Grand Hotel Wanganui

This was a terrible experience I payed $100 for the night.the room was like a like a homeless shelter room.. there was no tea, coffee hot chocolate or sugar. The body wash pump in the shower was empty,, the soap pump above the basin is the toilet shower was empty. The shower head had a continuous drip was just tourher,, I thought I'd drown the drip nose out by turning on the tv,,, what a minute,, there was no tv. .must think I'm homeless and this was my last resort!!!

AVOID AT ALL COSTS !!!
Read previous reviews- and be warned! Permanent residents stay.
Cannot believe the Hotel,s own blog - unbelievable.

Jesus H Christ, where do I start? Arrived Friday evening, stayed for the night. Bed was comfy, slept well. That's the only good thing. Went to make a coffee, no kettle, asked for one, was told they'd deliver it to my room, yeah, never showed up. TV remote had obviously had enough and left, asked for a new one, was told it would be delivered, yeah, think it's with the kettle. I managed to get the TV going using my Amazon Fire Stick remote, oh yeah, it claims to have Internet, it technically does, but once you connect, it doesn't work. The room was tired and unclean, bedding was tired, no bedside lamps. The shower is way too small, no ventilation in the bathroom, the body wash in the shower was empty, used soap bar, with attached hair, left in the shower. The bar was pumping, you could hear it in the room, also could hear the cleaners cleaning the bar at one in the bloody morning! Oh I could also hear the occupants in the next room going to the toilet.
Apparently they've updated, I'd love to know what they had updated from!
Yeah, I'd avoid this place like the plague, unless you're a glutton for punishment and like to be tortured

Not so Grand, I suggest you don't waste your time booking there. First room we were given, we went up a few stairwells passing mattresses leaned up against the walls. The room hadn't been vacuumed, bathroom was not just old and tired but filthy, and the sheets had stains and long hair on them. We asked for another room, sheets looked better, but the jug was fill of smelly water with stuff floating in it, the spoon was dirty, there was long hair in the toilet, and not too clean. We asked for a new kettle, but upon opening the fridge and saw it was full of mould, we opted to leave and find alternative accommodation. We had booked through booking.com and paid on arrival, but the hotel said they couldn't give a refund as they had to go through booking.com and wanted us to leave our account details written down on a piece of paper. Wasn't happy to do that, and currently communicating with booking.com to request the refund. Sad really, as it was really nice about 10 years ago when we staying in the lovely character rooms. The rooms given to us and friends were in another part of the building - the layout, long corridors, stairs etc with mattresses in them, didn't make for a safe exit in the event of a fire.

From what friends have told me, this hotel used to be a nice grand old hotel. Boy, what a change with the new owners. A number of our camera club members booked into this hotel this weekend as I did, too. They had stayed here a few years ago. One of the members and her husband left the hotel as two rooms they were offered were very dirty. My room was very basic, with a number of things wrong, eg. One tea mug for two people, no hand towels in the bathroom, no bath mat, plugs by the bed didn't work, light above the single be didn't work. When one of my club colleagues checked in, she was given the electronic door key to my room and said this was her room. When I wanted to check out, there was nobody about, so I had to leave the key on the unmanned counter.

If you are a crackhead, you will fit right in. All day and night, they come. In the carpark they argue and smoke 🙄 the rooms are disgusting. The bathrooms are moldy, poo stains in the toilet. Please don't stay here if you have kids, this would be a nightmare to get out if there is a fire or anything. Proprietor allowed these people to come in and out. Had no care, my parents were next to us, TV wasn't working. After several rants they ended up bringing them a TV from another room. If I didn't have my kids I would've left and slept in my car. Everything is busted, defz emergency housing. JUST DON'T

Absolutely disgusting and I'll be seeking a refund. Very dirty. I don't even know where to start. Shower is filthy. No soap. No hand towel or bath mat. Glass in the outside door held up by nails. Just overall dirty. I complained and got nowhere.

Well, where do I start. Although this is a lovely old building, everything is old and tired, dirty, and lacking room necessities, such as bathroom needs. Coffee etc, only 2 tea bags? No Face cloths etc, the shower and toilet were so filthy, we did not use them, and showered elsewhere. The television was not installed onto the wall brackets, just left resting on a rickety old cabinet (if one could call it a cabinet) we had no remote to operate the television and asked reception 4 times for a remote, however this request fell on deaf ears and we never got one. We complained about the state of the room and asked to be given an upgrade which we were happy to pay for, however we were shown an even worse room.
This hotel is a bad joke and should be avoided at all costs. These people have no business operating a hotel. They have no idea on customer service and what is required to make ones stay a comfortable one.
This venue is a sad blight on Whanganui.
We were also told by locals that this place is used for emergency housing. Undesirables everywhere.
DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY ON THE GRAND. IT SHOULD BE CALLED THE DIVE.

Terrible.
It is a beautiful building and could be made really nice. We understood the managers have only just taken over in the last few months. We had booked but we had to show proof of the booking and then proof that we paid. The room was dingy and old. The pillow cases were thin and holes in them, the towels we sooo thin. Also the "Irish Pub" was hardly Irish with Indian music blaring over the speakers. The laundry was a room flooded with water and 3 machines pushed into the middle of it. Wouldn't recommend although it was cheap.

I booked a room in October thru booking .com . I paid in full for the room a few days ago . I get a phone call today to say I’ve been cancelled . I am furious . New management evidently and No rooms available . This is very poor and I will be making sure a lot if people know about this . NOT GOOD ENOUGH .

Where to start with the ironically named 'Grand'.....
Front door was locked when we arrived. After the 3rd try at ringing the number displayed on the front door, a man answered my call and said 'just a minute' then hung up on me. Eventually a man came and opened the front door. He didn't speak to us during the check in process, then proceeded to take us to a room with 1 double bed, even though I had paid the extra for 2 separate beds for myself and my adolescent son.
The room was dirty, the wallpaper had large tears in it, and the 'furniture' on the balcony was rusted and broken.
I was expecting budget accommodation but this place is awful.

Stayed here a few times for the motorbike races, Rooms are a bit dated mine had problems opening the digital door, The door catch was broken on the deck. Shower was missing centre drain. Beds were nice and you could park your motorcycle in the garage out of view. Lacks barstaff who dont listen, Food is bland and just thrown together. Eat somewhere else. The management don't seem to get how kiwi hospitality works.

There was a long wait at reception at check-in for the receptionist to arrive at reception. The hotel is old, characterful, but a bit tatty. The room was cold, and only half the power points were working. I had to move the heater to plug it in at the other side of the room and even then it kept turning off and needing to be restarted. The bathroom had no ventilation. The bed was comfortable and the bedding crisp. Half of the lights in the room didn’t work. The fire alarm went off at 11:30 and there was an evacuation of the hotel. The rooms are old and tired. I might need to stay here again but wouldn’t naturally choose to do so if there are better alternatives. Chstacterful, but tired and not well cared for. Not recommended.

Disgusting! I booked a room that they don't even have but they have advertised on booking.com. The rooms were very unclean and the extremely basic!! I had to ask for heating (the room had none!). despite repeated calls they have not reimbursed the $40 booking fee that they said they would. I would rather sleep in my car than ever sleep here again, it'd be warmer and cleaner.

The place lost our booking, they barely understood English, leered at my wife, the restaurant and bar was closed , and the facilities were filthy. New carpet had been laid amateurs and was buckling and a trip hazard and had not been vacuumed since we stayed a year ago. This is definitely a place to be avoided at all costs… I’d rather sleep in my car

My 81-year old mother and her friend arrived to dirty rooms and a filthy toilet. They weren’t prepared to stay in rooms with such a low level of cleanliness so found alternative accommodation. They asked for a refund but were refused. Would not recommend.

I booked well ahead of time and paid in advance for boxing day racing and despite trying to confirm my booking on several occasions they will not honour it and have not given me a refund total sham do not book.

DON'T STAY HERE
it was a terrible place to stay we were booked in through our work and when tried to find somewhere else to accommodate us everything was booked out. Where to start lack of communication language barrier. Rooms were dirty, not even sure if blankets sheets etc were clean. We were told by local that laundry places have banned them from using their services. They do there washing in domestic washing machine. We noticed a pile of washing in the main lounge was laying on the floor for a week. We had to ask for towels etc if we need them and cleaned our own rooms. We were given electronic swipe cards for our rooms only to find that each card could open all doors on our floor. Therefore we did not feel safe and worried about our belongings while we were at wananga during the day. Unless we wanted to drog our bags up and down stairs and long hallway everyday which would have been 2 times a day. The younger guy tried to help but the older one was dismissive of him. I do not recommend and surprised the council haven't closed them down.

We didn't have high expectations, and this place did nothing to raise them. The place is tired and in need of a lot of tlc. I guess the bad was comfy, the shower worked, and it was reasonably quiet.

Only went for a meal. Thank God we didn't need to stay overnight. The worst meal that either my wife or I have ever had. DO NOT GO TO THE GRAND.

Meals were a very limited selection of bar meals... pasta, burgers, chicken schnitzel, etc. Three starters to choose from. Oops, no, only 2. They had run out of garlic bread.

We ordered mushroom croquettes for a starter, chicken pasta, and chicken schnitzel. And waited. And waited. After over 30 minutes we asked where our starter was. A few minutes later they arrived. Cold. Not lukewarm-cold, but refrigerator cold in the middle. We sent them back and our mains arrived. Likewise the chips were cold. How the hell can you manage that? Admittedly the pasta was hot. Then our microwaved mushroom croquettes returned, finally hot.

No ice in the drinks, and a tacky, rundown vibe to the bar.

Nothing nice about this place. Stay away.