Regent of Rotorua Boutique Hotel

We booked a superior room. It was clean, looked like it was completely refurbished, contained a microwave, fridge etc and totally met our needs. ||We’ve been in hotels all around the world and the use of space in our otherwise small room was superb.||Don’t be put off by what looks like a rehashed motel! Interior was very well done.||Why a 4 star rating? The restaurant. ||It too is beautifully appointed, white tablecloths and cotton napkins. Menu sounded good but the experience was lackluster.||The lamb choice seemed obvious given we’re in New Zealand! Well presented but no flavor! In fact, it tasted like the lamb had been rinsed under tap water - noticeable chlorine tang.||Was the dish frozen then slacked off in a sink? It all felt watery and under seasoned. My wide had the duck and she reported it dry and tasteless. Also perhaps frozen?||Really too bad because the setting and service was great but the execution seriously flawed.||Nevertheless - if we’re ever back in Rotorua we’ll stay here again. Our advice - eat somewhere other than the hotel.

I loved this boutique hotel. Friendly and helpful staff. Couldn't get a twin room so they gave us two rooms! Food had an interesting twist that raised it to next level. Nepalese waiter was so well trained he belongs in a 5 star establishment. Besides the outdoor pool, there was an indoor natural mineral spring pool. Would return there in a heartbeat. 💓

nice hotel with good facilities including a pool and communal hot tub. the room was good with good bathroom. The tasting menu was very good value with large portions and strong quality ( not fully gourmet perhaps but very good for the price). It is worth having the matching wines which allowed tasting of many local wines. The breakfast whilst not cheap allowed a significant start to the day

It is not a luxury hotel, to be clear. It definitely has its own personality, and the town of Rotorua itself is not known for being a resort. Access to the rooms is in the style of a motel, but the amenities and the rooms themselves are excellent. With that in mind, we were perfectly happy with this hotel. The manager and his staff were wonderful. The rooms are clean and quite spacious. The shower was great. Parking is extremely limited, but free. There are nice pool facilities available. We packed lightly and this hotel let us do laundry here for a very cheap price. Perhaps the best part of this hotel is, besides the service, its location. You are steps away from "eat street" which has the best restaurants in Rotorua. You are also walking distance from the center of town, the lake, and some of the more popular spas. We would stay here again (though, again, it's important to note that Rotorua is not a sexy vacation destination).

Clean and well-located hotel, but the staff's friendliness was rather lacking. The breakfast buffet was poorly stocked. Surely, better options are available! We could have overlooked the too small parking area and the narrow staircase to the second floor with our luggage if the overall impression had been more welcoming...

Highly recommend this place. Super clean, had everything we needed and customer service was amazing. Super close to every where you'd likely go in Rotorua. Walking distance to eat street, other restaurants, mall and the lake. Cannot fault whatsoever.

We were perfectly happy with this hotel's location (steps away from "eat street" where the best restaurants in town will be found). It was also walking distance to the Polynesian Spa and the visitor center which was the hub for most of the tours we did in town. The manager of the hotel is lovely and his staff was happy to accommodate all of our needs.

The rooms were very tidy and well maintained. The overall atmosphere was very relaxed and pleasant. We thoroughly enjoyed our stay and recommended the breakfast. The degustation was a great experience with a lot of food, some elements lacked seasoning and flavour but for the most part everything was well cooked and beautifully presented.

This is a hard to review becasue I had both the best and the worst of times here. Checked in late into room ONE, which had been getting the PM sun all day the shades were fully up. It was like 95 degrees when I got to the room. I turned on the AC closed the blinds went to dinner came back and it was maybe 85. Too hot to sleep they brought a fan with a cooling unit. DID NOT SLEEP. Tried the internet since too hot to sleep and ZERO. They called the company reset it and it barely worked and hardly did the entire time except in the common areas. The good news was the weather changed and I loved my second day, enjoyed the pool and had the best dinner of the trip with the degustaiton menu in their little restaurant. I walked up the street to use the internet at the Craft Bar. It wasn't cheap and I owe a lot of the problems to my room, on the sunny side and with the AC in the adjoing room.

Location: This town is pretty small so location wasn't an issue. It's within walking distance to a lot of restaurants. Grocery store a bit further if you don't have car. It was about a 15 minute walk. Tours do pick up from the front entrance. Rooms: Ours was on the 2nd floor but luckily they brought our luggage up for us as the rooms weren't ready when we arrived. The two bedroom we had was okay, nothing special. There was a strange smell in the bathroom- like sulphur, which reminded me of Iceland. It was unpleasant. There is a small "kitchen" area but the counter and sink were pretty high. Service: I am giving this hotel 5 stars mainly because of the service, which is something I rarely do. Everyone at the front was extremely helpful and nice. They were also very hard-working as they seemed to cover the front checkin checkout, luggage service, as well as the restaurant. We called down with questions and by the time we came downstairs, they had printed out a map for us. I accidentally left my laptop in the room and after I emailed them, they shipped it out to my next destination. The hotel I was going to didn't even respond to me until days later.

This was one of the best hotels that we stayed at in New Zealand because the service was excellent. Rotorua can smell bad and some of the hotels were close to the sulfur pools. This one didn't smell bad at all which was nice when we wanted to come back and relax after all the activities. It is also located right next to eat streat which had a bunch of restaurants. Every time we called the front desk or spoke with them in person they remembered our name. They have a laundry service if you pay which was clutch, especially after doing the mud bath in Hell's gate. We didn't try the breakfast buffet but had one of the muffins and it was great! It was our honeymoon and they even gave us some free chocolate and champagne. Plus free parking was included! They just did all the small things right and left a big impression on us.

Stopped in Rotorua early on in a 2-week NZ honeymoon. When I left I told the management that this was the best hotel we stayed at so far - now only a couple days left of our trip - it still remains on top. What sets this apart is that it's trendy yet comfy, the service is first class and even though we probably looked weary eyed from traveling in a car for hours to get there - they did everything they could to make us feel comfortable and knowledgable about the area. The guys at the front desk were so great that I wished we could have stayed another day just to talk to them more. Seriously - any insight you need about the area - they will help tailor the info they have to your needs. We even ordered room service breakfast from them - which was fab. Would definitely stay here again and for more than one day next time. **Bonus their bath products are also great and they have a ton of TV Channels in case you get rained in.

I ended up going with the Regent when we stayed in Rotorua for a night because it seemed relatively central and, given that the town is pretty spread out, it seemed like we could see most of town and the lake without having to drive to it. Although we did show up a few hours before official check-in time, our room was available...that said, given that there are only 30 rooms at the entire motel, it is definitely on the smaller side and may not always be the case. Although it looks more like a roadside motel that might be tiny and have minimal amenities, the main building does have a bar and dining area where one can enjoy food, while the rooms themselves are a bit more on the modern side and remind me of some a trendier SPG property. Although it is a bit of a snug fit, we were able to bring most of our luggage into the room, and the AC over the back window provided plenty of ventilation and kept the room cooled off. Wi-Fi was complimentary as well, which was much appreciated. As for location, it was plenty easy to hop down to Eat Streat, which seems to be the trendy eatery section of town, and just beyond that is the southwestern shore of Lake Rotorua. A couple blocks over is Fenton Street (the main road through town), with plenty of souvenir shops and jewelry stores to catch your attention as well. Breakfast was not included, but we did have a small bite before we were on our way, and the food was very solid, if not mind-blowing. I had porridge - pretty solid and not overly soggy, while my wife's eggs over toast with a side of sliced avocados was also capably done. The price of staying at Regent is very reasonable, and I would definitely recommend it for anyone looking for a bit cozier confines that won't be jam-packed with the plentiful tourist groups coming through town during the summer. It's close enough to walk to some of the attractions in town, but if you are just looking to relax, you can step outside and sit on the 'lawn' between the main building and the rooms or take a dip in the small swimming pool (not really meant for swimming but more for soaking) for refreshment. The sulfur smell permeating through town likely means I won't spend too much time in Rotorua in the future, but if I did, I would probably stay at Regent again.

Pros: 1- location is perfect to walk around town or around the lake 2- front desk staff- Arnold specifically was extremely helpful in providing activities to do and restaurants to try 3- bathroom floors were heated which was nice as it was winter when we stayed 4- trendy pretty hotel Cons: 1, 2, 3- Cleanliness! For the cost of this hotel compared to surrounding hotels, I trusted that the sheets as well as towels would be clean. When brought to the attention of the front desk, replacements were immediately provided which was appropriate. The sheets they changed the bed with were also dirty which was very disappointing. Overall I did not feel that management handled our stay well when they became aware of the issues we had. Would not chose to stay here again.