The Riccarton Hotel

The Riccarton Hotel is always a great place to stay. It is nice and central and has friendly staff. The roadworks on the road outside are a pain but that is not the hosts fault. I'm sure it pisses them off even more. Quiet place with plenty of parking.

I recently had a very disappointing and genuinely upsetting experience at this "hotel". First of all, it does not deserve the designation of hotel but is really a motel that is badly in need of refurbishment. The rooms are not cleaned properly in between guests and in the bathroom of my room when I checked in I found the rather unwelcome surprise of an unflushed faeces (poop) presumably left by the previous occupant. The reception was closed by that time so when I spoke to the owner about this the following day he was rather argumentative. I wasn't pleased at how he handled the situation so I told him I would be leaving a review. He then became quite hostile and essentially asked me to leave. This was late in the evening, and I didn't want to look for another place at 8pm so I told him that I was staying. He then threatened to call the cops to throw me out and I called his bluff and asked him to do so since I had done nothing wrong apart from raising an issue. Anyway after some arguments to and from he took away my key but I stayed in the room till I left the following morning. Bottom line, I would avoid this place if at all possible. The only advantage of this place is that since it has such a poor reputation you can find rooms available even if you book last minute.

Booked Delux Queen Studio and requested 2 Queen beds. Checked in and paid less than advertised. Opened the door to the unit and see 2 King Single beds and thought that's why we paid less than advertised and booked for. The wall behind the beds had been updated with modern wood panelling and looked nice. There were 3 lights on the wall but only 1 went when turned on. The carpet looked like it was reasonably new. There was an orange chair that had a couple of very obvious stains on the seat. Didn't look very good and I think should have been replaced. The bathroom sure needed some TLC. The basin was so warn that the coating had gone and it looked like it had seen better days. The bathroom cabinet doors had swollen and looked like it should have been replaced a long time ago. I saw that the shower drain had what I thought looked like string poking out but further inspection reveiled that it was dentle floss and also there were strands of black hair. I went down to reception as we heading out the next day and mentioned the shower drain and asked for it to be cleaned and also asked for fresh towels and toilet paper to be refreshed. When I mentioned the hair and dentle floss in the shower drain I was told its an old place and he seemed to think it was ok. My reply was that had nothing to do with it the fact that it was an old place and came down to cleanliness. His customer skills need to be addressed as he seemed very rude at times and a bit angry. Won't be staying here again.

Stayed here for a couple of nights and what a disappointment it was… the hotel is run down with mould prominent in the bathroom , the plates still had remains on them from the previous guests.. having no toilet paper was the icing on the cake.. the room didn’t get cleaned or towels replenished during our stay. The bar and kitchen on the ground floor were closed and looked like they have been for a year or two now. How they call themselves a hotel is beyond me

I stayed three nights and my room was not serviced even once. The rubbish bin wasn’t emptied nor the towels replaced. A daily service of the room is listed on the website so I expected that in an extended stay it would happen. Not good!

Sliding open the doors and pulling aside the ripped curtain revels a cell like room with the beds and a bathroom off to the side. Hairs in & on the bed along with stains on the bedding. Aircon didn't work. Power socket didnt work. Mold in bathroom. water damaged paneling swelling and filthy. Slow wifi drops out & didnt work. When checking out and answering truthfully about the room when asked how was the stay the gentlemans only reply was "Do we have your credit card details?" what he had already confirmed and walked away.