Rotorua's council has agreed to increase admission fees at the Polynesian Spa, but spa management says it's not the time to put up prices and is now offering big discounts for locals.

During a confidential meeting held on March 12, the Rotorua Lakes Council agreed to a request from the Polynesian Spa to increase some of its admission prices.

The price increases, that have not been implemented, were released with confidential minutes at the last Rotorua Lakes Council meeting on May 28.

However, Polynesian Spa chief executive Gert Taljaard says the request was made pre-Covid-19 and he was not going to implement the fee increase, instead, the spa had dropped many of its prices to encourage locals and out-of-towners to visit the pools.

"Everything has changed due to Covid-19 so we decided to make our offers even sharper - there are promotional prices on almost all of our products right now," says Gert.

"We were looking at a small increase for some of our products to cover operating costs, but this was pre-Covid, and because of that we have not enacted those increases.

"We all recognise the world is a different place now and we want as many people to have the ability to use our products.

"We have been grateful to our Rotorua customers so as a 'thank you' we have also given them some great options on monthly passes."

Gert says some of the planned increases were minor and would be put on hold for the foreseeable future.

"Our promotional prices won't last forever but, for example, our resident cardholders can use the Pavilion Pools for $15 and the monthly pass is just $55."

Gert says entry to the spa for out-of-towners is also heavily discounted with entry to the Pavilion Pools down from $32 to $25 and Lake View Private Pools down from $35 to $29.

Some of the proposed Polynesian Spa price increases*:

• Lake Spa – Adult (Deluxe Lake Spa) $59 to $60
• Adult Pool & Priest Spa – (Pavilion) $32 to $34
• Deluxe Private Pool – Adult (Lake View) $35 to $39
• Standard Private Pool – Adult (Sky View) $23 to $25
• Residents Day Pass - 8am - 6pm $55 to $56
• Residents Monthly - Pass Plus Card $109 to $110

*These increases have not been implemented.