Kanuka Ridge Lodge

I’ve been coming to New Zealand for years, staying in back packers, hotels and home stays and the hospitality has always been wonderful. I was genuinely shocked how the owner here spoke to my husband when we were staying. When we arrived we said to the lady on reception that we had two suitcases and she said we should have received an email to say that their rooms are for people with a small amount of luggage. We hadn’t received an email saying this but it seems surprising as New Zealand isn’t somewhere you come for a short trip. The room was clean but basic and quite small and we couldn’t fit our cases in without clambering over them all the time. We had a shared balcony at the back with a transparent glass door straight into our room which wasn’t ideal. I went to speak to reception to see if we could upgrade but there was no space. We were happy to stay the first night but asked if we could possibly cancel the next two nights. She was helpful and said she’d try and rebook the rooms but couldn’t guarantee it. We were happy with that plan as we didn’t want to be climbing/tripping over our cases. My husband went the next day to let her know we had found somewhere else and the owner was incredibly rude to him and said to leave the following day and not to come back to reception but to leave the key in the room. We were genuinely shocked. I have never experienced anything like that in my life. We found a great spacious room in a holiday park for only $30 more where they looked after us really well.