Located next to the racecourse on the outskirts of Rotarua, the Rydges is an above average hotel with large spacious rooms which are well equipped and well maintained. Ensuite, Sky TV, tea making facilities - all you would require. The resurauant is very nice with a well varied menu and not overpriced. The hotel offers a swimming pool and a gym. Its a 20 minute walk from the town centre but very peaceful with plenty of parking spaces.

Stayed 2 nights as part of tour. Location was ok. Room was very big and had all the amenities you'd need, BUT, hotel is well past its refurbishment date, in every regard it needed modernising and generally some Tlc. Was suprised at a group letting it go to that state.
Not to be recommended.

After staying at several other Rydges, we just booked our stay at this hotel. When we arrived at 2:30, our room wasn't ready. When we finally checked, we asked to see the room first. It was HUGE and we thought that there was a mistake. We were shown another smaller room but the price (and smell) didn't justify the change. The room was dirty however, the carpet was disgusting and there was a half inch of dust on the base of the table. We went upstairs to look at the pool which was murky/cloudy and foul smelling. Obviously we didn't swim!
If this was our first experience at a Rydges, we wouldn't stay at another.

We stayed in this Hotel just after Christmas. The room was rather large and spacious - but very hot. Heating was working in the middle of the summer and we had to turn it off. Even the corridors were quite hot.

There was no air conditioning in the rooms - only a ceiling fan very high up - so very uncomfortable nights. Should be ok in winter though.

Room was ok and ready when we got there around 3:00pm. Bath room was large but it appeared as unclean and dated. Part of the culprit in our view is the minerals in the water in Rotorua but Hotel should take some efforts to get rid of these deposits as it looks quite grotty.

Room was done up every day. However, the second day, we found that all the soap had disapeared and not replaced. This however was quickly rectified after a call to the house keeping.

Staff were a mixed bag. Some quite friendly while others need to be tought how to smile.

We had breakfast two days and dinner one day. The breakfast spread was nothing fancy but acceptable. The buffet dinner we had was quite good (much better then the chinease food disaster we had in the city the day after) and the chef on duty made an excellent stir fry for us.

Hotel is not in the thick of the city. We had no problem with this. There are no views from rooms except the racecourse. Parking is a plenty. We did not try the pool but my wife used the gym and found it to be acceptable.

We found the hotel to be lot less crowded and quiet than we expected at this time of the year.

Overall not a bad experience. Better than the Rydges in Christchurch.