Ramada Suites by Wyndham Albany — Hotel in Upper Harbour

LOCATION||The Ramada is directly across the road from the Albany bus station from where you can get to the city fairly quickly in about 20-25 minutes on the NX1 bus, via the efficient bus lanes. AT “HOP” cards are required to use pub transport around Auckland. However, if using private transport, it is not very near to either the city or the airport. From the airport, for example, it's about a 45 min Uber ride that can cost between 80-100 NZD, depending on the time of day travelling. ||The popular Westfield shopping centre, plus a host of other shops like the huge “Pak n Save” supermarket, Chemist Warehouse, The Warehouse department store, eateries, cafes and restaurants are all within a 20 minute walk of the Ramada.||On the ground floor of the hotel complex are a couple of Asian restaurants and a few shops and a gym, but not much else.||APARTMENT||We had room no 301 on level 3. It’s described as a one-bedroom apartment, but that’s overstating it. It’s just a large room or a bedsitter with a bathroom, kitchenette, small dining table, two seater sofa, coffee table, air con and a TV. It was a pretty quiet room, despite facing the road and the bus station car park, so I guess the double glazed windows do their job fairly well to block out almost all the noise. Generally the room was clean and comfy. There was a cupboard with a few hangars (never enough, so we requested more), but oddly, there were no drawers, which I always find inconvenient. The only option for storing small items of clothing was either to leave them in one’s suitcase or to place them on the only shelf, which was at the top of the cupboard, but hard to reach, and not really suitable for that purpose, and in any event, was already taken up with a duvet which then had to be stored somewhere else in the limited space available. There was nowhere to stash cases. The bedside tables had only open shelves, no drawers. Again awkward for storage of anything apart from books. ||The dining table was situated directly under the TV, and on it, were speakers which was an odd place to put an electronic piece of equipment. It could easily get wet or smeared with food and it took up about a third of the table. The wires hanging down from the TV looked ugly.||The room was quite warm, getting the morning sun, and the large windows gave us an expansive view, but only of the road outside and beyond that, the bus station car park. It was quite fun to watch the huge car park quickly filling up in the morning. By around 9.00am there was usually not a single space left. ||The bedroom, or rather the sleeping space was separated from the rest of the apartment by a rather stiff sliding door but it meant that the bed directly faced a rather bleak looking grey wall with the cupboard to the right next to the bathroom door. ||BATHROOM||There wasn’t much to complain about in the ensuite bathroom. It had a washing machine and a dryer. They were both very noisy but worked well. The shower cubicle was a decent size and the bathroom vanity under the sink was handy for dry storage. There was also a thin glass shelf just above the sink for keeping stuff like toothbrushes, toothpaste etc. The bathroom had a solid locking wooden door for privacy which was just as well, given its proximity to the bedroom. The towel warmer was a nice feature. ||KITCHENETTE||The kitchenette had pretty much everything one needed including a fridge, stove, cooktop, microwave, toaster, kettle, cutlery, crockery, cups and glasses, as well as a rather old fashioned little dishwasher. The sink was tiny and narrow making it pretty hard to wash dishes. Supplies of dishwashing liquid, dishwasher powder, washing machine powder, tea, coffee and milk were topped up daily.||A dual waste/recycling bin was also provided but both compartments were so small that we quickly dumped any ideas of recycling and ended up with no choice but to ignore the distinction and simply dump all our rubbish in both bins. ||SERVICE & GEN AREAS||Service from all the staff was friendly, polite and efficient, and we had no problems checking in and checking out and getting any extra provisions that we required. The common areas, including the passageways, lifts and the toilets on the ground floor, were all clean and well maintained. Our room was serviced daily to a high standard and it was always completed by the time we returned from our day's activities in the midafternoon. ||There are no facilities such as a pool or a gym and, apart from a few chairs in the reception area, there’s no lounge or anywhere to hang out, so I guess you could say that this hotel is mainly suited to corporate travellers, but it worked well for us as we were visiting relatives who lived nearby. ||PEDESTRIAN ACCESS||This is worth mentioning because pedestrian access to the Albany bus station and the Westfield Shopping Centre were both poor, and caution is needed. For example, to get to the bus station required exiting at the back of the hotel and then attempting to cross a busy four-lane road with no traffic lights or pedestrian crossings. To make matters worse, the access is only to the bus station car park from where it’s another convoluted route without pavements to a semi-covered walkway in the middle of the car park, from which you can access the buses, but it’s tricky to get to that point. ||There’s no easy access to Westfield and the surrounding shopping precinct either. The path is not marked or well lit. You need to cross a few roads and traverse an open grassed area before you get to the shopping centre.||SUMMARY||Our overall experience at the Ramada was positive, highlighted by clean accommodation and friendly, helpful staff. Despite some minor drawbacks like pedestrian access issues and limited storage options in the room, we would consider staying here again for its comfort and location convenience.||Pros:|- Clean and comfortable rooms|- Convenient location near Albany bus station and Westfield Shopping Centre|- Friendly staff|- Quiet ambiance|- Daily high-standard room servicing||Cons:|- Poor pedestrian access to nearby facilities|- Limited storage options in rooms|- Small waste bins|- Narrow sink in kitchenette|- Lack of pool or...

Rooms are very compact, more so than than the website photos indicate. If you have a lot of luggage, you'll probably want to stow in the wardrobe or it will be in the way, especially if there's more than one person in the room. Surprising amenities for a hotel - such as a dishwasher, washing machine, dryer and full size fridge/freezer. These amenities make the accommodation an attractive option for guests staying more than 2-3 days.

There are minor cosmetic decisions made around decor and chattel fit-out, that make no difference at all to the quality of your stay, but give the impression of a low 4-star, as opposed to a high 4-star facility. Examples of this are: painted walls rather than wallpapered, partially tiled bathroom instead of fully tiled, fiberglass shower unit and plastic shower-head - that sort of thing. I think when other reviewers have described the rooms as 'basic', this is probably what they are referring to.

The location is great. Walking distance to many eateries, from fast-food restaurants to fine dining. Two supermarkets and a large shopping mall within walking distance. The Sky Bus picks up and terminates to/from the Westfield Albany Mall, which is not an arduous walk to/from the hotel with luggage if your suitcase has wheels, or is otherwise comfortable to walk for 5-7 minutes with.

The hotel is in a great location, especially if you want to stay somewhere outside of, but accessible to (via public transport) the CBD, and represents good value for money....

I don’t normally do reviews unless I have had a fantastic experience, or unfortunately on this occasion, a terrible one. Very expensive for the condition and quality on offer. For a fairly new place, our room was looking tired and run down. There was scuffed paint on the walls, the carpet looked worn and an unpleasant odour was coming from the bathroom floor waste. We had to do an after hours check in due to a delayed flight and it took forever for someone to answer the phone. When they finally answered, the line went dead and I had to call back again. It took some time for that call to be answered again too. We were given two swipe cards - one of these didn’t work on our apartment door which we found out the following day. It was largely inconvenient as we had friends minding our daughter while we were at a wedding and they couldn’t get into the room. Again, the same issues calling the after hours line to remedy. I raised the swipe card and after hours issues upon checking out and they didn’t really seem too bothered about it. Then to top things off, I have just now received a phone call asking if I had “accidentally taken a bed runner” - effectively accusing us of stealing! Extremely poor experience all round and feel totally ripped off at what we paid...