Luxury Rata Apartment - A

N/A

This place felt like a bait and switch where we were mislead about the cleaning fee. All fees should be disclosed explicitly PRIOR to booking, which was not the case here. I reserved a night (3/17~18 2025; 3 ppl) for which the price was 245 NZD. When booking last Sept, I saw in the main page Property QnA that the host stated the cleaning fee is included (see pic). There's also no mention of cleaning fee at all in the overall property description. Fast forward yesterday, 1 day before our check-in day, I was charged 345 NZD with the 100 NZD cleaning fee. At that point, it was too late to cancel or find alternative housing since it was a few hours before check in. I reached out to the property and booking.com explaining the situation and they said there is a line in the confirmation email about it, which I only found today at the very end of the email. Note that every detail between the main page and confirmation email is the same, except that one line! It's as if they slipped it in only in the email. Even the reservation dashboard shows 245 NZD and the QnA mentions cleaning fee being included. Also, the property stated they will charge 5~7 days before check-in. However, they actually charged us 1 day before check-in and when we inquired about the price discrepancy, they responded the next day about the cleaning fee, which was only 3 hours before check-in. They offered a full refund if we are not comfortable with the price but how is one supposed to find alternative housing in 3 hours? All other properties were booked and we were stuck, so we had no choice but to stay in this property. Had our cards been charged at least 5~7 days prior as promised, we would have enough time to switch to a different place. +We found stains on the bed blanket and 6 used coffee capsules were inside coffee machine (see pic). It was doubtful if the cleaning is actually being done.

Clean, comfortable with a well-stocked kitchen. Modern, updated. Easily walkable to town. We loved it!

I would add some lamps in the bedrooms

Spacious, clean, bright, quiet, well appointed