Novotel Auckland Ellerslie — Hotel in Ōrākei

We are from Australia. It is our first time visiting Auckland. We chose Novotel as it claims to be a 4-star hotel. They charged us $350+ per night, so we rationally expected enjoyable and nice accommodation. However, our experience turns out to be extremely unpleasant and disappointing. The overall environment appears to lack appropriate maintenance (even worse than some 3-star we had been to). There is no common facility such as a pool or spa. The room is normal and has nothing special. They claim we would have a garden view, but all we can see is the restaurant's Colourbond rooftop. The temperature in the room is high in the afternoon, making us a bit dizzy even if we set the temperature of the air conditioner to 20 degrees Celsius. The bathtub is not even useable. It is evidently over-priced as we found on Novotel's website another room of the same size and condition available during our visiting period, but the price was only $220+. We asked the staff at the reception if we could change to the cheaper room as it was available during our visiting period. But they simply said no. When we said to the hotel manager it appears unfair to charge the customers such a big price difference, she showed a very cold-shoulder attitude and said there was nothing she can do. They blamed the fault on us as it was our choice to pay a higher price. Yes, we admit we made a stupid choice. Nevertheless, when the customers realize there is a cheaper room of the same size and condition available and there is a huge price difference, making the customers feel being ripped off, shouldn't Novotel at least try to help their customers? No, they offered zero help. Obviously, they care about the money received much more than the customer experience and just wanted us to pay the higher price.

Moreover, Novotel said they are understaffed and would offer $15 (in total, not per day) if we could clean up our room ourselves. $15 is not big money and we do not really need this $15. But we chose to do it as we understand the negative impact of Covid. Thus, yes, we paid $350+ per night and we cleaned up the room ourselves every single day when we stayed there. However, when we checked out, the receptionist refused to honor the commitment of $15 and said we could not get it as we did not order any food or beverage from the room service. We told them that in this case, Novotel should offer some vouchers for us to drink and eat at the hotel bar. We have fulfilled our cleaning commitment for the hotel. But again, the lady at the reception said no, did not want to honor the $15 pledge, and blamed us for not reading the terms of conditions in small letters carefully. With that cold-shoulder attitude, we should have just asked their staff to clean our room daily. We were silly enough to choose to help with the under-staff situation of Novotel, for which we are very regretful. They do not deserve any help.

To be fair, we acknowledge some staff are friendly and chatty. But due to the mishap above, our experience at Novotel is extremely unpleasant and disappointing. Considering the money and the negative feeling incurred, next time we visit Auckland, we would rather use the same amount of money on another hotel with higher quality and more helpful staff. We do not recommend Novotel to anyone who travels to Auckland. It simply and totally does not worth your valuable...

My family and I stay at numerous Novotel hotels all across NZ regularly. It's common for me to book 2+ rooms. This visit, I booked 2 rooms for my family and I, on a special winter deal (promo). Check out was 1pm, parking was complimentary, breakfast included and a drink voucher was offered for the number of guests booked. Our check in was standard, our greeting was average and pleasant however when receiving my free drink vouchers I was told as I'm a loyalty program member therefore entitled to 2xvouchers for drinks for each room. I knew this and thanked them.

I said, I'm also entitled to another 2x drink vouchers as part of the winter deal that I had purchased. I was refused and was told I only get the 2 drinks per room and no more. I showed the lady my print out of the winter deal and she still refused the extra drink vouchers per room. I was annoyed as I believed I was entitled to another 4 drink vouchers, 2 for each room. The rooms were expensive. The rooms need an upgrade and the beds were uncomfortable.

Fortunately we were staying on a night that the dinner buffet was on and we thoroughly enjoyed the seafood that was on offer.

Our check out was at 1pm next day however a phone call was made at 11am to both my rooms telling us that we needed to check out. I informed reception (person on the phone) I have a 1pm checkout based on my winter deal purchased. The lady on the phone said no, you are definitely a 11am check out. Not realizing my family in the other room received the same phone (before me) had started to pack and had made their way to reception to check out. I quickly packed up and left the room soon after the phone call and was feeling really annoyed as I knew I was right. I tell reception I have a 1pm check out, she replies, no I'm sorry, you don't. I then pull out my print out (receipt) which listed out the extras I get when booking the winter deal. She reads over my bookings and apologies and then asks if I would like to stay until 1pm. I say, what's the point now as we're already packed and ready to check out based on a phone call made to both rooms basically throwing us out. I told her, I told the person on the phone I have a 1pm checkout and I was refused even though I had purchased a winter deal promo that included a 1pm check out. She apologies again, I give her my parking ticket so she can validate my tickets and proceeds to ask me for $25 for parking. I reply, did you not just read the benefits I should receive for booking their winter special promo. She apologies again and validates my tickets for free parking. I then go on to say, surely you should see on my booking (on your system) what type of booking I had purchased, therefore I shouldn't or any other person/guest shouldn't go through this poor service. She apologies again.

I stay at many Novotel hotels across NZ regularly and I must say this has to be the worst reception experience I've had so far.

Luckily for Hamilton (I love the Tainui hotel) as their service is exceptional across the whole of the hotel otherwise I'd choose a whole other franchise...

Novotel and Ibis are in the same building so share reception and facilities. I find this strange, as they are different brands with different offerings.

Room was tired, bathroom was clean but roof had dirty finger print marks (probably from tradie fixing lights or sprinklers). The bathroom was small with a shower over the bath.

In Novotels attempt to be sustainable there are no rubbish bin liners - I find this unhygienic, particularly for sanitary products (no sanitary bags available either.

One of the lifts wasn’t working and this caused backlog and frustration with guests. I was there for 4 nights and it only worked on my first night. A lift out of order sign or note to the guests would have been the nice thing to do.

The lighting in the whole hotel was dim and since my room was at the end of the hallway, I felt a little scared/unsafe - I have stayed at many hotels with dim lights for sustainability but they would go brighter as you walked into the space.

Parking is a nightmare. I knew I had to pay prior to going, but I didn’t know it was limited and if I came after 7pm I probably wouldn’t get a park. There is another carpark (I was told gate 3 of the racecourse) but I couldn’t even see where this was and didn’t fancy a long walk at night in heels. This meant I stayed in the hotel in the evenings and gave me the feeling of being restricted to the hotel.

One day my keycard wasn’t working so I had to go to reception. She asked how my stay was and I said “to be honest a bit disappointing” - she didn’t ask any further questions or even respond (just looked akward). She was then going to give me a replacement key without even asking for ID. I’ve had many keycards not work over the years, but I have always been asked to prove my identify before giving me a new card. This just added to my unsafe feeling!

The bar staff were efficient but not overly friendly. The food was good - usual Novotel standard.

I stay at Novotels because they are fairly consistent worldwide. Not so with Novotel Ellerslie. It has a lot...