Naumi Hotel Wellington — Hotel in North Island

Very up and down. The hotel itself is beautiful and is in an absolutely fantastic location, you can walk in any direction and find good food and interesting things to do. Being able to walk out the front door and be on Cuba St is great and meant we were able to get around easily.

The staff are kinda friendly, but seem deeply put off if you ask for anything. I called down to check our check out time and not only was it different to what we were told, but the man on the other end of the phone seemed genuinely annoyed that we were asking. There was a slightly weird vibe throughout, like the staff weren't particularly happy that we were staying there. Very uninviting! The one exception to this is the maintenance guy that I talked to for a while, who was lovely and very friendly.

The room itself is great. The overall effect of the decoration doesn't feel overwhelming, and is surprisingly cohesive given the eccentricity of the decor. I was constantly being surprised by how nicely finished the room was, with everything feeling appropriately lush and well made.

Except for the bathroom. What on earth is going on with the bathrooms here? There's a big, clunky step up from the main room which constantly caught our feet, and the bathroom overall is styled like a 3 star hotel from the mid 2000's. Given how expensive this place is, I don't want to have to stand in a bath to have a shower, and I certainly don't want to have to work out the contraption built into the wall that changes from the bath faucet to the shower head. The whole bathroom feels junky and out of date, and it's easily the worst of the room. Why not re-tile? There's enough room in there for a seperate shower and bath, why not do that? It's genuinely atrocious at this price point.

The parking is also pretty rough. Wellington is kind of a nightmare to drive in, but the tight, twisty parking garage is a special kind of hell where people are constantly driving in and out, the signage and directions are poor, and the spaces are tight. Unless you're a confident driver, I would recommend finding somewhere else to park or just not driving at all. It's also not particularly cheap, at $35 a night. There is street parking out the back of the hotel that is free for certain times of day, I recommend checking that out before you shell out.

Finally, the check out experience isn't great. I mentioned above that I called down to check when our check out time was, because we received a sheet of paper when we signed in that said it was 11am. We then looked online and saw that it was 10am, which the front desk confirmed. This is apparently because we booked through booking.com, which feels like a weird little punishment. If you don't want your guests to book through other sites, don't let them book through those sites! This passive aggressive response is petty and confusing for your guests.

Overall the hotel does the job, but is let down by a pervasive vibe that everyone involved is kind of annoyed at the people staying there. I'm sure that when the hotel was created that it was great, but it needs to be maintained by people who care about it and who aren't willing to provide a subpar experience. I will probably be back in Wellington in a few years and I won't be staying here again, and at the price point it's hard...

Part 1 - initial post Rooms were amazing but unfortunately can’t say the same about our overall experience with the hotel staff. Flew from Auckland to Welly, Upon arrival, there was a gentleman guiding us through the check in system, after checking in he took us to the counter to pay. I told him I booked the rooms online and payment will be charged online. He went over to check the computer and advised no there isn’t any reservations so I have to pay. I told him again trying to showing that payment was completed online, he became really rude with him tone and body language. To avoid any dramas as it was my wife’s birthday and I didn’t want to ruin her day, I just paid for it again and moved on to the room. 2 days after the stay, I checked my account to see if the bond that was added to the booking has been refunded, Suprise to see that there was 2 transactions taken out from my account for this stay. 1 which I initially booked online and 2nd over the counter. I had the room decorated so that was the bonus to the bad start. Evening time, I went to confirm our dinner reservations in the red room. The whole birthday Suprise dinner in the red room as epic but only in my Thoughts, as time if enquiry I found out that we weren’t booked in the red room as there are special criteria’s to meet before booking the red room, to which I wasn’t told at time of booking. After talking to the manager, they couldn’t book us in as they were full my booked but offered complimentary drinks on the house each, to which I had to also had abit of tension with the waitress as she wasn’t told of the complimentary drink but was arguing as she thought otherwise. After meal a s drinks we had to go dine out the same night as the food quality and quantity was questionable. Went to front desk to ask about where are the cutleries and iron kept, to which the staff rudely replied that iron is there if you have a good look in the cupboard and we don’t provide cutleries. If you want to use it, ask the restaurant. Seriously with the price paid for the rooms and the experience from the staff, I would not recommend this place to others . I personally wouldn’t stay here again.

Part 2 Reply to the owners feedback

I strongly disagree which your statements. Despite being told your team ignored and charged my card twice. You should really put some actions to all the feedbacks provided rather then saying “ we strongly appreciate you feedback and are focusing on improving “ coz from what I can read and see, you and your team have put zero effort in improving. Stop telling lies and own up to lack of transparency from your team to...

I don't know where to begin... I think Naumi left the S out of their accommodation type as this is hardly a hotel and definitely felt more like a hostel. The first night we were promised "city views" by the woman working at reception. To our shock and horror, once we entered the room, we were met with two small windows covered by wire mesh that resembled something you might find in a chicken coop, brown stains included... The room itself was so hot and stuffy, no air conditioning, just a noisy ceiling fan and the two windows which required assistance to remain open. (We used two shoe boxes from an earlier shopping trip) the hostel... I mean hotel room itself, was no bigger than a regular bedroom and didn't come with a kitchenette... just a portable wardrobe that contained a jug and mini fridge, oh and a safe that didnt work. Refilling the jug had to be done from the bathroom... The smell upon entering the room was like warm sewage I think this is because the room was so small and close to the toilet and mixed with a lack of air flow.. you can imagine... When sitting on the bed and leaning back against the wall you would find the mattress would slide away from the wall... at this point we were laughing at the absurdity of this room and how much we paid to stay per night... after the first night however, our laughter had died as we were awoken countless times during the night due to city noise, traffic, people, sirens and at 4.30am the recycling truck collecting dozens of bins full of glass. The women at reception said city noise is to be expected when staying in the city but the year before we stayed at the Museum Hotel and didn't encounter any disturbances during the night...... Some more notable mentions about our stay at Naumi, if by any chance you book yourself to stay here. Don't pay extra for the breakfast! We did, and ate once and never again. There are some amazing places to eat in Wellington and the Naumi restaurant is NOT one of them. Think of the cheapest, lowest quality breakfast you've had at a cafe and lower your expectations even more, that's the Naumi breakfast experience. If you require your bags to be stored safely before check in don't expect your info to be recorded or the room where your bags are kept to be locked! And expect to wait upwards of three days to receive your $200 deposit back after you have checked out! On a positive note the foyer is decorated nicely and the carpet in the hallway is pretty cool, but I would definitely rather an air-conditioned hotel over nicely...