My husband recently took me to the Sofitel Queenstown for a couple of nights for my birthday.

We were booked into a standard room, which is anything but. The room was very spacious and nicely furnished. It had all kinds of bells and whistles from mood lighting, espresso maker, huge king bed, flat screen TV mounted on the wall of the bedroom and a small one in the bathroom to an excellent selection of toiletries and oversized bathtub.

The doorman and staff at check in were friendly and helpful, as were the restaurant staff.

Our first evening we went to the hotel bar for their local Pinot tasting. I think some of the bottles must have been open for awhile because one of our tasters was awful. And we know this wine and it is usually not. The bar manager was very nice about it and gave us replacements that were fine.

Next morning we went for breakfast to the in-house Vie restaurant. Due to time constraints we had the buffet and it was only average, especially for the price. There is a lot to be learned from the breakfast buffet at Ashford Castle in Ireland!

The next day I was booked in to have spa treatments at LeSpa. Unfortunately my booking was quite messed up, I had booked a package of three treatments but they were booked as if my husband was having some of them. Initially the girl at the desk was a bit flummoxed and said because of other bookings I would not be able to have my full package, but the spa manager on duty quickly sorted it all out.

The spa itself was a wonderful experience. It is beautifully decorated in local materials and immediately gives you a very soothing feeling. The treatment rooms are very nicely appointed and the wind down space and waiting areas are also lovely. The steam room is also quite special with a nice water feature in the centre. I had a SoSki massage (fabulous!), steam room session and anti-aging facial, all of which were delivered in a very professional manner. Once I was done with treatment I had a relaxing few minutes with a nice ginger tea, peppermint cookies and soothing music.

That second evening my husband took me to the Vie restaurant at the Sofitel for my birthday dinner. The restaurant is nicely decorated but the lighting could be turned down a trifle for dinner. Our starters (goat cheese for me, scallops for hubby) were very nice, but the crayfish mains had to be sent back. The crays had obviously been previously frozen and were very mushy in texture. The waiter was amazing about it, and brought us replacement mains (duck breast for me, fillet steak for hubby) with no argument. The duck was fantastic, served with a small duck pie on the side (pastry was amazingly flaky). The steak was also excellent, perfectly cooked.

Overall the Sofitel Queenstown is a very nice place to stay with very comfortable rooms and an excellent spa!

We stayed here six nights on our honeymoon in early April 2008. The hotel was wonderful and exceeded our expectations. The rooms were immaculate. The bed was super cozy, especially after 36 hours of traveling to Queenstown from Florida. The bathroom was great and the jet tub was large with a color TV (one problem we had was that the shower did not have a catch for water so the floor would often get wet, but not a big deal). The location is perfect, it is as centrally located in Queenstown as you can get. We enjoyed an hour in the spa which was very nice and relaxing. Complimentary computer in the lobby, although a week of wi-fi was about $100 if you really needed full time access to the Internet which I found rather ridiculous. The famous Queenstown gondola is directly behind the hotel, as is a pharmacy. We stayed in room 616, which was top floor, and the balcony had a wonderful view of the Remarkables range and Lake Wakitipu. There is a flat screen TV, good size, but the channel selection is rotten (about 8 channels) and the remote control is about the dummest gadget that has ever been created. But you arent going to New Zealand to watch TV now are you??? The restaurants in the hotel are ok, but food is generally not great in New Zealand in my opinion so it is basically par for the course. Chop Chop was better than the italian restaraunt. The Indian restaraunt was never open. The Bar Code club/bar was also never open. Vie was rather pricey, mediocre food though. All the restaurants in NZ have the same menu and they all charge way too much for their dishes. The breakfast buffet at Vie was good, but it was $35 each, so it wasnt $70 good (they did make us pretty good omletes though). Esquires Coffee shop is located below in the lobby. You get an hour of free wi-fi if you buy a coffee, so I was able to send the previous days photos from my phone each morning. But no regular filtered coffee is available, kind of a bummer for us Americans. The South African guy working at the coffee shop was actually one of the highlights of the entire experience. He was awesome, super friendly and always giving us tips on where to go and what to do. There is a $20 per day parking fee which is not disclosed as far as I know, at least I was surprised to get the $120 bill for my rental car parking when we checked out. All in all, the best hotel we stayed at during our tour of the southern island, and I would say it deserves its five star rating.

My wife and 2 children stayed at the Soffitel for a single night in jan 08. We had an internet reservation through Accor. The check in was efficient although upon arrival the hotel layout is odd with the check in at the rear through some glass doors. The room was absolutely luxurious with 2 double beds, including a beatiful spa bath. We had a coffee machine as well which was welcome as coffee in NZ is expensive. The front desk staff were very friendly but seemed to lack local knowledge. The girl on duty was from Brazil and could not direct me to the post office, The valet parking is a bit odd as I assumed it was undercover but found out that the car was parked on the street. I was quoted $15 per night for that. Overall a lovely experience and a great location but a high price. The next 2 nights we stayed at the Grand Mercure and I would say its better value.The restaurant evening meal was great but again there was an air of inexperience in the waitress staff as they could not tell me much about the meals or the accompanyments. Would stay again but only at the right price.

My brother and I stayed at the hotel on Saturday night in January in Queenstown, the hotel looks great on paper as "the only 5 star hotel in Queenstown" but there are much better options. Some of the issues were;

We checked in at 12, told the rooms would not be ready till 2, came back at 2 and still not ready. So we waited again and came back at 3, we were told that the rooms were ready but on inspection my brothers was not. So I dropped my brother in my room on the promise that they will call when the room was ready. 3 hours later and no call, eventually we called again and the room was ready.... no call no service, hardly 5 star.

When he did get to his room his view in this 5 star hotel, in the most beutiful settings was of a rock wall..... that was his view, a rock wall.

My room also had problems, in my mini bar when I checked in was a half drunken bottle of wine, i let the staff know on 3 occassions and they looked at me blankly.

They also had "Valet Parking" for 20 dollars, a complete rip off as its slow and the guys running it are half asleep and it took longer for them to get the car than if we had parked it out of town. The counter staff also seem very inexperienced and untrained to be working at a 5 star hotel, nice people but a complete lack of training and even the concierge seemed like he started yesterday.

In summary if you are visiting Queenstown please skip this hotel, its poorly ran, the staff are badly trained and the setting is not great. We stayed at the Peppers down the lake the night before and had a far superior stay.