Magnolia Park

Beautiful cottage and a great reset on our way to Waitomo caves

Hi all, here's my honest review of Magnolia Park. I booked a spontaneous night away for my grandmother, daughter and I via booking.com. Upon calling reception, they informed me the room had kitchen facilities (oven etc) so we stopped at the grocery store and headed over. On arrival we needed to call reception again to get the gate pin then wait at the front door while the manager who lived near by could come let us in. Once we were in I saw there were no kitchen facilities so the manager allowed us to use the main kitchen for the evening (I thought this was very kind). He then sent us the codes to the door and gate via text and left us to it. The text never came as some areas of the house have spotty reception so essentially we were stuck there with no gate code or room code to go in and out so we had to leave the doors open. Moving onto the pool (and the reason we booked), at first glance it's beautiful, then you step into it and see how dirty the water is. I didn't feel comfortable going under water as there was just layers and layers of things floating, ick, I even threw out a egg shell. Back to the room, the kitchen and bathroom facilities were clean and up to standard. The bedroom looked clean but you could see alot of dust and several dead flies on the windowsil above the bed. Once 9pm came we were getting ready for bed when I spotted little bugs on my pillow. They were on and under the pillows, in the sheets and duvet. I killed 20 bugs before residing myself it was safe enough to sleep in as reception was closed. I phoned in the morning, explaining about our night and they sent the manager. I explained to him, showed him the bed and offered to show him photos to which he said "no need I saw a couple myself". I said that I would really appreciate a refund or a free night sometime in the future as I didn't think it was fair to pay $200 for a night's getaway when all you wanted to do was getaway! Lol he has been in touch and said the expert said it was not bed bugs just regular bugs so they weren't going to give any refund. I hardly ever get nights away and it's all just very disappointing. I spent all night feeling bugs crawl on me and scratched all night (my body now has rashes all over from my scratching).