It's hard to put a nail to it, but this place has a lot and I mean a lot of potential. It is such a beautiful historical building. But!!!! It is somewhat run down. The landscaping needs some attention. There is this killer lounge that is not being used. Our mini fridge was a little funky. I really do hope and pray that they put some tender love into this hotel, it is very similar to The Coronado in San Diego. Hands down I'm happy that we stayed here, but a little disappointed when walking around the grounds. Bonus is they are extremely close to the Glow Worms cave. We could see it from our bedroom window. You can walk down to the local bar or grocery store. The town is not 100% dead thank goodness. Across the street is a nice park you can run around. There is a restaurant in the hotel, we didn't eat there because I'm a vegetarian and they didn't have options for me. read more

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Boasting a visit from Queen Elizabeth in 1954, we arrived to a little bit of a crumbled state of affairs. The windows must have been original as they were single paned and allowed the cold to permeate our room. Important things to us are the shower and the bed. The bed came with a heater for the mattress and was okay. Three stars. The shower needs a lot of attention. The hot water took a great while to get hot and the tub was chipped. In fact if you looked closely, chipped and crumby come to mind a lot. The restaurant on site was closed to us as a large group populated it that evening. They did offer to make a reservation for dinner elsewhere but we opted just to settle in early. There really is not much in town to do here except the caves which our 45 minute tour was just perfect. I recommend you stay in Auckland and day trip it here. read more

Waitomo Caves Hotel - View from the room Queen Elizabeth stayed in in 1954. Pretty view. - Hotels Near Me - Waitomo, WKO

Outdated? Sure, we love ourselves a good haunted mansion, but poorly maintained we were not prepared for. We stayed here on our honeymoon because we read some mixed reviews and were hoping that we would fall into the group that found it to be charming and quaint... unfortunately I think actually sleeping with the glow worms in their caves may have been more comfortable. We booked online and were out of cell range hiking most of the day. We arrived to the hotel late and found a curious check in situation. They apparently close their front desk, which was not noted online, and we saw an email from them that they were leaving our key at the back door. It was very dark and no lighting and we could not locate the key in the area they'd designated. We were lucky the hotel's board members were having a late meeting as our rummaging around got noticed and someone opened the door to let us in. We'd been out there about 15 minutes in the winter cold but who knows how long we'd have been there if they hadn't heard us. We were given a key and pointed towards our room. The rooms are not as depicted online. Not only is the hotel itself an older building, but it does not appear to be well kept. The room had a small bed they were advertising as a queen, but was certainly smaller than my husband's and my queen bed at home. It had minimal bedding that did appear clean, but certainly not as nice as the photos. The outdated decor was only beat by the archaic bathroom with damaged mirrors, fixtures, stained tub and floors, and threadbare towels.. I kept my footsies in my sandals to shower. The worst was that the room did not offer respite to the cold night outside. There is no central heating and the small portable furnace was unplugged and had not been turned on to prepare the room for us. We huddled together in pants/socks/ and beanies like we were camping and it was a challenge to fall asleep until the room finally warmed up a bit. Overall the building itself has a lot of potential, is a great historical asset to the local community, and the location proximity to the caves is great. If a little remodel was done to improve the comfort and guest service I think this could be a great place to spend a night dreaming of glow worm adventures. read more

So, the pictures of this hotel on booking websites are a bit on the deceiving side. I knew it wasn't going to be as nicely kept up as the Hotel Del Coranado in San Diego which is also a Victorian era hotel, but the pics made it seem like it was at least maintained and it really isn't. It's really too bad since it's got so much potential to be a charming hotel rich with history. Oh if I had unlimited wealth, restoring this hotel is a project I would take on for sure! Areas of the hallways smelled kind of funky and based on the cleanliness of the area, I don't recommend using the hot tubs. Eww! My best friend and I booked a room here while traveling through the area to see the caves. I didn't realize we booked a room with one bed only which we didn't mind sharing the bed, but it wasn't even a queen sized bed, it was a double. A bit tight for two adult men. No frills to the room otherwise. We had a plug in heater which we needed as it was fairly cold when we stayed there. Not sure they have AC and not sure if you need it in the summer? The bathroom was quite large though and we didn't experience plumbing problems like others reviews I read. The hotel is high up on a hill overlooking the area which we had a pretty cool view of the countryside. I'm not sure what other hotels in the area are like, but I'd research them and see if there's something better than this hotel. Otherwise, it wasn't a horrible stay, it just doesn't feel very clean. read more

A classic hotel, near the heart of Waitomo, keeping you close to all of the action. The road to enter through this hotel is pretty and it's worth a stop to go to this hotel just for photos. Plenty of stories, rumor is the hotel is haunted and with I believe the rumors to be true. Definitely worth the trip to Waitomo, and definitely worth the stay in the Waitomo Caves Hotel. read more

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I wanted to go to the Waitomo Glow worm caves but was getting in late and needed a place to stay for me and a colleague. Unfortunately, all of the B&Bs were booked or were going to put us in the same room which would be weird. So I opted for this hotel even though the online reviews rated it bad. It's not a bad hotel, it's just very old and no one has put any money into renovating it. It is clean. The staff is friendly. There is no lift. The Wifi is shitty. And it is very very cold during winter. They have heaters in the room but they give off no heat. They have heated blankets on the bed. There are no phones in the rooms so if you need anything you have to go to the front desk which is annoying!!! But given that there isn't much around and if you can see the charm in it, it's alright for a night. read more

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Very old lovely hotel. Understaffed so don't expect great service. Rooms need repairs but they still have some charm