Lansdown Apartments

BEWARE - this is not luxury and it's run by amateurs. Our experience was so bad we tried to find alternative accommodation but Wanaka was fully booked so had to stick with it. There is a foyer shared with another apartment. From there the front door to each apartment has frosted glass panels and at night you can see in. The fire didn't work so x2 people came later that night and fixed it which took half an hour out of our evening. To apologise they gave two of us ONE beer. Wow thanks. Apartment is dated, uncomfortable bed in a horrible dark room, cooking is grim with the camp cooker - 20 minutes to boil an egg for breakfast. Two sachets of instant coffee for two nights for x2 people. I did get more when I asked. The next morning the cleaner was next door. She parked right outside our apartment and we had to climb over cleaning buckets and a clothes rack to get out of our apartment. She spent hours slamming in and out of the foyer and we could see her talking on her phone outside our glass panel door - so intrusive. We went out for the day hoping she would be gone but when we came back and she was still there with a helper and a fridge in the foyer that we climbed around as they continued to chat right outside our glass front door. The next morning we woke up to the van parked outside our front door and a lady sweeping loudly outside the lounge window while we tried to have breakfast in peace. In the end we shut the curtains but that didn't stop her. She then decided to do some gardening outside our lounge window as well. Just zero thought, so invasive, very stressful, no privacy. It was like they hadn't used the apartments in ages, were doing major maintenance next door, took the money and we were the nuisance in their way. Their thoughtlessness and lack of pre-arrival checks absolutely ruined what we had hoped to be a special trip. I would hope with the time spent next door the people who rented that one had a better experience than we did because they were there for absolutely ages banging around.

Realize this is not a hotel, there are no facilities, concierge, etc. Worst for me was the email (in very poor English) saying we had to check-in by a certain time or be billed $35/hour. We didn't know when we would arrive based on tours that day, but when I emailed back there was no reply. None to a text either. That was disconcerting. The person who did meet us on arrival was nice enough, but not terribly helpful about the area. It was great having laundry facilities at this midpoint of our trip. The only bathroom was on the 2nd floor, which was a little annoying with sore knees from hiking. But the place was clean and comfortable. We couldn't get the gas fireplace lit despite multiple attempts with the instructions, maybe just us.

This apartment is quite small but well suited for a couple. The interior design is well done and quite luxurious with open fire and big screen TV. Not far from centre of Wanaka. There is a spa pool a short walk away across a little bridge.