Wai Ora Lakeside Spa Resort - Holdens Bay

Location is beautiful however staff and the customer service was poor. From the time we have arrived to the location front staff started talking in their language infront all the guests. Room was booked in for 3 people amenities provided in the room were for 2 people. Milk was already bad had to request everything over and over. Poor customer service overall.

Myself and 3 of my friends stayed at this hotel on the 23rd of April. I want to write this review on behalf of all four of us who had an extremely unpleasant time. We travelled from Hamilton to have a well deserved weekend away and the second we walked into the hotel we were greeted with arrogance. The man who was checking us in was abruptly rude and should not be working in a customer facing position. We asked to pay individually, we had two separate rooms. When asked he proceeded to roll his eyes, sigh and say “yup, ok” in a disgruntled tone like us paying was such a huge inconvenience. Once we were in our rooms we realised that we did not have robes like it was stated in our booking, which may seem like a superficial thing to be annoyed about but when the spa is on the opposite side of the hotel and there is not adequate spaces provided that allow us to store personal clothing that will stay dry during our time in the spa then the robes become handy for us to not walk through the hotel in our swimwear in late afternoon. When approached and kindly asked if we could grab some robes for us and a couple extra towels we were told “the policy has changed” we mentioned it was in our booking so he said “fine I will get you some to your room”. 10 minutes later we were met with an extremely sarcastic “here you go” and unnecessary attitude in dropping the robes and towels off to our room, which were damp. I’ve never been made to feel like such a huge inconvenience somewhere that I am paying for, it was quite disgusting to be completely honest. We are a group in our mid twenties, we didn’t bring any alcohol, or “rowdiness” we were kind and respectful and just met with unprofessional rudeness. When we went to the spa it was freezing cold. At this point we just laughed it off thinking our hotel stay was just doomed from the beginning and unfortunately it continued to stay that way. Both of our showers only stayed on scorching hot and at one point we had no running cold water out of our taps. After the attitude about the robes we were no longer comfortable with contacting reception so we just dealt with it. At the very end of our stay the fire alarms began to go off and we were already closing our door as this was happening. Luckily we were leaving and it was a false alarm but had it been real, watching the other guests and ourselves no one had a clue where to go in case of an emergency, there were no signs and we could not find anything in either of our rooms in terms of evacuation plans. Overall a very disappointing stay, we were made to feel annoying and very uncomfortable with the way we were treated by this one person and I really hope he is not the manager because he was awful to deal with. There were two women at the desk also and they were lovely.

There seemed to be very few staff. On checking out the reception was locked and no instructions as to where to leave the key. We found this puzzling as breakfast was supposed to be available from 8 am but there was no one. Also had no hot water the morning we left. Parking is a long way from unit which would be unpleasant on a wet day. Also would have been nice to have spa towels provided. Bit disappointed overall because it sounded too class

Nice, clean place with helpful and kind staff. The shower pressure is phenomenal! Towels, soap, shampoo, conditioner and moisturiser were all provided. The sauna, spa and pool were really nice to come back to after a long day of exploring!

The facilities here were really nice, both my partner and I loved taking advantage of the spa and sauna. But other than that there was no microwave, cutlery or whiteware to use. Most gardens were overrun by weeds, which is a very easy fix. Wasn't too bad for the price

False advertising on Booking.com when looking, then arrived and didn’t get what was on the website at all. It was old and out-dated, the bathroom was way too small (height-wise) for the average human (my husband is 6’3ft and I’m 5’9 and we both struggled to use the bathroom facility). My husband could smell black mold on arrival as well, which is unsafe for someone like myself who has asthma. Half of the items that are listed are not there, such as soundproofing. I live in a busy city in an apartment block not far from the main roads, bars, train tracks, as well as an airport and we have more soundproof rooms here than at a supposed 4 star resort. We were there for our wedding and honeymoon, it honestly affected the whole honeymoon for us and we had to come home early in the end as the bed was so uncomfortable it messed up my husband’s back. We felt they didn’t really care about making the experience enjoyable for us, we felt we were more a money-making machine than a customer who is entitled to a good experience, especially when staying at a supposed 4 star resort, with a spa attached (which I found through review you have to pay for, $30 to sit in a lukewarm spa). We didn’t let the staff know of these problems as we found them rude and unprofessional, especially at check in. On check in, as my mother had booked the place, I thought it was paid for. Just to find out from a very rude manager, that it had not been paid for. He then went on to be very condescending towards myself and my mother on the phone when I had to ring her up. And as a couple who has worked in hospitality before, it was OHS nightmare honestly. We didn’t eat at the restaurant as it looked closed the whole time and it was very over priced for small portions. We also didn’t use the spa section as well, due to price and the fact we saw reviews about the spas not being warm. We will never be returning and I will definitely NOT be recommending anyone stay here unless you enjoy back pain and getting the flu or Covid-19 with the black mold in the rooms.

Absolutely loved my stay here. The facilities were top notch! Loved taking advantage of the spa, Katie (the beauty therapist) was an absolute delight and made me feel so comfortable. The food was delicious and the room service was devine. Thank you guys for making my stay here feel like home away from home. I will definitely be back! ❤️

From the moment we set foot in the door we received awesome service. We were greeted by the bright and bubbly Daisy, who checked us in effeciently. She showed us to the room and gave us an overview of the hotel and facilities. The room was spacious and airy and very clean, with an outstanding view of the lake and outside pool which our balcony overlooked. The food was beautifully presented and perfectly cooked, we enjoyed a quit drink in the bar served by Jason who was friendly and professional. The morning staff also kept the high standard of service high in professionalism and friendliness. People giving poor reviews have to open their eyes and remember the hospitality trade has had a very tough past few years and are just getting back to some normality. Still short staffed in many cases and some isolating these are still very challenging times. And all people do is worry about weeds in the garden and waiting a few extra minutes for service come on and wake up. If you are spending $3000 a night then you can justify your moans. Enjoy the moment.