Novotel Christchurch Cathedral Square — Hotel in Christchurch

The food and ambience were great, but most importantly, unlike at most other hotels and restaurants, the staff here was truly service-oriented, including the front office manager, Aditya Patil.

Two great personalities captured my attention when we dined here during dinner: Hendi and Kimberly.

Hendi exemplifies the Indonesian hospitality, which is quite rare in New Zealand. If you had been to Bali, you would know what I am talking about. Hendi migrated to New Zealand from Indonesia. He was extremely warm and friendly, and so was the cashier, Kimberly, who processed my payment. Kimberly had the most amazing smile I have ever seen. There really is no reason for a cashier to be smiling and be friendly with you when you make payment. Kimberly was the only exception. She also looked so pretty that I had mistaken her for a model. I did not have interaction with Mr. Patil until much later on. I will elaborate below.

We dined at The Square for both lunch and dinner as a party of 4 adults during our 1-month vacation in New Zealand. As an Accor Plus Platinum member, I signed up for a supplementary card for my sister, for SGD 150, as in Australia and New Zealand, 2 cards can be used at the same table to obtain a 50% discount for 4 diners.

I thought that was a very good deal. Until I found out that it wasn't!!!

I have wasted so much time having to chase after all my missing dining and stay points at Accor hotels and restaurants. Half of the Accor restaurants I dined at, did not award me with the points I was entitled to. The time I have wasted to file claims and communicate with Accor staff is worth at least tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars! I charge SGD 15-40K for a typical liposuction surgery which lasts 2-4 hours. I have spent days, communicating with Accor customer service staff, sending out 25 emails in total!

I found out that all Accor restaurants in New Zealand and Australia actually participate in First Table programme, which entitles diners to a 50% discount for up to 4 diners per table. All you need to pay is NZD 10 when you make a dining reservation. You don't have to pay hundreds of dollars for an Accor Plus membership, which tie you down to very limited dining options at Accor restaurants only! And you don't have to spend days, if not weeks, chasing your missing dining points, aftewards.

Anyway, the reason my dining points were not credited to my account was because of Accor's mistake. They sent me a link with restaurants eligible for points accrual, without even checking themselves whether The Square was on the list. They advised me that it was not. That was why I wasn't eligible to earn points, they said. But, when I verified it myself, by clicking on the link, I found out that The Square was on the list! So, I wrote in to Novotel Christchurch Cathedral Square, and Mr Patil, the front office manager, came into the picture.

Mr Patil is exactly the kind of manager any business owner, CEO or MD of the hospitality industry would kill for. He is the wettest dream comes true in the hospitality industry, if I may.

to be continued in next post due to...

I was asked by my friend to help post this using my account, as there was maximum limit of characters he was allowed to post and maximum number of post, which was one. The following is the continuation of review by Elixir de Vie.

Mr Patil did not even have to reply me personally, but he did. He even sent me an email on Christmas day when he was supposed to be resting at home, informing that he had credited 1,000 Accor reward points into my account, and was apologetic for what had happened. It was not even the restaurant's fault. It was Accor's fault! But, the fact that they sent a manager to deal with this small matter means a lot! Credit has to be given to the team who first received my email who probably noticed that I was a Managing Director of my own company from my signature, so getting a manager to write to me would be the appropriate thing to do. So, kudos to the team! They have been well-trained! Because, if it had been a non-responsive team which was placed as front liner, the email I sent to the hotel might have been swept under the carpet or deleted. Which was exactly what happened when I sent an email to Sofitel Wellington for similar issue of missing points.

When I filed missing points claim to Accor for a dinner at Sofitel Wellington, Accor's reply was that the cashier had put someone else's membership number on the receipt, hence I did not qualify for points accrual. I was shocked as this was a very serious allegation of points misappropriation. How could the cashier put her friend's membership number on my receipt to allow the friend to steal my points? I replied to Accor and cc-ed the email to Sofitel Wellington, requesting an investigation as this was such a serious allegation. Neither Accor nor Sofitel Wellington responded. The case was swept under the carpet and buried. When I posted a damning review here on TripAdvisor about this serious allegation of points misappropriation by the restaurant staff at Sofitel Wellington, TripAdvisor took down my post and asked me to alter the content.

This will be my last review on TripAdvisor. I will be posting reviews directly on Google for all my future reviews. This personal experience with TripAdvisor finally opens my eyes to the reality of reviews on TripAdvisor. They actually intervene, moderate and make you change your review.

This whole experience also shows the difference it makes when a business owner, CEO or MD hires the right person or team! Instead of sweeping the issue under the carpet and ignore a complaint, Mr Patil and his team swing into damage control action immediately, even sending me an email on Christmas day, which I really appreciated! If you pay peanuts, you get monkeys. If you're willing to pay more, you get the kind of Aditya Patil, Hendi and Kimberly. You decide what's best for...

The actual room is ok - it's clean and the beds are comfy. I don't know why there are two different kinds of shower head in the bathroom, as one of them can't be tilted and is completely useless. Their advertising includes images of branded toiletries in tubes. What you actually get is three pump bottles of cheap, no frills detergent fixed to the wall; one says 'shampoo', one says 'body wash' and one says 'hand soap'. If you pump them out into your hand, it's the same stuff in all three bottles. Don't put it on your hair, it'll turn it into frizzy straw. The air conditioning unit makes an impressive noise that will keep you awake all night, but has no detectable air coming out of it and the room quickly becomes stale and overheated, which is unfortunate because the windows don't open either. The breakfast buffet looks good at first glance, but largely consists of overcooked, lukewarm or cold food, and bowls of cut fruit that's either from a tin or has been pre-prepared and then refrigerated for so long it is shriveled and tasteless. My first night there, the person delivering room service pushed past me into the room and put my food down on the table. The second night, I opened the door and stood to one side to let them in, and they said "do you expect me to carry that inside for you?" as if I was doing something unreasonable. The guest manual says they have several different kinds of pillow, but if you ring housekeeping and ask for a firm one (providing they answer the phone), they again respond as if you're being unreasonable and then bring you yet another soft pillow to add to the mountain of pillows on the bed and tell you that it's all they can find. It's conveniently located right next to Te Pae convention centre, but I didn't enjoy staying there. I switched to a motel for the final few days of my trip, and was vastly more...