I have stayed here many times and over the years I have seen the place go down, I have arrived here today and already want to leave when I arrived I noticed a smell coming from the bathroom someone had just checked out and used the toilet the shower curtain is mouldy on the bottom and the mini bar isn't topped up the check in lady was good. I don't get room service it's too expensive so I don't bother with it anymore

Waitangi weekend we went up to Hamilton for a women's duathlon event. We checked accommodation rates online and the Hamilton Kingsgate were offering rooms for $79 for 2 or $99 with full breakfast for 2. We took advantage of the breakfast option and were really impressed with the spaciousness of the rooms and the same friendly service that we have received in the Palmerston North Kingsgate Hotel. We would reccommend this hotel to people who don't mind being right in the middle of town as it helps make for a nice quiet stay at a great price.

I'm not normally one for writing bad reviews, but on this occasion I've decided to make an exception as I think the management need to evaluate some issues. To be fair though, I will start out with the good points about this hotel so as not to appear unreasonable. We had chosen this hotel primarily for it's location and after having viewed the images online. The images of the lobby showed a HUGE lobby such as that which you might find in any modern 4-5 star hotel. The restaurant images looked massive and the rooms delightfully appointed. I will admit upfront that I was expecting a 4 or 4.5 star hotel, not realising it is only rated 3 stars. However....

First, the good points. The shower was excellent. Nice and instantly hot, with great water pressure.

Onto the bad points. Our impression of this hotel was immediately on the back foot before we even checked in. As we were entering the hotel lobby doors a large Group were just exiting reception I assume after having just been checked in en-mass. This left 2 staff behind the counter to check in the remaining 4 business gentlemen ahead of us (each individually) and us (my wife and I). The male staff member quickly made an exit through the door to the office behind reception instead of serving anyone, leaving the lone female staff member to attend to the 4 businessmen ahead of us, and then us... all on her own. After about 7-10 minutes of checking in the 4 ahead of us, including trying to work out why the booking for the last of the men had gone astray in the system somewhere, the male staff member re-appeared.
However, rather than greet us and ask if he could help us, he merely stepped up to his computer and started typing on his keyboard ignoring us totally... it wasn’t until we approached him and asked if we could be checked in that anything happened.

The moment I handed him our Wotif booking form, it was immediately apparent he wasn't interested in talking to us. He breathed a load of cigarette smoke all over me (now I know where he ducked out too) and simply handed me a pen and a check-in form to sign, which had my name and an address pre-printed on it which was not my address, rather an address of some company that seemed to somehow have become attached to our booking. We were them abruptly handed a single key and told our room was across the car park on the ground floor of the building he was pointing at, which appeared to be a very rundown and very old looking building indeed.

Turns out our room was on the first floor, not the ground floor of what I could only describe as either something that resembled former Student Accommodation quarters for the nearby university... or perhaps was a school building in a former life.
The decor of the building we were sent to was fresh out of the 70’s with scratched and scuffed wallpaper and timber trimmings that were in serious need of restoration.
I can see I’m going to be here quite a while, so rather than turn this into a novel, I’m now just going to list everything else I wrote down about this place while I was there and then summarise at the end.
- No bellhop or offer of assistance with or bags to our room, and with no lift we had to carry very heavy cases up 2 flights of stairs
- The room was musty smelly upon entering, like it hadn’t been used for years
- The room furniture was fresh out of the 60’s or 70’s
- The bar fridge in the room was so noisy during the night I had to pull it out of it’s cubby hole and turn it off so I could get some sleep
- The bath towel I use fell apart as I was using it. It must have been 10 years old at least
- The pillows were paper thin
- Carpets and wall paper were decades out of date
- The TV was a 52cm CRT! With very poor reception and more than 60+ channels that had n not been disabled
- I found a dead cockroach in the bathroom
- Chipped and dirty tiles in the bathroom – some tiles up high hadn’t been cleaned
- The toaster at breakfast looked like it hadn’t been cleaned (or de-crumbed) for months
- The main buffet servery had not been cleaned in the hard to reach areas
- The Danish pastries were overcooked (looked like yesterdays and we were down at breakfast within 15minutes of breakfast commencing that morning)
- The hot food was for the most part, stone cold. I’m in the food industry in Australia and that simply would not pass a health inspection

In summary
For less than half the price we had paid for this room, I’ve stayed in cheap motels in Australia with far better furniture, fittings, breakfasts and style than this place. I won’t be back.

Me and my staff of over twenty stayed here for two nights in the last week of January. I was really impressed with how well they managed such a large booking. The staff were friendly and helpful. The rooms were really large and well maintained. The hotel had great amenities including a bar and restaurant. We received an excellent deal which included a low room cost and free breakfast. We would definitely stay here again!!