Marsden Lake Resort is marketed as a 5 star hotel. We stayed 2 nights. The one bedroom villa without a spa was spacious and clean. The vinyl on the kitchen floor was marked and could be replaced for this standard of hotel. We appreciated the king size bed which was remade on the second day and the extra fluffy blankets. We enjoyed the tiled bathroom with heated tiled floor. The heat pump kept the villa warm. The kitchen was large. It would be handy to have a condeminium with instructions on how to work the dishwasher being an unfamiliar brand. Also a notice on check out time. The villa looked across the inlet to the other units which is a little strange. Not all villas have a spa pool. Not all units are as spacious as the one bedroom stayed in. The prices of the units seem to fluctuate remarkably from day to day. Booking two nights in a row the second night was considerly more expensive than the first for the same villa. Something to be aware of is that Marsden Hotel does not accept all eftpos cards and if a credit card is used there is an extra charge. The reception staff are dressed in very casual clothes. A suggestion maybe uniforms would be more representative of a 5 star hotel. On some occasions there seemed to be a language barrier with some reception staff. This hotel is located in Cromwell and has the potential to be just as good as a 5 Star hotel in Wanaka, Queenstown or Auckland!

Really disappointed, we arrive 6:30pm and ask if we could have dinner at the restaurant at 8 pm one of the guys said yes , and when we got there they told us first that the kitchen was closed when it’s supposed to be open until 9pm , and then we told them what the other guys said and they said ‘okay but just pizza’ , pretty disappointed service for what you paid for this place in general.

We had a bottom floor one bedroom unit. It is very spacious and the outlook onto the lake is tranquil. However we soon found out that it is not "soundproof" as listed on features of the unit. There are two smaller upstairs units which means you have the noise of people walking/talking coming through your ceiling. Coupled with this is the sound of extractor fans in the upstairs units which if someone has forgotten to turn off, will hum for hours. It'll keep you awake. I'm not sure where the fans are located - but we could feel the vibration coming through the dining room table.
There is no "welcome" folder in the room, so you have to work out stuff yourself.
There were cobwebs in the top of window/curtains and paint chipping in corners. That's fine - but not when you are paying premium prices.
Overall - a beautiful place during the day but by night - we only got one night's proper sleep out of three nights due to noise from units above us.