Copthorne Hotel Wellington Oriental Bay — Hotel in North Island

My partner and I were treated to a room with a balcony and sea view on level 9 for 1 nights stay in celebration of our milestone birthdays back in January 2024. We checked in, and checked out again 4 hours later (thank goodness for the express checkout)! We only spent maybe 30 minutes in the dated, dirty, old, unsecured airless room, even with the air con unit on and the balcony sliding door open. No car parks available so was told to pay for hourly parking across the street (when you could find a park - so $14 for 4 hours), but told that it was free from 8pm to 8am (no sleep in)! On their website they say they have parking available....very misleading...oh, and it is a first in first served! No pre-booking. Poor service for people with a disability. No porter around to help with your bags should you need (only 1 receptionist who didn't even have a photocopier at her fingertips when copying your photo ID - so she wandered off to a back room with my ID), 2 staff members sailed through Reception from out the back, but didn't assist others' waiting, or even answer the ringing phone! As for the poor design of the lobby, who builds a column right in front of the lift doors?! We had to go to level 7, then lug our stuff through the bar seating area, past the restaurant, to another lift to level 9, then walk down a long musty, banged up corridor to our room, noticing the kicked in glass on the fire exit door opposite our room door. I also noticed the fire alarm call switch on the wall in the corridor, but no notice on the assembly point or instructions on what to do in the event of an evacuation - looking through the eyes of a visitor to NZ! It's no good having instructions only in the rooms, or in a folder (which people don't always read), e.g. if you're visiting the bar or restaurant level, you need to know your evacuation details for that floor. Once in the room we only had 2 cups and teaspoons, 6 small plastic pottles of milk (we would use 2 per cup of hot drink each at least) in the bottom of the fridge, no bottles of water - either in the room, or in the poorly stocked vending machine that was all the way back on the ground floor by the lifts...the net curtains had holes in them, the sliding door to the rusty looking balcony didn't lock (poor security & the lock also looked rusty!), the mirror had smudge marks all over it, dusty tv screen, unclean toilet pan, you could see the sagging patch job done on the ceiling, water damage in the corner of the room (where the paint is rippled and hanging off), poor paint job around the floor skirting boards too, old faded / worn cabinetry, the bed wheel was bent up by the head - so when you laid down your feet were higher than your head, they only had 4 x thin cheap pillows, no spares... there were no plates or cutlery if you wanted to order in and dine in your room...and if you did order room service there was a $5.00 delivery fee! We went elsewhere for our dinner and checked out when we got back. There was no way we could stay there, in a room we thought was meant to be part of a 4 star hotel. The room wasn't even secure! It should be rated a 1 or 2 at best in its current state. I've stayed at motels cleaner, better maintained and managed than this, who even have a mini bar / bottled water in the room! How disappointing. Not worth the cost! The Hotel is in a prime location, but it needs money spending on it to bring it up to the 4 star rating it is deemed to be, redesign the layout, and to actually have the staff (who give a damn and want to be there) to provide a 4 star level of service. The 2 staff at the bar when we walked through carrying our bags were more welcoming and friendly than the front staff, and in our short time there, we only saw 5 staff plus a cleaner. When we headed out of the Hotel, we obviously struck a quiet moment for reception that allowed a couple of the staff to sprawl forwards, draping over the reception counter having a chat. They didn't smile or acknowledge us. Not a good look for the front of house. We won't be back and won't be...

Beware of the Millennial Copthorne Hotel - Oriental Bay in Wellington. We checked into room 306, and the room did not cool it was 23.5C. It's Saturday night the 14th of December, and we asked the hotel to assist, but they do not have maintenance on the weekend - that should tell you already that this is doomed. A manager arrived and determined the air conditioning was not working. We were moved to room 106, and the air conditioning did not work either, and now two (2) managers checked. 'Unfortunately, we do not have any rooms to accommodate you.' I called Expedia and not much help there. So as of now at 00:05 on Sunday, December 15 in the morning our balcony door is open and there is no screen in the windows either. We are on the 1st floor, so safety is a concern with the patio door open. The hotel brought us a fan, but that's not helping. When the hotel looked at walking us, they were going to put us a few kilometers away and downgrade our room and bed types to double beds at midnight so we just reluctantly stayed because we were just too tired to move hotels without a refund from the Copthorne. So we are now camping in room 106 without safety in a 4 star hotel. I do not recommend this hotel and would strongly advise you to be very cautious if booking this establishment. The location is on the Harbor. If you stay on the weekend, if something does not work in your room, you are out of luck. Let the campout begin.

It's now Sunday at 1752 and we've been moved to room 204. We're getting back from the day's vacation activities, and we've been advised that the entire hotel's air conditioning is now not functioning. Unbelievable, Unbelievable, Unbelievable. And now we have no hot water and it's 1752 hours. Another night of camping in a nonfunctional 4 star hotel room with no air conditioning and now NO hot water. The front desk told us they will add it to the list of breaking items this weekend -but what will they do about that? Cold showers now too.

How will the hotel handle this and reimburse guests? Maybe a Jucy or Maui camper should be in the lobby for...

Motel was nice. Although there was a stuff up with our booking that they were unable to find a suitable solution to. We were travelling with a tour operator and they had booked pre tour accommodation for 2 nights here for us. They had it as a separate booking and had put us in a room with only 2 beds for my two nephews and myself. We got in after a delayed flight at 2am. So it was too late that night to do anything about it so they teenage boys just put a pillow wall up and slept in the queen bed. I went down in the morning to try and get a family room or at least a roll away bed in the room. The receptionist told me that they had us in a family room for the following room the first night of the tour. She was going to do some moving around to get us in for that night as well. I was later rang in the room to be told that they were unable to do that and that the teenage boys would just have to share a bed again. When you are travelling with a 16 year old and a 14 year old that is not a great thing. I asked if there was any chance of a rollaway bed and was told no. I asked if there was another room i could go into and was told for me to move into another room would cost me close to 300 dollars. I talked to the boys about it and they didnt want me to spend that amount of money on another room. But how come i wasnt offered the room for free. It was their stuff up to not put us in a family room. Every other motel had us in a family room or at least with a rollaway. Dont make assumptions that three people travelling together would be a couple. Especially when it is understood by every other place we stayed with on the tour. In hindsight i should have just complained at 2am and got them to find something then but having worked in a motel in Australia i understand how at 2am there may have been no other option other then to find an another place to stay. Your problem solving skills need to improve as sometimes things happen but a solution needs to be found. Which i even suggested but was told i would have...