Apartment, 2 Bedrooms | Private kitchen | Fridge, coffee/tea maker
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Reviews of Willowbank Motel

2.5 out of 5
Willowbank Motel
183 Beach Road, Kaikoura

Reviews

7.6

Good

Rating 10 - Excellent. 28 out of 127 reviews" "
Rating 8 - Good. 55 out of 127 reviews" "
Rating 6 - Okay. 30 out of 127 reviews" "
Rating 4 - Poor. 9 out of 127 reviews" "
Rating 2 - Terrible. 5 out of 127 reviews" "

7.6/10

Cleanliness

7.6/10

Staff & service

8.4/10

Amenities

6.6/10

Property conditions & facilities

8.8/10

Eco-friendliness

Reviews

10/10 Excellent

Melissa

Travelled with partner
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, amenities, property conditions & facilities
The property was very clean and had good space for relaxing. The bed was comfortable and the kitchen well appointed.
Stayed 2 nights in Feb 2024

10/10 Excellent

Meredith

Travelled with family and small children
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, amenities, property conditions & facilities
Loved this place and would have loved to have stayed longer than 1 night!

10/10 Excellent

Andrew

Travelled with group
Liked: Cleanliness, amenities
Clean and tidy
Stayed 1 night in Nov 2023

8/10 Good

Andreas

Business traveller
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Just what I needed
Great stay great service
Stayed 1 night in May 2021

10/10 Excellent

Verified traveller

Travelled with family
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, amenities, property conditions & facilities
Great location on main road heading into town. Lovely service, very friendly and helpful. Big room and living areas and nice and clean
Stayed 1 night in Feb 2021

8/10 Good

Peter, Wellington

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service
Good value for money. Friendly and welcoming manager. Clean room. Oven top a bit slow to heat the pan
Stayed 1 night in Jan 2021

8/10 Good

Joanne

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
5 minute walk to beach
Friendly service, high levels of cleanliness and great little kitchenette. 5 minute walk to beach and around 20-30 minute walk into town centre. If you're a light sleeper, would recommend ear plugs as walls between units thin/not sound-proof. Not a fancy motel but had everything we needed for our stay.
Stayed 2 nights in Jan 2021

10/10 Excellent

Amber

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Very happy
Great place. Highly recommend. Tidy easy to access. Will stay here again
Stayed 1 night in Dec 2020

6/10 Okay

Verified traveller

Travelled with family
The room was tidy enough, but the wall heater broke and the replacement was extremely average. As noted by another reviewer, the room had a notice that all dishes must be washed or face a $50 penalty - not ideal in the time of Covid.
Stayed 1 night in Sep 2020

6/10 Okay

Matthew

Travelled with family
Disliked: Staff & service
Expectation to wash your own dishes
The motel until was OK, nothing wrong, but was quite old. Check-in staff was very friendly and helpful. We were surprised at the sign in the kitchen saying if you don't wash your own dishes you will be charged $50. I have stayed at many motels all around NZ and have never seen such a sign. I have even been told by cleaning staff at other motels not to bother washing my dishes as for hygiene reasons they have to clean everything again anyway. We decided to rewash everything before eating on plates as we couldn't be sure the previous guests will have washed the plates well, especially in the current COVID climate. The price was quite high for the quality in my opinion - we stayed in another motel in Picton the next night, the room was bigger, much more modern and very clean for $10 cheaper.
Stayed 1 night in Sep 2020

10/10 Excellent

Fred, Waikato

Travelled with partner
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, amenities, property conditions & facilities
Friendly operator. Clean and tidy. Excellent shower.
Stayed 1 night in Aug 2020

8/10 Good

Sharon

Travelled with group
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Clean and comfortable
Stayed 1 night in Feb 2020

8/10 Good

Verified traveller

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, amenities
Stayed 1 night in Jan 2020

10/10 Excellent

Verified traveller

Travelled with family, Travelled with group
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service
Excellent location, and price was very reasonable. Staff were helpful and friendly. The motel was very clean.
Stayed 1 night in Jan 2020

8/10 Good

Erick, Temuka

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, amenities, property conditions & facilities
Comfortable bed and a great shower. Room was clean and staff very helpful. Would stay again.
Stayed 1 night in Aug 2019

8/10 Good

Helen

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Awesome friendly little motel.
Very accommodating. Driving from Invercargill to New Plymouth with Kaikoura our overnight. Phoned to ask what time was last check in, was quite late and prepared to wait for us. Got there, very friendly had put heater on in unit do was lovely and warm. Awesome friendly service, clean and tidy room and for a very good price. Would stay there again and eould recommend to others.
Stayed 1 night in Aug 2019

8/10 Good

Verified traveller

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, amenities, property conditions & facilities
Stayed 2 nights in Apr 2019

2/10 Terrible

Nick, Australia

Travelled with partner
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service
Disliked: Property conditions & facilities
The chap who checked us in was lovely. The room is appalling; threadbare carpet at threshold, electrical tape holding electric towel rail wiring together, an odd screening to the main bedroom, mouldy everything everywhere in the bathroom. If we had arrived at this motel 40 years ago on a family holiday we as teenagers would have kicked up a fuss about it. We got up early to leave our third world motel room behind
Stayed 1 night in Mar 2019

8/10 Good

Verified traveller

Travelled with partner
Liked: Staff & service, amenities
Spacious room, but in need of some maintenance. Nothing particularly bad but suffers in comparison to other motels in this price range
Stayed 2 nights in Mar 2019

6/10 Okay

Verified traveller

Travelled with family
An older build on motels which could do with refreshing. Okay at the price.
Stayed 2 nights in Mar 2019

2/10 Terrible

Verified traveller

Travelled with partner
Disliked: Cleanliness, staff & service
The place was discussing. In my opinion it would not rate as a Backpacks let alone a Motel. It is a bad reflection on our Country to advertise these premises as they would be extremely disappointing for any Turist on arrival.
Stayed 1 night in Mar 2019

6/10 Okay

Verified traveller

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service
The service was excellent. Very helpful young man checked us in. The room was basic and functional. It didn’t smell great but the water was hot and the bed comfortable.
Stayed 1 night in Mar 2019

2/10 Terrible

Verified traveller

Travelled with partner
Disliked: Staff & service, property conditions & facilities
The property was that discusting we refused to stay there
Stayed 1 night in Mar 2019

6/10 Okay

Verified traveller

Disliked: Property conditions & facilities
Stayed 1 night in Oct 2018

10/10 Excellent

John, Christchurch

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Good reasonably priced motel
My wife and I were impressed by the high standard of the unit, considering the reasonable price of it.
Stayed 1 night in Sep 2018

8/10 Good

Verified traveller

Liked: Staff & service, property conditions & facilities
Just what we needed
The kids loved the bed and the shower. We had a wee fridge for our breakfast and snacks. We were there to sleep and it did the trick :)
Stayed 1 night in Aug 2018

8/10 Good

Verified traveller

Liked: Staff & service
Reasonable priced Motel
The view from the Willowbank Motel to the Kaikoura hills is beautiful, especially in winter with the snow capped mountains. Helpful and friendly staff. We did try to use the iron in the room but were not able to find it, and tried to contact reception as well but no lick. Apart from that a lovely stay.
Stayed 1 night in Aug 2018

4/10 Poor

Niels, Dutch family

Liked: Staff & service
Disliked: Cleanliness, property conditions & facilities
Way overpriced compared to other NZ motels
The motel was very pricey compared to other motels we booked during our trip. We expected an experience to match the price but were quite disappointed. It's a plain motel with worn furniture that looks like it's been mixed and matched. Not well maintained. The staff was quite helpful though and there are not a lot of other options in town since a lot of hotels/motels seem to have closed shop after the quake.

10/10 Excellent

sloane, picton nz

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, room comfort
great well priced accomadation
friendly hosts comfy bed,left items behind and they took care of it till we returned to collect.

4/10 Poor

Verified traveller

Disliked: Cleanliness, property conditions & facilities, room comfort

2/10 Terrible

Verified traveller

Disliked: Cleanliness, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
All the windows were open and it smelled like an entire can of room freshener had been sprayed about. What were they trying to cover? - yuck!

6/10 Okay

Verified traveller

Liked: Staff & service
I feel internet access should be included in the room rate, not an extra because the room was booked at an Internet rate

4/10 Poor

Gazza44, N Z

Disliked: Staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
One Very Cold Night
We stayed one night which was terrible. It was uncomfortably cold. The two heaters had not been turned on and when we did had to do it ourselves, Had to go to bed early as it was so cold but the electric blankets did work. The hot water shower was great but the wash basin was badly chipped. WiFi was $5 for 1 hour so we did not use it, The rooms were very small. Very limited TV on free to air channels. We would never stay there again. Do have photos and will put them on TripAdvisor asap.

8/10 Good

susana, macau

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, room comfort
good for money paid
The wall of the rooms are thin. Breeze gets in and freezing cold at night. I was waken up by the cold wind. We had the heater on but it was cold too

4/10 Poor

Sue, Wellington

Disliked: Cleanliness, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Basic motel but cold
I've stayed here before but not in the winter. When I arrived (1 degree outside) all the windows were open and it was like walking into a fridge. While the heater definitely warmed the room up, it was very noisy. The bedding is completely inadequate for Kaikoura wintertime - one lightweight cover and a blanket. I needed the additional blanket (only 1 provided) doubled over me, plus the electric blanket on all night to be warm enough to sleep. Couldn't keep the heater on over night as it was much too noisy. Won't be staying there again!

6/10 Okay

shazz

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, room comfort
Disliked: Property conditions & facilities
sky tv
No sky wouldn't stay again but apart from that all was fine

4/10 Poor

Robert, Gosford

Disliked: Cleanliness, staff & service
Not very welcoming & smelly unit!
Not the best of stays at this motel. Being the capital of crayfish in NZ unfortunately we believe someone had ditched the shells straight outside the window or managed to get crayfish juice in the carpet...it basically reeked! We let the manager know but he wasn't too helpful saying he'd just cleaned it but did find a can of airfreshner when I asked for some. Neighbouring guests smoked straight outside our unit. The managers/owners were not people persons & we certainly didn't feel welcomed at any time during our stay.

6/10 Okay

Verified traveller

Disliked: Cleanliness, property conditions & facilities
I thought the standard off cleanliness not great. Its not one I would recommend.

8/10 Good

Karen

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort

8/10 Good

Verified traveller

Liked: Cleanliness, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Great accomodation.nice location. handy laundry facilities.

4/10 Poor

Leanne Dawn, Tauranga

Disliked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Dissappointing
Welcoming staff member very abrupt we found our selves wishing we had booked somewhere else. On arrival the Street appeal was very poor. Bed needs replacing. Quilt yuck.

6/10 Okay

Verified traveller

Liked: Staff & service
Disliked: Cleanliness, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Willowbank, good for one night only
Water pressure was too low in the shower. Room was not private, had space above wall and sliding doors to bedroom were glass. Not well insulated, heard road noise all night.

8/10 Good

Ronald, Maui, Hawaii, USA

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Kaikoura
Very peaceful surroundings and nice grounds. Kaikoura is a heavily visited area and it was nice to be out of the busy part of town.

10/10 Excellent

John, England

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities
Facilities: Above average, About to be even better!; Value: Great deal; Service: Go the extra mile; Cleanliness: Gleaming, Modernsmart comfortable; Rural views one way; glacier Mountain views from the windows. Great plans for imminent tennis courts.

2/10 Terrible

Aussie Family

Disliked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Poor value for money
We stayed in the larger 2 bedroom unit at the back of the property and the room had a terrible smell. We were not impressed considering the amount we paid them. We would not stay there again.

10/10 Excellent

Peter, Australia - NSW - Hunter Valley

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities

6/10 Okay

Verified traveller

Basic
Could use some updating, carpets new but bed covers well worn and faded

6/10 Okay

Brook, Seoul

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service
Disliked: Property conditions & facilities
Fine place to stay.
The staff were really friendly and helpful. They provided milk when we arrived for coffee and gave us recommendations and directions. The location was fine. The hotel was fine. It wasn't anything fancy but fulfilled the need.

8/10 Good

Daniel, New Zealand

Liked: Cleanliness, property conditions & facilities
Facilities: Nice ; Value: Affordable; Service: Polite;

8/10 Good

Severino, New Zealand - Waikato

Liked: Staff & service
Facilities: Basic; Value: Moderate; Service: Professional; Cleanliness: Hygienic ;