being heated thermal in backyard of Te Puia Basin. Also the hotel is really close to redwoods treewalk too..
The old girl’s looking good. This property was built in the early 1960s as the THC Rotorua, part of a chain of government owned tourist hotels. I stayed there when it was the THC in 1985. Except for its proximity to the thermal reserve, it was wholly unremarkable then, although certainly adequate for my teenage criteria.