InterContinental Auckland by IHG — Hotel in Waitematā

I have a sneaky suspicion that I have already completed this review, however, I received another automated email request today and I don't see it published yet, so perhaps not?

Just incase, I'll try to be concise.

Platinum Elite Ambassador status recognised and we benefited from an upgrade to a city view suite.

Purpose of visit, we had waited for the Club Lounge to open to spend a weekend experiencing it, for us living locally, we treated it as a staycation.

Arrival was awkward due to the location. Porter unsure if we were guests and although pleasant had no trolley to assist with our bags, however he was delightful and quickly remedied this. Chauffeur also commented, this hotel is difficult to easily arrive at. We actually returned mid-week after this visit, to collect an item we had left behind and could not pull into the dedicated valet parking spot as a taxi was there and on the pavement were 2 further taxis.

This is quite a compact Intercontinental for those familiar with this IHG brand product and consequently has limited facilities available by comparison to their usual format. That said, it is modern, contemporary, beautifully designed and appointed hotel and the bar and restaurant (combined facility) were excellent. We didn't try the gym and are aware in room massage services are available to book in advance.

Of course, knowing the hotel is relatively new, The Club Lounge had only been operational for one week, we anticipated teams and systems may still be embedding and constantly improving, which we experienced and we accept that.

However, some things I do not excuse and I did address this with the team on arrival, our suite was not as clean as it should have been. I discovered long black hairs all over the suite, on the floors and alarmingly on the bed. The team responded swiftly and recovered well from this and were sincerely apologetic, apology accepted, I moved on.

On checking in, the team member assisting us, was unfamiliar with an Ambassador reward night redemption, which I had used for one night our stay. She said she would ask the reservations manager about this and when we checked out, it had been processed and invoice reconciled correctly, which was reassuring.

A couple of lights in the suite were not functioning and I did advise the team via the 'Whats app' DM service, but only on leaving as it didn't inconvenience our stay. The DM service was utlised well and swift responses, but only in social hours mainly. What was impressive, was daily DM's asking how our stay was and if anything else could be done to ensure an enjoyable stay.

I didn't like having to fill our own water jugs in the room. I understand why this initiative has been introduced (sustainability), none the less, walking down the corridor once or twice a day to fill 2 glass jugs in my opinion is not something I appreciate.

Turn down service was good, although bins weren't emptied on evening one which I did ask if that could be done the next day and it was.

We would usually book a suite as we prefer a separate lounge. The suite was superbly appointed, the only disappointments were that the blinds and HVAC systems were completely integrated between lounge and bedroom. Consequently, the temperature and blinds in the bedroom will be at an identical setting to the lounge and vice versa. In my opinion this defeats some of the object and benefits of having the separate areas. Personally, I believe a shelf in the shower would be very beneficial and also considering a one way door into the shower. If you push the door inwards it strikes the shower head. We did experience noise from music outside until 4am, ferry's from 6am and general disturbance, I am unsure why, considering it's a modern adaptation and refurbishment and we were on 11th floor?

So I said I would be concise, evidently not, apologies!

We dined at 'Advieh' and used the bar and we would highly recommend them, excellent in all measurable ways.

So this only really leaves the Club Lounge (main purpose of our stay) and a summary.

Ok, so the The Club Lounge with no surprise in many ways was and will continue to grow and develop, please expect that in the short term. Service can be slow due to the systems supporting the F&B provision in the lounge mainly. The team are new and so of course learning, in addition at times it appeared under resourced. That said the customer service, indeed throughout the hotel, was superb and that in my experience will forgive a lot as did we. There were some refurbishment works being completed in the room next door and we could hear some noise on occasion in the lounge (sawing mainly). In some ways I think it unfair to convey much more, if you accept it is a new product still emerging, but I understand and appreciate the same charge will be still be made. That said, any issues I can assure you in our experience were addressed swiftly and very well recovered from when possible, every reasonable attempt was made.

So in summary, superb customer service, Duty Manager who I fedback to (Fatou) was excellent, accommodation superbly appointed but may not be ideal for us. Restaurant and bar excellent, so generally I would highly recommend this hotel and product (be patient regarding The Club Lounge, it will be an excellent product and addition). Be aware regarding arrival location and prepare. We did feedback all the above to the duty manager before checking out, as I prefer always to do this face to face and avoid any nasty surprises for the hotel and to give them the opportunity to address at the time. I did say I would also and usually do, support my feedback in the hotel brands guest review site.

We would return just based on the superb customer...

I’m writing this review at 2am on night 2 of our stay because the noise outside is incredibly loud, preventing myself, my wife, and our 2-year-old son from sleeping. I don’t understand how no review has mentioned the noise at night yet (maybe it’s just the 3 rooms we had?) all of us heard Auckland’s nightlife all night long.

We had booked 3 rooms for a family birthday getaway.

Problems started with the valet service. After crawling down Quay St on Friday afternoon, I arrived to find both valet spots occupied (one with a taxi which always seems to be present). The valet could see I was looking for help and suggested I go around the block again and he would move the car that was there. But after sitting in standstill traffic for 20 minutes, I was reluctant to do another lap, and he kindly moved the car immediately, allowing me to pull in. My wife was also following a few cars behind, so the valet had to quickly move my car out of the way too, once my toddler and I were out, to allow her space to park. Car juggling wasn’t the only issue; later that night I returned and faced a stressful situation with a second taxi trying to pull out through the vacant space, and the car behind me not allowing any room to reverse into the valet spot (you can only parallel park). Everyone was frustrated, and I was in a rush trying to get a portacot up to my son’s room (more on that later). The whole valet parking situation is not fit for purpose; it would be better not to offer it at all. The valet commented they were still working out the kinks, indicating I’ve not been the only guest to have issues. This isn’t a comment on the people—everyone was great, friendly, and trying to help, but you could tell they were flustered. I’m guessing this is why our luggage was only delivered to our room after asking 3 times. The first at fault was the valet, who apologized for not passing on the request to his colleague when he parked the car (understandable considering the situation they were dealing with). But then I had to ask reception two more times (once before we went out for dinner, and again when we returned 2 hours later) before our luggage finally arrived. Very frustrating when you're trying to get a toddler and an infant to bed.

Several little things weren’t major issues, but also added to the disappointing stay: Despite telling the hotel in advance that we needed 2 cots, specifying one for our infant and one for our 2-year-old son, only one small cot was set up when we checked in, and they didn’t have any larger ones that would fit a 2 year old. This meant I had to rush out and buy a new portacot for our toddler (there was no offer from the hotel to source a larger cot). The connecting rooms we booked weren’t connected when we arrived, and after asking for the door to be unlocked, they didn’t provide any way to keep the doors open (which you need because they auto-lock). After asking for help, they supplied a doorstop which didn’t work; it just slid along the ground. We ended up putting socks and other clothes between the doors to keep them open. We had a birthday cake delivered to the hotel in advance, which they kindly held for us. When I called up to have it delivered to our room, they presented it in its courier box, with no knife, or any plates for us to use. Candles and plating it up could have been a nice touch. When we first arrived, only two of our key cards worked, and we had to go back downstairs to get access to our third room.

Obviously, these aren’t major issues, and I wouldn’t normally point out every little thing, but I’m sleep deprived and exhausted, and at a brand like the Intercontinental, you expect a little more.

Putting aside the errors that people made, everyone was very friendly and obliging. There was a nice birthday chocolate and message in our room when we arrived (though addressed to me, not my wife). The rooms are well appointed, and the food at the hotel restaurant is delicious. But despite this, you couldn’t pay me to return, and we’ll be heading back to the Park Hyatt next time...

Was at the hotel after an amazing roadtrip through New Zealand with my wife and my 16 year old son. As our flight from Auckland left at 11.55 pm we booked for two nights, one night with breakfast, the next without breakfast as we only wanted to use the room on the second day until 9pm and would not sleep in the hotel the second night. We paid the full rate for the second night and checked out at 9 pm. That was fine.||Good points: Hotel is very well located and rooms and bathrooms are up to date and nothing to complain about but the unsufficient accustic isolation of the windows. Our room in the eighth floor was facing to the city and the noise from Queen Street due to some preacherman screaming out his view of the gospel through a microphone was clearly heard in our room. ||I am sorry to say and I am usually not complaining (as you might see in the history of my reviews here in tripadvisor) that the employees of this hotel have absolutely no empathy and are unwinding their messages during check in and all other inquiries we had just like robots. It seems as if customers addressing an issue are a nuisance. A nice exception was the bell boy who helped us bring the luggage into our room the late night of our arrival and was very friendly. ||On our first and only morning at the hotel we wanted to have a fast breakfast. We have been told that even though we booked a room for three persons with breakfast the breakfast policy of the hotel only includes 2 persons although the reservation is for 3 and I have to pay for my son an additional fee of 49 NZD for the breakfast. I explained that I have not seen that policy in my booking process via the IHG App and am quite astonished as we three are travelling with our son since several years in nearly all parts of the world and we never heard about such a policy and if this policy in case of the Intercontinental Auckland it would be fair if this was clearly disclosed in the booking process through the App. ||The person as the reception unwinded cold that its the hotel policy and if we want to have breakfast together it would be an additional 49 NZD. Due to the unfriendly and repelling way of handling our issue and surprise that we would need to pay 49 NZD for our son, I lost any interest of paying any additional NZD and let my wife and my son have breakfast and I went to the Starbucks accross the street to have a coffee and a danish pastry, which was fine. How petty can you be to really ask a customer who paid for two nights and just stays for one and who did not find the hidden link with the message that breakfast in a booking for three only is served for two to pay 49 NZD? ||I later addressed this issue when checking out, that everything was fine but the issue with the breakfast and via email but just received some superficial apologies and that it‘s the policy and to my question where prior to making the booking to find these policies I received after two days (seemed they also has to find the hidden link) the answer that I would find this policy clicking once more on one point in the booking and if you would click on it (its not even clearly visible in the IHG App, that behind this hides additional information) you would receive the info that breakfast is only included for two and additional fees „may“ apply. That the additional fee for the third person is more then 50 % higher than for the other two persons is also mentionned nowhere. Why don‘t they clearly disclose without hiding in a link that reservations for three do only include breakfast for two? And why do they write may apply when in real it „does“ apply. ||Anyway. I wouldn‘t really care about the 49 NZD but the way the employees in the hotel and as well the customer management later handled this issue was extremly frustrating. How would this team react in case of real problems? ||Customers seem to be just a nuisance. Never felt that at another hotel yet. ||Therefore I would not stay here again and cannot...