Holiday Inn Auckland Airport — Hotel in Māngere-Ōtāhuhu

Don't let them put you in room 1169 unless they've fixed whatever leak is causing the strong mildew smell. I paid $2,000 for five night stay in a room with a sink, microwave, and mini fridge, but I couldn't breathe in there because of the mildew stench. This stay wasn't for holiday or business, but because my house was having hazardous materials removed and we needed accommodation. My two kids and I needed a place where they could still go to school during the day that was close to our house. Our booking was made far in advance specifically for this purpose. I tried to call the front desk several times to ask about room service, what time the restaurant would be open until, and also to ask for toilet paper, but no one answered the phone. I couldn't leave my kids in the room, so I had to make them come with me and we had to walk to the front desk and no one was there. So we had to wait until someone came back. We asked for toilet paper and they tried to call someone, but they couldn't get them to answer either. They ended up getting me toilet paper from a closet or room behind them, which not sure why they didn't do that in the first place, but whatever. Communication seems to be bad. Anyway, room 1169 is one bedroom and a connected lounge and extra bathroom, and it smelled so strong of mildew I was worried about my kids and I having adverse health effects. I already have asthma. But there was nothing I could do, our house wasn't available and I had already paid the $2k for five nights in this nightmare scenario. I tried to air the room out, but it was no use. That room def has a serious problem. I open up the cabinet under the sink to see if i could see a leak, and the smell increased in intensity so much I nearly puked, so I closed it and was just like forget it, I can't. So we just had to breathe mildew air for five days and just not open the cabinet. When you walk into the corridor from outside, by the room, the carpet is gross and stinky there. Also, I paid to have our breakfast costs included, but the food is horrible and picked over, even when we got there early around 7am. I would never recommend the food at their breakfast bar. Just rubbish. The only thing I was able to eat was the fresh cut fruit, which def did not taste fresh. It was gross too. Fortunately, the location is close to a supermarket, so I was able to go down the motorway and get some edible food, but that's crap considering I paid to include that meal. I will def not stay at their hotel next time. The photos make it look WAY better than it is. Don't be fooled. It's a pricey dump. The holiday inns in other countries are much nicer, but this was...

The Good: The room service meals (even the late night menu and also served at the Rumpus Room) was FANTASTIC - our compliments to the chef!

The staff were all very friendly. The beds were clean and very comfortable, and the variety of pillows was appreciated.

The heating / cooling unit in the room was extremely quiet and the room temperature very comfortable.

The Bad: The differences between two neighbouring rooms was inexplicable. One room had a phone with "shortcut" buttons to reception, room service, etc. and the other room had none of those. There were no instructions anywhere on how to call reception (eventually learned it was 9) or room service (7521 for anyone who wants to know).

As a result, I was forced to order room service for my mom in the other room, and while we received our order within about 30 minutes, my mom's never arrived. Only after she called down to the kitchen an hour later did she learn that reception had not passed the order along to the kitchen, and by the time the food arrived it was midnight. Also, the food was delivered without any sort of covering / lid.

The night manager did apologize for the delay, but ultimately still charged us for the meal.

One room had a red "emergency flashlight" (we think) above the shelves, while the other room had a black device with a flashing red light, with no explanation what it was.

Dirty plates from other rooms was left in the hallway for over 24 hours without being cleaned up.

There are no elevators in the building, so if you have heavy luggage or limited mobility - good luck.

The carpets in all parts of the hotel were dirty and very stained.

The breakfast buffet was for the most part, very disappointing. The scrambled eggs were watery, the "grilled tomato" was cold and not grilled, the pancakes were rock-hard, the coffee was lukewarm and the sausages had a very strange flavour. It is WAY overpriced for what is offered, and mediocre compared to the menu items available for room service / at the Rumpus Room.

The Rumpus Room took nearly 1.5 hours to deliver our meals.

From what we could see, the hours for the main restaurant are not visibly posted anywhere, and it was closed for lunch.

In the washrooms, there are stickers that advertise "if you need any toothpaste, shampoo, feminine hygiene products, etc. - contact reception and we'll provide them for you". We asked for sanitary napkins and were told they were completely out.

If you open the drapes in your room, you may be greeted by security cameras looking directly into your room (though, they do have stickers on the windows alerting you to this fact, it is still disconcerting).

The shower head holder was so loose that we had to hold it in place to prevent it from collapsing...

Upon checking in, the friendly employee at the desk offered an upsell package for the buffet dinner at $40 each for the three of us. It seemed the most value at the time so we agreed, but regret doing so.

Under the impression we would be eating a $40 meal, we were disappointed to find a few selections of standard buffet items, some of which look like they had been there since lunch. My daughter scraped together some rice and a meat dish, looked disappointingly at the dessert bar, felt unwell and immediately went back to the room. Andrew tried to bring himself to choose something from the dessert bar, but he came back to the table and said everything looked pretty “sad and melted” and didn’t trust eating anything from there.

So I went up and saw for myself. The desserts had warmed and started to collapse, so I was curious an put a couple in a bowl to taste. Regrettably I sat back down and tried the (I think it was a mousse cake of cheesecake?) desserts and they were abysmal.

Meanwhile, we’re seeing burgers and other meals going past that were ordered through the restaurant that looked freshly made and much better value. We paid $120 for us to eat rubbish, when we would have been much happier to spend that money ordering the real food from the restaurant.

I am wondering why it would be that the Holiday Inn management would push this “discount” upsell as a value package for guests? You get much better value buying a good $30 meal from the restaurant. It seems like a complete scam.

We then went back to our rooms to have a shower to find we didn’t even have enough towels for all three of us.

The same “manager” I had spoken to that night about the buffet had delivered them and said nothing about either issue, even though earlier he had said he would talk to “someone” about doing a refund.

I also didn’t want to “be a Karen”, and at the time chose not to mention the fact that the first thing my daughter felt when she took her shoes off in the room was someone else’s toenail in her foot. The floor was disgusting and not vacuumed.

It all just seems like a dodgy place to stay and was the last stop for us on a fantastic trip where we had no issues with accommodation anywhere other than at Holiday Inn Airport. For the cost, even with the IHG discount, it was just not worth it. I wouldn’t recommend anyone use this place even as a quick stopover...