Rotorua is one of New Zealand’s most exciting destinations - with fascinating history, rich Maori culture, and an enormous selection of attractions to experience. While visiting Rotorua, your premier accommodation choice is Sudima Lake Rotorua. Sudima Lake Rotorua is the largest hotel in Rotorua, and is set right on the shores of beautiful Lake Rotorua. The hotel is also adjacent to the world famous Polynesian Spa complex, Rotorua Museum and Government Garden, and just a short stroll from the Rotorua Convention Centre, the Energy Event Centre and Rotorua’s vibrant city centre. Sudima Hotel Lake Rotorua offers 250 guest rooms in a range of accommodation options, many with superb views across Lake Rotorua.
Star ratings are intended to indicate the general level of features, amenities, and services to expect. This property is classified according to Qualmark.
HOTEL STYLE
Lake View
Great View
Languages Spoken
English
Location
1000 Eruera Street, Rotorua 3010 New Zealand
Sudima Lake Rotorua
1,893 reviews
Getting there
Good for walkers
Places to stay are graded on a 0-100 scale. The higher the grade, the easier it is for travelers to find restaurants and things to do within walking distance.
The hotel was nice with good sized, comfortable rooms. We were first given a room whose slider window faced a busy parking lot and noisy street. The front desk was able to change our room to something quieter that faced a courtyard. The breakfast offerings were disappointing as I have intolerances to both dairy and gluten, and I wasn't given much options aside from GF bread, coldcuts and fruit. Very conveniently located on the lake and near a spa. Hotel has laundry facilities.
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Date of stay: December 2024Trip type: Traveled as a couple
Room Tip:Ask for a room facing a courtyard.
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from Awatere Douglas, Other at Sudima Lake Rotorua
Responded Dec 26, 2024
Kia ora hernse1, Thank you for your review. We’re pleased to hear you enjoyed the comfort of our rooms and the convenient location near the lake and spa. It’s great that our front desk team was able to assist in relocating you to a quieter room overlooking the courtyard. We regret that our breakfast offerings did not fully meet your dietary needs. For guests with gluten-free requirements, we do provide a variety of options, including bacon, hashbrowns, mushrooms, baked beans, scrambled eggs, gluten-free breads, and cereals. We are always happy to assist with specific requests to ensure an enjoyable dining experience. Thank you again for your valuable feedback. We hope to have the opportunity to welcome you back for an even better stay. Ngā mihi, Awatere Douglas Hotel Manager
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We stayed here from 24 to 27 Dec.2024, spending our family Christmas holiday in Rotorua. The room is clean and the bed is comfortable with soft and big pillows. The Wifi is not working and the staff has been informed. Good lake view and greenery as the backdrop. The surrounding is nice for morning and evening walk. Steam coming out from the lake from volcanic activity below, emitting sulfuric ordour. The hotel is within walking distance to down town for food and shopping. The breakfast is good, staffs are friendly and courteous. We have a good sight seeing tour in Rotorua whilst having a good stay at this hotel.
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Date of stay: December 2024Trip type: Traveled with family
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from Awatere Douglas, Other at Sudima Lake Rotorua
Responded 4 weeks ago
Kia ora dr_ganlt Thank you for sharing your experience with us. We're delighted to hear you chose our hotel to spend your family Christmas holiday and that you enjoyed the clean room, comfortable bed, and scenic surroundings. The steam rising from the lake is indeed a unique feature of Rotorua’s geothermal charm! It’s great to hear you found the location convenient, the breakfast enjoyable, and our staff friendly and courteous. However, we’re disappointed to learn about the WiFi connectivity issues during your stay. We understand how important reliable internet is for our guests, and we’re pleased to announce that this has since been rectified to ensure a better experience moving forward. Thank you again for your feedback. We hope to welcome you back for another memorable stay in the future! Ngā mihi, Awatere Douglas Hotel Manager
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We stayed at the Sudima in Rotorua for 2 nights in mid February, as part of a month long self drive tour of NZ. My memory is failing me on the details now, but we weren't excited by our room 343, on the first floor of block 3. Very standard, nothing to write home about, but serviceable for our needs. Disappointed to find the room overlooked the next block - no view of the lake at all. Would suggest putting in an advance request for a lake front room as none left when we asked on arrival. It feels like a big complex of different blocks. Bathroom okay but small thin towels. I don't know what we paid as it was part of a package. On the plus side, there was plenty of parking and we enjoyed a walk by the lake, watching the steam and bubbles despite the rotten eggs smell! It's also worth walking a bit further along to enjoy the beautiful Government Gardens. We didn't really like the rest of the central city (its a big built up area, although fairly low rise), but it was worth staying in Rotorua to go up the Skyline gondola, have fun on the luge up there, and to visit the thermal area of Te Puia (both a short drive away, close together), to take a short drive out to do the matgical night time Redwoods Tree Walk and to go to the entertaining and interesting Maori cultural evening with dinner at Te Pa Tu on the other night of our stay (for which we were picked up by coach from the hotel). We didn't have breakfast at the hotel but instead went into the town for a lovely breakfast both mornings at Cafe de Paris (proper French pastries and various nice hot breakfast dishes available, with parking outside) - recommended and better value than the hotel buffet. It's about a 20min walk into the centre of town for restaurants.
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Date of stay: February 2024
Value
Rooms
Location
Cleanliness
Service
Sleep Quality
Trip type: Traveled as a couple
Room Tip:Request a lake view room - or you will look at another block of the hotel!
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from Awatere Douglas, Other at Sudima Lake Rotorua
Responded May 17, 2024
Kia ora Roundy, Thank you for sharing your feedback about your stay. We appreciate your detailed review and are pleased that you found our location convenient for exploring Rotorua and enjoyed the ample parking facilities. We are sorry to hear that your room did not meet your expectations. Our aim is to provide a memorable experience for all our guests, and we regret that this was not the case during your stay. While room 343 did not have a lake view, many of our rooms do offer stunning views, and we encourage guests to request these in advance to avoid disappointment. Regarding the bathroom towels, we generally receive positive feedback about our amenities, but we will take your comments into consideration as we continually strive to improve our services. It’s great to hear that you enjoyed your walks by the lake and visits to local attractions like the Skyline gondola, Te Puia, and the Redwoods Tree Walk. We are glad these experiences added to your stay. We also note your preference for having breakfast outside the hotel. While we offer a comprehensive breakfast buffet, we understand that guests may wish to explore local cafes and restaurants. Thank you again for your feedback. We hope you will consider staying with us again, allowing us the opportunity to provide you with an improved experience. Ngā mihi, Awatere Douglas Hotel Manager
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We had a really great stay here and will definitely stay again next time I’m in Rotorua. We had the most fun checkin I’ve ever experienced with Melody, having a great little chat and laugh while she did her thing.
The room was lovely and clean and happy with what was available. The only thing that would have made it better would have been a microwave, sometimes I like to be able to heat up my own food rather than having to buy everything.
It was also a really nice touch that we were given a complimentary drinks voucher, to apologise for the construction going on around the hotel.
Thanks for a great stay and ngā mihi nunui ki a Melody ☺️👊
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Date of stay: August 2024Trip type: Traveled with friends
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from Awatere Douglas, Other at Sudima Lake Rotorua
Responded Oct 27, 2024
Kia ora Sunshine64794089198, Thank you so much for your wonderful feedback! We're thrilled to hear that you had a great stay with us and enjoyed your check-in experience with Melody. She truly is a gem, and we’ll make sure to pass on your kind words to her. We’re glad you found your room clean and comfortable. We appreciate your suggestion regarding the microwave and will consider it for future improvements. It's great to hear you enjoyed the complimentary drinks voucher as a small gesture during construction. Thank you again for your review, and we look forward to welcoming you back on your next visit to Rotorua! Ngā mihi, Awatere Douglas Hotel Manager
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On an earlier visit to Rotorua, we stayed at the Sudima’s neighbor, the Millenium. I’m sorry we didn’t choose it again!
When we arrived, our room was not ready. The lady offered that we could sit in the bar area and said that we would be called when our room was ready, which she said would be in 30 – 45 minutes. Since it was a warm day, we were quite content to sit down and enjoy a glass of cold wine.
However, after 50 minutes we had not been called yet, so I went back to reception. Another lady was there, and I told her that it was not a good first impression. As I said that, a man (whom I took to be the manager) walked past and overheard my comment.
He apologized and offered to “upgrade” us to another room, which I accepted with thanks.
It turned out the “upgrade” room was not really any better than the original. Whereas the original room had two double beds, the “upgrade” had two queen beds… in a room of the same size (22 sq m on their website)!
Checking their website after the fact, for the same three nights, they quote exactly the same price for the room with two double beds, the room with two queen beds, AND the “Superior King” room (which has a single king-size bed).
No wonder he was so quick to offer an “upgrade” – it cost the hotel nothing!
If he’d upgraded us to a superior king room, at least we’d have had a little more “moving” space in the room because it has one less bed!
The room had no air conditioning, which is a must-have where it can get hot and there’s lots of mosquitoes AND no insect screens in the windows!
However, given the sizes of the rooms are all the same, I assume the superior king room’s bathroom would be just as horrible as the one in our room.
The bathroom was incredibly small—the smallest I've ever seen in a hotel. To make it worse, the shower was also designed stupidly—it didn't matter how small we opened the water in the shower, the bathroom floor still got wet!
There was also no cupboard, only an open shelf with hanging space for a few things. I don’t recall ever seeing something like that in ANY hotel before.
Our room was on level two, which meant we needed to use the lift. It was fine when we wanted to return to our room. But when we checked out and wanted to get our suitcases into the lift the button to summon the lift didn’t work. So, I had to walk down one floor, catch the lift there, and go up to level two to get our things.
Finally, they left the windows of the room open, and when we went to bed at night, I first had to kill eleven mosquitoes! I know they don’t have control over mosquito breeding, but they could at least keep the windows closed to keep them outside.
There was an upside, however—the service and the food in the Okareka restaurant were great!
Unfortunately, the good dining experience couldn’t balance out the rest of the bad experiences, so we left after one night (even though we’d booked to stay for three nights). I would rather lose the remaining money than stay another night at the Sudima!
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Date of stay: October 2022
Rooms
Service
Sleep Quality
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Disappointing hotel. The room was spacious and clean, but there was only one chair and the bathroom badly needed a good bleaching or an upgrade. We told reception on our first evening that we’d like a second chair, and that the phone and hair dryer were both not working. 3 nights later nothing had been done. Pretty poor. They allow the tourist buses to load and unload right under the bedroom windows so we were disturbed night and early morning.. We didn’t use their restaurant but we did investigate the pool - very small in a sunless nook with 3 sun beds - for a hotel of more than a hundred rooms!
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Date of stay: January 2024Trip type: Traveled as a couple
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from Awatere Douglas, Other at Sudima Lake Rotorua
Responded Feb 9, 2024
Kia ora 1555tessah, Thank you for sharing your experience with us. We apologise for the disappointing aspects of your stay, including the lack of a second chair in your room, maintenance issues with the phone and hairdryer, and the disturbance from tourist buses. Your feedback is important to us, and we will address these issues with our team to ensure improvements are made. We regret that your experience with our pool did not meet your expectations. We appreciate your insights and hope to have the opportunity to welcome you back for a more enjoyable stay in the future. Ngā mihi Awatere Douglas Hotel Manager
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Booked for 2 nights. We arrived our room had been changed to a different type. They didn't tell us. The TV didn't work and had to be replaced. The bathroom still had dirty linen in it from the guests before us. The sliding door was hard to open and doesn't open without an awful (and loud) grinding noise. There were not enough cups/glasses for us. When we phoned through to reception they were difficult to get hold of and were in such a hurry they didn't actually talk to us. I went to reception and talked to them about the state of our room. They weren't apologetic and aside from asking us if we wanted our room cleaned? (Ummm yes we do!) They were completely unphased by it. Our room wasn't cleaned until after 3pm that day and we had to follow up for them to come and do it.
This is in the 200 block.
There is an awesome young person who came to change our tv and bring us clean towels.
The pool has no sunshade/roof as appears in photos.
They charge a credit card surcharge but don't advise you they are doing it - they ask if they can take payment from the credit card on file - and neglect to mention the surcharge.
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Date of stay: December 2024
Value
Rooms
Location
Cleanliness
Service
Sleep Quality
Trip type: Traveled with family
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from Awatere Douglas, Other at Sudima Lake Rotorua
Responded 2 weeks ago
Kia ora np465, Thank you for your feedback. I'm sorry to hear that your experience did not meet expectations. A room change without prior notice, housekeeping delays, and maintenance issues are certainly not the standard we aim for. Could you please confirm which room type you originally booked? We typically only change room types if it’s an upgrade, so I’d like to understand what happened here. It’s great to hear that one of our team members provided excellent service in replacing your TV and delivering fresh towels—these positive moments are what we strive for. However, it should never take multiple follow-ups to have a room cleaned, and I sincerely apologize for the delay. Regarding the pool, I understand the photos show a sun sail, which is removed during summer. We will work on setting clearer expectations for guests around this. Your feedback is incredibly helpful in guiding us toward improvement. As for the credit card surcharge, I regret that we didn't inform you in person, and I apologize for any confusion. While we do try to notify guests through signage at reception and in confirmation emails, we’ll reassess how we can communicate this more effectively moving forward. Thank you again for sharing your thoughts. We will use this feedback to make meaningful improvements. Ngā mihi Awatere Douglas Hotel Manager
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The staff are very friendly and accommodating. The breakfast is amazing!
Unfortunately, the hotel needs some TLC. The ceiling was growing green mould. A soap solution and some anti-mould paint would do the job. Mould is a health hazard.
The pool is ok. Pretty small, but nice and warm.
One staff member involved in food service was actively touching their nose (which was red and runny) while prepping food. Please please please wear a mask or at very least keep your hands away from your face if you're handling food. If I catch a cold or COVID, I'll know where it came from. Not cool.
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Date of stay: January 2023
Value
Location
Service
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from Awatere Douglas, Other at Sudima Lake Rotorua
Responded May 26, 2023
Kia ora jvonstein, Thank you for your feedback. We will take immediate action to address the issues that you have raised. Thank you for bringing it to our attention. We take food safety very seriously, and we apologize for the behavior of the staff member you mentioned. We will reinforce proper hygiene practices and ensure that all employees adhere to strict guidelines to maintain a high standard of food handling and cleanliness. Your feedback is invaluable as we continuously work towards improving our facilities and services. We apologize for any inconvenience caused and hope to have the opportunity to provide you with a better experience in the future. Ngā mihi Awatere Douglas Hotel Manager
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These reviews are machine translated from their original language. Show machine translations?
Be careful to choose your room well otherwise you may end up next to a busy road and parking; otherwise ask for a change of room like us ....obtained through our agency room with partial lake view and roof geoheated pool , close to the Polynesian thermal baths
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Date of stay: November 2024
Value
Rooms
Location
Cleanliness
Service
Sleep Quality
Trip type: Traveled as a couple
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.
I stayed 2 nights at this hotel. As I had feared, all the negative reviews are correct. I had no choice as the hotel was part of a tour package but I will be certainly providing feedback to my 4 star tour company that is hotel is totally unacceptable.
The first and last time I stayed at an upper class "motel" was 13 years ago, and I can tell you, that upper class motel was better than this. At least it was clean.
This hotel is truly disgusting. I haven't stayed at such a worn down, run down and dirty hotel. I have stayed at 3 star hotels in Europe on occassion and they are 5 times better than this.
The room I was assigned was atrocious. The toilet smelt like a public toilet and it was very dirty. The toilet bowl was full of dirty stains and no, it was not sulphuric stains from the water. Nor was the smell. Everything in the toilet was extremely rusted and they placed clean towels on a towel rack that was completely rusted. I felt very uncomfortable and asked for a room change.
The duty manager was not available for many hours unfortunately. When I did eventually get to talk to them, they had immediately found me a room nearby which I inspected upon my return to the hotel. The room I was given was much better but it was still classed as a motel room. But at least it was basic and relatively clean.
After comparing notes with my fellow travellers, it appears all the rooms are rundown, carpet is torn, beds are a bit dodgy, and bathrooms are very worn and old. Our group was not happy with this.
The one thing I will mention that earned them the one star is that the staff are very nice and obliging. When I tried to call the hotel from a supermarket to ask if they have a microwave I could use, no one answered the phone on several occasions and I could never get through.
I think this hotel is severely short-staffed. I've been travelling everywhere and have done 4 overseas trips in 2022 and I have never seen such a situation as this. They don't even have porters to help with the luggage and my tour guide and coach driver ended up delivering all the luggage to the rooms and I took mine myself, even though porterage was included.
I then read it was a quarantine hotel. How terrible would it be for those people to stay here for that long.
This hotel should not be operating until they renovate it. Either that or downgrade and market it as a motel. It does not qualify for a hotel unfortunately
Even if you let me stay here for free I wouldn't. I would rather pay several hundred dollars elsewhere.
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Date of stay: October 2022Trip type: Traveled with friends
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Hi Quasar201,
We have a self serve laundry, the cost is $4.00 to wash and $4.00 to dry. We also have an external service which operates 7 days per week. Our regular service is collected at 08:30am and returned at 6:00pm. The prices vary and are per item.
Regards,
Mike
Rooms Division Manager
Bristol, United Kingdom28 contributions16 helpful votes
Can't answer the question I'm afraid because we only had the buffet breakfast. You might want to contact the hotel direct. I have to say the food especially the dinner menu was very very good.
There are more places to choose from in the Rotorua area.
PRICE RANGE
$127 - $166 (Based on Average Rates for a Standard Room)
LOCATION
New ZealandNorth IslandBay of Plenty RegionRotorua DistrictRotorua
NUMBER OF ROOMS
247
Prices are the average nightly price provided by our partners and may not include all taxes and fees. Taxes and fees that are shown are estimates only. Please see our partners for more details.
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