Heritage Court Lodge

This is the only negative review of my accommodation during my New Zealand trip. There's an extra $50/hour charge for check-in after 9 PM. There was no mention of this on the booking platform or in the order email; it only stated the front desk was open until 9 PM. We assumed that like other motels, they would assign us a room in advance and leave the key in the door, but this one didn't. They just hid and waited to collect the late check-in fee. We finished watching Penguin Lookout around 10:10 PM and wanted to check in. We called the owner, who came 15 minutes later. He said we were over an hour late and should be charged $50 x 2 = $100 late check-in fee. He kindly waived the $50, saying we only needed to pay $50, otherwise we had to leave and wouldn't be allowed to check in. The owner said Trip.com is garbage. I don't know why he doesn't remove himself from Trip.com; he criticizes Trip.com while still making money on it. The room's soundproofing was poor; we could clearly hear the neighbors talking normally at night.

This place is great. It is hosted by a Chinese tour group. The front desk in the hotel is also Chinese. There are Chinese reminders everywhere. The reminders in the room are also in Chinese. There is a bathtub, a kitchen, and a refrigerator in the room. The room is quite big.