Apollo Hotel Rotorua

This hotel is still available to be booked through booking .com but has been emergency accommodation for many months. We paid and booked only to be turned away at 4.30 on a Saturday night during school holidays as no rooms available to book.Was a nightmare to find alternative accommodation. Booking.com did refund but was quite a rigmarole.

Easy access

The bed was comfortable with lots of comfortable pillows available. Searched everywhere for the spa switch when I found it and turned it on it shot out dead skin and dirt that floated on top of the water. It was dirty the bathroom was filthy the ranch slider had fingerprints and fat residue all over it. The heat pump didn’t work and room got pretty cold. Way overpriced for what we got but we did lastminute order it and are grateful we had accomodation.

Staff were friendly, however room was in serious need of an upgrade, smelt like smoke and someone and covered the smoke detectors with toilet paper. Room was clean

Decent rooms and facilities, which appear to have been renovated/ refreshed within the past 5 years, but ultimately let down by little things, like old, torn and crusty blankets (& old down quilts literally spewing out feathers), cobwebs throughout the halls and mould on the windows. The pool is also FREEZING which is a shame. So ok for a short stay, but could do with a bit of TLC

Basic but comfortable One night stay so suited our needs

Always enjoy our stay here pool and spa and spa bath air conditioner

Good clean hotel. Close to everything and hice view's

Our stay at the Apollo was a dirty, broken experience that upset our children and was quite disgusting and disappointing overall. The Guest Folder was broken and out of date with pages loose all through it, and so we had no idea what services were on offer or what Rotorua highlights were recommended. Both our rooms were paid for with no option to get a refund should we decide to go elsewhere or not turn up. We checked in to find that the lift didn't work and our rooms were unclean. There was no other accommodation available in Rotorua at the time we booked. Reception had already shut early on New Year's Day when we checked in, so we were not able to discuss the state of our dirty bathrooms until the next morning. To greet us was black something splashed over our bathroom door at head height – hard to miss. The toilet walls were dirty and there was significant grease build up on both bathrooms' lower walls and skirting boards. Soap scum was hard and congealed on the shower soap holder - before our check-in, after a maid service on the first day, and probably was still there after we left. My husband walked in when the cleaners had just left our rooms, on the first day’s maid service, and he had to point out to them the black splashed soiling on the bathroom door, and the other dirty areas of both the units, because it was still not cleaned. I did wonder then how long things had been left in this state. At breakfast time we found a toaster covered with melted cheese on the elements which smoked out our unit, so we asked for a clean one, as the one in our adjoining unit (where our children stayed) was actually broken. One kettle was too dirty on the inside. There was poor lighting at the kitchen cubby housing the items and I found a broken knob off something stashed in the cutlery holder, a long, shallow tray hard to see into...fortunately my children relied on me for breakfast and I was the one who looked first before grabbing. The end of the broken knob was metal and razor sharp...a broken cupboard knob said the manager...I shudder at what could have happened had I not looked first as I went for the spoon, or if my children had reached in and sliced open their fingers. Very lucky. My son also swam in the pool and said something suspicious was floating in the water. We discussed with the Manager our concerns about cleanliness and the broken items and he apologized and gave us a new, working toaster. We talked about how, unfortunately, the cleaning messages are not getting through to the staff and that the maid service failed completely on noticing the dirty shower, walls, door and floors. The person before us at check out had also complained about their family stay, so we knew it wasn't just us. The Manager also explained that the hotel takes in single Mums with Youth Services and that they are overseen by that service. I said I had no problem with that at all, but not providing clean, safe and working units was not acceptable. We don't take holidays very often due to our daughter's sensitive state, and our stay at the Apollo was the only place she had a meltdown in. She spent her relaxation time each day trying to clean the rooms herself with antibac wipes, and, after seeing what was in the pool, smelling the spas and settling into our dirty rooms, it was all just too much for her. We are proud of our girl that she'd done so well this far on our family holiday out of her comfort zone, but so annoyed that we all had no choice but to wash and eat in unclean, unloved spaces. We did stay in an amazing hotel in Napier with no cleanliness issues, no sharp or broken things....and the best one we experienced was in Matamata. We only stayed here at the Apollo in Rotorua for two nights on the tail end of a family holiday and we paid top dollar for these two rooms which were dirty and we felt very taken advantage of. Don't stay here, it's a waste of money and the rooms are inadequate, unclean and we felt dirty and disrespected here.

I made my hotel booking based on the website photos. The reality was drastically different to the virtual. I also didn’t read the reviews before booking - a mistake I will never make again. We checked in and were told that the lift wasn’t working but someone was on site repairing it. From the reviews, I now know that it has been out of service for months. Our interconnecting rooms were dirty and smelled strongly of cigarettes. We didn’t want to put our luggage down let alone sit on any of the grubby furniture. I then did something I’ve never done before - asked to check out and get my money back. It is obvious that maintenance and cleaning is low priority and it is dishonest to market themselves as a good hotel and charge for it.