From a single lodge to a full resort.
Rareluna opened in 2012 as a small alpine lodge with twelve rooms and a single card room for local members. Over the following decade, guest demand for a genuinely offline retreat — somewhere without booking apps, loyalty logins or automated kiosks — grew steadily among travellers from Auckland, Wellington and further afield.
By 2016 we had expanded to 48 rooms and suites, added the Vantage Conference Hall for corporate and private events, and built a dedicated, licensed gaming floor staffed entirely by trained croupiers and hosts. Every stage of that growth was funded independently, without investors dictating how the floor or the rooms should be run.
Face-to-face, on purpose.
We deliberately keep Rareluna offline. There is no mobile app, no online account and no remote betting of any kind. Every booking is confirmed by phone or in person, every gaming session is opened and closed by a licensed host, and every guest is met at reception rather than a screen.
This is not nostalgia — it is a service standard. It lets our team notice when a guest needs a break at the tables, when a room needs a personal touch, or when an event simply needs one more chair. Technology supports our back office; it never replaces the person across the counter from you.
Everything sits inside one address.
Rareluna's 48 rooms and suites sit above a boutique gaming floor with table games and slot machines, a restaurant and bar, a sauna and wellness area, and the Vantage Conference Hall for events of up to 80 guests. The Midnight Violet Lounge, our private function room, can be booked separately for closed parties with its own staffed tables.
Guests moving between the rooms, the gaming floor and the event spaces never need to leave the building, and every area is covered by our 24/7 concierge and security team.
Local staff, trained and licensed.
Rareluna employs over 70 staff across housekeeping, hospitality, events and the gaming floor, the majority recruited from Queenstown and the wider Otago region. Every croupier and gaming host holds a current New Zealand gambling industry licence and completes annual responsible-gambling training.
Our management team is available on-site around the clock, and every guest enquiry — from a room upgrade to an event brief — is answered by a named member of staff, not a ticketing system.
