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Located on the Te Anau Lake Front, a short stroll from the Te Anau Town Centre, Distinction Te Anau Hotel and Villas is perfectly situated for you to make the most of this beautiful area. Surrounded by extensive, colourful gardens and overlooking spectacular Lake Te Anau and the Fiordland ranges, this Hotel and Villa accommodation sets the tone for your stay in one of the world’s most breathtaking regions. Designed for your comfort, we offer 115 luxurious rooms, including Hotel rooms with Garden and breathtaking Lake Views, and a range of spacious One and Two Bedroom Garden View Villas. On-site is the renowned MacKinnon Room Restaurant offering the very best of South Island cuisine, and the Explorer Bar and Lakefront Terrace where you can relax and enjoy the uninterrupted views of Lake Te Anau. The hotel offers the largest hotel based conference centre in the area, and its very own lakefront wedding chapel, plus extensive recreational facilities, including a spa, sauna, heated outdoor swimming pool and massage services.
Star ratings are intended to indicate the general level of features, amenities, and services to expect. This property is classified according to Giata.
HOTEL STYLE
Business
Harbor View
Languages Spoken
English
Location
64 Lakefront Drive, Te Anau, Fiordland National Park 9681 New Zealand
Distinction Te Anau Hotel and Villas
4 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.
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Distinction Te Anau Hotel and Villas has garnered mixed reviews, with guests often praising its prime location near Te Anau Lake and local attractions. The comfort and spaciousness of the beds are highlights, yet many guests feel that the rooms and hotel atmosphere could greatly benefit from modernization.
While the staff's friendly and efficient service has been acknowledged, opinions on value for money are less favorable, with criticism aimed at room amenities, breakfast offerings, and pricing. Despite this, the cleanliness of the hotel, especially the pool area, is consistently applauded.
Location
Convenient
Atmosphere
Outdated
Rooms
Dated
Value
Expensive
Cleanliness
Mixed
Service
Inconsistent
Amenities
Satisfactory
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We stayed in a Villa here on our way to Milford Sound and found ourselves wishing we could skip the sound and just stay to enjoy the beautiful hotel and Te Anau. We stayed in a villa with two rooms (one queen and two twins) set on a winding path that gave us the feeling of being isolated. We had the luxury of enjoying the delicious buffet dinner on Boxing Day but missed the buffet breakfast we had heard so much about. The hotel did give us a take away breakfast/lunch in a box since we left for the sound at 6AM before breakfast was available. We’re so glad we left early to get ahead of the crowds and thank the receptionist who recommended we leave 3 hours before our cruise.
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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.
Hotel location is unbeatable, across the road from the beautiful Te Anau Lake, very close to Real NZ tour departure point and town center. Front desk staff is loverly.
However, the interior of the hotel is very outdated - think motels in 90s and polyester bed covering that one wonders when it was last washed. The pictures make the hotel appear much better than how it actually feels once you are on site. As other reviewers mentioned, there is no AC, thus the room gets very hot and stuffy. One might be tempted to open the windows when the temperature drops at night, until one realizes bugs will fly in given the lack of screens and lakeside location.
A missed opportunity really, given its prime location.
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Date of stay: December 2024
Value
Rooms
Location
Cleanliness
Service
Sleep Quality
Trip type: Traveled with family
Room Tip:Â Two floors, but no elevator.
No AC and no screens on the windows.
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.
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With a stellar location, the view from this hotel is hard to beat. The breakfast and dinner is pretty good as well. However, the hotel itself is due for a renovation. Furniture, carpet, bathrooms, could all use updating. In addition, there is no elevator (though the hotel is just two floors, and staff can assist with luggage). To me the biggest issue is that there is no air conditioning. It’s ok if you’re on the second floor and can open a window, but if you’re on the ground floor I don’t think that’s an option and the room gets stuffy.
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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.
Stayed at this hotel during the last leg of our fantastic NZ holiday. NZ hospitality is phenomenal and everywhere we go we are greeted with friendly faces. We have stayed at several hotels across South Island and they all have strength and deficiencies, esp around peak seasons when staff shortage is an issue. But we tend to gloss over the deficiencies because the people is so nice and soul of a hotel. But this hotel has some serious issues. It charges at premium price compared to hotels in Queenstown, but the facilities are really substandard. It’s like stepping into a time capsule of the 70s. There is no elevator and we have to wait for the poor overworked porter to bring them to 2nd floor, there were two suitcases in our room from the previous tenants which the porter had not had time to remove. My kid got stuck in the bathroom because the doorknob was faulty (luckily we opened it after a long time…. Sigh). We left the room at 5am and returned at 3pm but nobody serviced our rooms, the house staff and their trolleys were at the corridor right outside. When I asked them politely about servicing our room , they just changed the towels, I had to hand them the rubbish bins to empty. Guess they were temporary staff. The room has a pseudo-aircon knob that does not work, not even an air vent. We could not open the window due to sandflies and so it was like an oven all night since the weather has been warm. There was a fan in the room but quite noisy. The furnitures are all worn out and the carpets are just….sigh. I gave one more star to the ratings because of the great sunset outside our room and proximity to the restaurants.
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Date of stay: December 2023Trip 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.
We stayed for 2 nights recently. After staying at 4 star Hotels in the days prior to our stay at Te Anau, we were very disappointed to see the location and condition of the "4 Star" Room. The heating/air conditioning was not working and replaced with a portable heater. The Bathroom Door did not close. No Mini Bar, Only one Coffee Bag provided on both days. The room was very noisy. Definitely not 4 Star. Although we paid a 4 Star Price.
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Date of stay: December 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.
An excellent location by the lake at Te Anau. The staff were excellent-friendly and efficient. Not the case however with the facility or the restaurant. The rooms (in our case 131 and 133) were quite well appointed but tired.Initially the TV did not work in 131 and the choice of channels was only mediocre. The bathrooms are outdated and the veneer on the bathroom door in 131 was peeling off. Used shower curtains are a thing of the past and at $nz 308.70 per night per room one should rightly expect better. The restaurant was overpriced. Two of us selected Butter Chicken as a main at $32.00 per person. Very disappointing-4 cubes of chicken and mainly a creamy curry sauce-the ratio was decidedly wrong. Overall a just ok experience which we will not be repeating.
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Date of stay: December 2019
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 Brent S, General Manager at Distinction Te Anau Hotel and Villas
Responded Jan 2, 2020
Dear affectianado Thanks for taking the time to provide us with your valuable feedback and I apologise the room and the meals were not up to expectations and TV did not work in room and veneer on bathroom door was peeling off. We will be sure to action your comments and ensure our consistency is improved. Our goal is to ensure everyone that leaves the hotel recommends us and this gives us a good opportunity to benchmark ourselves and make the necessary improvements needed. Regards Brent Stander
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This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.
My wife and I were on an organized tour of New Zealand. We stayed here for 1 night. The manager Brent came onto our tour bus to welcome us in person when we arrived. The grounds are spacious, as are the rooms. My wife and I had room #139. The bed was comfortable, and there was sufficient storage space. My only complaint is that the shampoo and conditioner contain methylparaben and propylparaben, which are bad for you, endocrine-wise.
There were 2 guest laundries. The washer and dryer cost 2 NZD per machine per load. You can buy washing powder for 2 NZD at the front desk.
We ate dinner and breakfast in the MacKinnon Room Restaurant. The food was good. This was the first place we stayed at during our 18-day tour that the hostess at the restaurant asked for your room number, before seating you for breakfast, and then asked you to use the hand sanitizer by the hostess stand.
The hotel was within walking distance of the waterfront, restaurants, a grocery store, and attractions (Te Anau Glowworm Caves).
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Date of stay: March 2020
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.
We had the most wonderful 2 nights at this hotel. The room was a Lake View Room and was in the ground floor with a small patio area. Everything about this hotel we loved and would definitely stay again if we were in the area. The hotel restaurant is fabulous, not a huge choice but the food and presentation were excellent. The thing that stands this hotel above most others is the Staff. Everyone we met were just a credit to the Hotel - friendly, most helpful, cheerful and so eager to please - well done and thank you !
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Date of stay: January 2025Trip type: Traveled as a couple
Room Tip: Eat at the Hotel - you won’t regret it!
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.
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Very disappointing with very, very poor value for money. No elevator for the rooms upstairs and an iron staircase that vibrates every time you pass - guaranteed wake-up call! Breakfast is minimalist with cheap rubber pastries The decor is from another age with a bad-smelling carpet in small rooms Too bad because the location is ideal!!!
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Date of stay: March 2024Trip type: Traveled as a couple
Room Tip: Pas d’ascenseur
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.
Other than the views of the water and a decent swimming pool, there is little to recommend this hotel. We spent a disappointing night at this hotel in December and were really surprised at the significant number of issues given the price, Distinction Brand, and marketing.
The hotel layout is very odd- with long unwelcoming corridors and glass doors everywhere. There are also no elevators and you end up hauling your luggage long distance and up stairs. The outdoor areas near the pool were quite sad looking, and need a basic landscaping refresh and fresh coat of paint. The pool was fine and our kids enjoyed swimming.
Our room (standard double) was not only extremely small, but was also really hot and seemed to have no airflow. The hotel had put a fan in the room, which we had to run continuously to maintain a basic level of airflow in the room. And opening the sliding glass doors was not an option because there was no screen and mosquitos quickly flew in.
Inexplicably, the restaurant at the hotel is well-rated, and so we tried to have dinner there. Service was incredibly slow, basic requests were forgotten and we had to re-ask multiple times, and the food was average at best. We skipped breakfast after that experience, which appeared to take place in a gigantic banquet room better suited for a cruise ship than a hotel.
Overall, just kind of a dated, weird place. Strongly recommend booking elsewhere.
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Date of stay: December 2019
Value
Rooms
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 Brent S, General Manager at Distinction Te Anau Hotel and Villas
Responded Jan 22, 2020
Dear Kira Thanks for your review and I apologise you experienced issues during your stay. We have addressed these with our team to make the improvements needed. We sincerely hope you enjoyed the rest of your time in Fiordland and had a safe trip home. Regards Brent Stander
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Westlake Village, California742 contributions160 helpful votes
Yes, there are ATM's, I used my credit card everywhere I went, restaurants & shopping! Loved the original gift shops in city! Beautiful selections!
Love the quaint little city!
Westlake Village, California742 contributions160 helpful votes
To your question about hair dryers, yes! No air conditioning, we were there in Feb 2019 & it was very hot! There was one rotating fan in our room, asked for another to keep air recirculating, we were on the first floor & had a door open to an outside patio, left it open for the cooler air to come in!
Hotel staff were exceptionally helpful & polite! We were on a Tauck Guided Tour who arranged everything for us including going to the glow Worm Caves & Melford Sound !
A must do on your trip to Te Anau! Views from our room were of the lake, close to shopping! Excellent restaurant in hotel!!!! Would definitely recommend returning, best in the city!! Not a Ritz Carlton, but adequate for our needs thru Tauck Tours!
There are more places to choose from in the Te Anau area.
PRICE RANGE
$164 - $257 (Based on Average Rates for a Standard Room)
ALSO KNOWN AS
distinction te anau hotel, distinction hotel te anau
LOCATION
New ZealandSouth IslandSouthland RegionFiordland National ParkTe Anau
NUMBER OF ROOMS
115
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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