Now that the busiest tourist season of January & February has passed, we make the time to read the guest comments and complaints to see if we can improve. We apologise for the most common grouch, the obsolete elderly motel developed over 60 years ago. Obviously, we cannot do much about the age except to suggest it provides a friendly mature character environment. We try to make up for it with more personal service. The geriatric management team, Pip & Ross, are both over 80, having been here at TRM for over 20 years. So, not surprisingly, SWMBO has become seedy and slower.
Pip is better known as SWMBO – She Who Must Be Obeyed – featuring often in daily reports and blamed for everything. She is the real manager, so if you have any complaints, go to her. Ross just pretends he knows where the trout are and what is happening to communicate with our inmates via these chatty blogs on fb. They have become an integral part of this motel’s reputation. He must be speaking their language as they have attracted over 174,000 viewers during the last 4 weeks. These blogs have been posted since 2004 to keep fishing guests up-to-date.
The guest review score breakdown, assessed by independent online travel agents’ feedback, awards the highest mark of 9.4 for TRM Staff. We think that is more important than a swimming pool – that was never used and filled in many years ago. Therefore, we trust you will appreciate that most of the work and day-to-day management is provided by local Turangi staff.
Both the motel and management might have passed their “used-by” date, but enjoy the close association with Tongariro River anglers, many of whom are a similar vintage. There is no place we would rather be.
(Tongariro River Motel when we first stayed in 1959, in third caravan, and returned ever since)
The latest techno whizz kid, AI, which SWMBO and tourists now embrace, advises:
Tongariro River Motel in Turangi is highly rated (92% recommendation) for its friendly, helpful owners, clean and cozy, “retro” comfortable rooms, and excellent location near the Tongariro River and town center. Guests consistently praise the spacious, well-equipped kitchens, pet-friendly options, and convenient, free laundry facilities.
We think that says it all.
Reviews of Tongariro River Motel
2 Piri Road, 3353 Turangi, New Zealand
Review Score
Based on 318 hotel reviews 8.3
Score breakdown
- Cleanliness 8.5
- Comfort 8.4
- Location 9.0
- Facilities 8.1
- Staff 9.4
- Value for money 8.6
- Free Wifi 7.5
We appreciate and enjoy all the guest feedback and photos, if only to learn how often our savage guard dog, Juno, visits all the guests, claiming she has not been fed and begging for a hug and a snack!
Some more picky tourists may need to adapt to many peculiarities at TRM, which operates more as an anglers’ retreat. That is quite deliberate. We prefer fishos as they stay longer and return again and again.
At the moment TRM has “fishy inmates” who are staying up to one month and who have returned again and again for the last 20 years. As such, by modern standards, the retro units are over-equipped with all sorts of strange fly fishing gear to provide everything for longer stays. We do not apologise, that does not happen in a normal tourist motel.
