The Rees Queenstown has never shouted about itself. Over breakfast, general manager Micka McDonald tells Karryon’s Matt Leedham it’s the staff, its stories, and a few good habits most guests never see that make Australians return year after year.
Arrive at The Rees Queenstown in July, and you’ll mostly hear Australian accents, here for the snow and the seasonal delights this gem in New Zealand’s tourism crown is revered for.
Winter at the Lake Wakatipu-fronted property is predominantly made up of Australian visitors, McDonald says; summer swings toward the US market, and February belongs to Chinese New Year travellers.
The quieter tail of July fills with incentive groups from Malaysia and China, there to indulge themselves “and drink really good wine”.
I’ve been fortunate to stay at The Rees a couple of times over the years, and this time I’m here in July for a few days of snowboarding with my two boys, the same winter new Brisbane–Queenstown flights added more capacity.
When we sit down for our early morning chat in the True South Dining Room, the view across Lake Wakatipu to The Remarkables is spectacular, like an oil painting that changes by the minute as the light shifts.
Yet McDonald, who was promoted to general manager after a decade at the hotel, talks less about the view than the people behind it.
Staff who stay
I ask what keeps guests like me coming back.
“I think it’s our staff,” McDonald tells me.
Guests, she says, consistently tell the hotel that its staff made their stay.
“What we’re trying to do is deliver the whole package,” she says.
The Rees’ executive housekeeper was on site with a hard hat while the hotel was being built ahead of its 2009 opening, McDonald says, and is still running the team at 67. Her two supervisors have each been there for 15 years.
That longevity is deliberate. The hotel sponsors visas for its housekeeping staff, investing in them for the long term. It’s worth it, she says, “to have longevity and potentially have a staff member in housekeeping for three years versus three months”.
Looking after the team is how The Rees looks after its guests. Rosters leave room for weekends on the slopes and trails, staff are well fed, and there are nights out together, McDonald says, while a people and culture team regularly asks staff how things could be even better.
Once a year, the GM leads staff and guests in a polar plunge into Lake Wakatipu.
“We’re in this business because we like people and we want to look after people,” she says.
That care extends to guests who’d rather not be noticed. Over the years, The Rees has quietly hosted global pop stars and a prime minister, at times locking off an entire floor and setting a lift to run straight to it. Those stories are best told over breakfast, and the names stay off the record.
Furniture that goes back to Invercargill
In plenty of hotels, worn-out furniture goes in the bin. At The Rees, it goes home.
The pieces were designed for the hotel by a local designer in Invercargill.
“We actually got onto the furniture makers that made it in Invercargill, and they now restore it for us,” McDonald says.
Every May and June, worn pieces go away for refurbishment. The latest refresh continued the local flavour, too, with bespoke photography from award-winning New Zealand artist Stephan Romer on the walls of places guests can reach within a day, and New Zealand merino throws in all the rooms and apartments.
During my stay in one of those rooms, I had no idea of the backstory. McDonald says it’s simply second nature.
It’s all in the details and the place’s understated approach.
Trees, bees and a few things guests never see
Forgo to Grow was born during the post-COVID staff crunch, when McDonald’s 13-year-old stepdaughter was lending a hand by cleaning rooms. Guests who skip daily servicing trigger a tree donation to the Whakatipu Reforestation Trust, which the hotel says adds up to more than 2,000 trees since 2022.
Below the hotel on the lakefront, The Rees has replanted a stretch of the Frankton Track with natives, and the groundskeeper doubles as a feral pest trapper.
Hotel beehives supply a year’s honey, honey water feeds the tūī through winter, and minibar sales of Gilbert the kea fund the Kea Conservation Trust.
What’s next for The Rees Queenstown?
True South Dining Room was the first restaurant in New Zealand to be named a MICHELIN Selected restaurant, and McDonald says “we’re already seeing the pick up”, mostly from locals so far.
The kitchen is also heading outdoors. The new Forage to Fork experience has executive chef Trent Watson leading guests on a full day exploring the landscape from Lake Wakatipu towards Kinloch, before a multi-course True South dinner shaped by what they’ve found.
A new build next door will add 37 studios and a 100-seat restaurant, with completion targeted for September 2028.
After more than 20 years in hospitality, McDonald still rates the guests as the best part. Being “on really familiar terms after the week that they’ve been here, and to feel like that you’ve been a part of their experience is a really good feeling,” she says.
For more information, visit The Rees Hotel
KARRYON UNPACKS: Queenstown’s luxury end is getting louder, with new openings and Michelin stars grabbing headlines. The Rees is betting on something harder to copy: a housekeeper who remembers the hard hats and furniture that goes home to be restored.
