Hotel Review: Peppers Beacon Luxury Apartments

By the time I reached Queenstown, I realized that hotel lobbies were not of importance in New Zealand.  I have always found that in North America, you can often judge how nice a hotel is, by their lobby.  However, in New Zealand, they don’t seem to place this emphasis on their lobbies as they are often very modest.

The lobby at Peppers Beacon is no exception.  Sure, they have a fancy coffee machine at the front desk, but there is no big sitting area to make you feel welcomed.  In fact, the entrance just looks like the entrance to a normal apartment building.

I stayed here twice in the same week.  My first room reminded me a bit of a studio apartment.  Two single beds placed very close together (there was probably only a foot in between them), took up one side of the room, and then a small round table, two chairs and a mini bar took up the other side.  The bathroom was a good size and the water pressure was so strong that this was the first time I had to turn the water on half way to prevent the water from coming out too hard. 

My second stay at the hotel was actually in a 1 bedroom suite.  There was a sitting area with a small couch, but the bedroom still had the same 2 small single beds.

There is an ample supply of nice teas and hot chocolate in the minibar.  There was also a mini fridge, and a cupboard for mugs, glasses, dishes and cutlery.  What I found strange was that they also had two packets of dish soap and some kitchen sponges, but no sink, so I’m not sure if we were expected to do our own dishes in the bathroom sink, or whether that was just there for the cleaners.

The buffet breakfast was very good and this is one of the only buffet breakfast places where specialty coffees were included.  They had a varied selection of cereals, fruit, cold cuts, cheese, breads, and the hot items included eggs, hashbrowns, bacon, lamb sausages, mushrooms and baked beans.

The location of Peppers Beacon is directly in front of the water front promenade, so it made for a wonderful view of the mountains.  It is also a short 10 minute walk to the centre of town, where the majority of restaurants and shops are located.

Another amazing thing about this property is that they have free laundry services located on several floors.  Not only is it free to use the washer and dryer machines, but they also provide free detergent, which costed $4 at another hotel that I stayed at.