Great location, close to town and right on the lake. Decent sized pitches and good facilities. Kids absolutely loved the spa. Much nicer ambiance and less like a concrete jungle than where we stayed the previous night (rhymes with Pop Hen). Friendly and helpful staff, would definitely come back.

When I stayed here, I had been traveling in New Zealand for six months and stayed in dozens of hotels in this same price range and found every single one to be helpful, reasonable and friendly and this was the one unfortunate exception. I had chosen to book at the Cosy Cottage instead of my usual go to hotel in Rotorua despite the lower level of service because of the great price and amenities, but when I showed up, excited for our trip there I was instead greeted by a front desk impatiently demanding that I pay an additional NZD$220 for extra guests on my stay due to a mistake when booking on Expedia. They were unwilling to let me leave to get to my scheduled activities or even to let me on the WiFi to figure out what happened, without paying. She assured me if the charge turned out to be in error I would get a refund of the appropriate amount if I contacted management via email. However, when I collected the receipts and found that I was indeed charged NZD$50 more than I should have been for extra guests as detailed in the booking agreement, I was unable to get any sort of response from hotel management to correct the error.

That being said, the cabin was full of great amenities, it was just not worth the cost with the lack of service (there is no room servicing—we had to take out our own trash and ask for things we needed), the limited WiFi, and staff we did not get along with. For the whole stay they always looked irritated when we asked for things, to the point that we made do when we were short on linen, towels, pillows and WiFi vouchers for our extra guests who we were now paying top dollar for--all to avoid having to talk to them again. Granted the extra charge did get us off on the wrong foot, so others may not have that problem.

On the outside this place looks ok but compared to the larger more we’ll known chain campgrounds this place falls well short. It’s a good location and does have hot spa pools available, but the place is grubby and run down. It’s old and seemingly held together with good will. We stayed on a powered site. The ablutions block is disgusting, the kitchen is functional but old. The “free” wifi is pretty slow and limited to a 300mb block for your entire stay, where most places these days offer unlimited usage. Given the current global Covid19 pandemic, access to news sources was vital so we were made to beg for an additional portion of time. You would also think the in this current climate personal hygiene/cleanliness of the staff would be of the highest importance, but the reception staff don’t seem to agree, as it seems they had not showered for a week and stank of BO, which is the first impression you get as you enter the place. They were also unfriendly and unwelcoming. There is a small playground for smaller kids, but that is it. Personally I would not stay here again.