Hotel D'urville Blenheim

Central

I liked everything about this property

Very good

Nothing

Large, warm but very old-fashioned room up the stairs in historic building. Tiny en-suite. Town centre location with several restaurants and cafes nearby (see below). Interesting historic art objects scattered throughout. Complimentary Port before retiring a nice touch.

Hotel did not have functional restaurant or bar (on Mondays) or staff after 6pm. Basically it had seen better days.

The people who originally bought this old bank did a good job of retaining some interesting original features. The staff we met, (when they were on site) were polite. The room was a good size. As the hotel doesn't provide breakfast, at least there were a list of local eateries in the room

Usually, when a hotel is undergoing renovations, you are alerted to this at the point of booking. In this case, we were not. So, disappointing to find the dining area closed off and in a mess. When we arrived at 5.30, receptionist gave us the passcode for our room and then left. No staff on site after that, until 9.30 a.m. And for a hotel that describes itself as boutique, it needs to do better than a tiny bar of soap in the shower. This hotel has so much potential, but current owners/managers need to lift their game