JW Marriott Auckland — Hotel in Waitematā

It’s so disappointing to write this. My stay could only be described as one chaotic bumble after the other. The Director of Rooms is a true professional but I cannot say that for the rest of the team. I would be writing a far more vitriolic review of this experience were it not for her. So instead I’ll just keep it to the point. The list of things that were substandard for a basic hotel (let alone a 5 star hotel) both in service and product was so extensive I ended up leaving after 3 nights into my originally planned 12 night stay. The three things that really tipped my decision to leave were:

FOOD: The room service food is horrendous. I was on a lot of Zoom calls so I order all my meals to my room. For breakfast each morning I ordered the same thing: 2 poached eggs on toast, with a side of mushrooms. Each morning it arrived as variations of disappointment and confusion. Sometimes the eggs were overcooked so they were more like hard boiled eggs. Other times they were so undercooked the whites were still transparent. Sometimes they had salt added to them, sometimes they didn’t. The only consistent thing was the “toasted” bread was always soggy (see photo). My other choices for lunch and dinner were equally disappointing. The only real edible thing was the spaghetti off the kids menu.

CLEANLINESS: There was some kind of stain that looked like human discharge on the bedding (see photo). I didn’t realise this until the morning. So had slept in the unsanitary bed the whole first night. The cleaning staff however really went out of their way to apologise make sure it didn’t happen again. So there’s an A for effort there. Although thinking about it still makes me nauseous.

SERVICE: There is something seriously not right with their front desk staff and some of their food delivery staff. From the moment I checked in to moment I checked out. It was like playing a game of cat and mouse. No one was particularly rude or anything like that. Just cold and absent. A number of times I tried to call front desk and it would just ring out like no one was there. I would then come down myself to find a number of front desk staff standing there. Which is really super frustrating and confusing. Also confusing was the fact my food orders were wrong every single time except for one. Either something was missing or I was given the wrong item(s) each time. So each time I called to get it fixed. Each time I’d be met with more confusion and chaos before eventually getting what I had ordered. It’s such an unnecessary time tax. It’s funny when it happens once or twice. But when it’s happening every single time, it gets truly tiresome.

So I’m out and now staying at another nearby hotel.

I want to be clear that no one was ever nefarious or malicious towards me. Just… hopeless? Is that the right word? I don’t want to be mean. But it kind of is the right description. Much retraining needs to be happening there.

I know 5 star hotels are not necessarily granted their 5 stars based on service quality but on types of services supplied. But seriously, it is a luxury brand hotel so some degree of higher than average service is to be expected. Unfortunately my experience was substandard when comparing it to even the most basic of hotels. The one exception though was the Director of Rooms.

I don’t know how this hotel management is structured. But seriously, all of you really need to take some...

Good location & nice pool, however the service was some of the worst I’ve experienced in Auckland let alone anywhere in my travels.

Check in was a challenge with only one person behind the counter & long lines. A check in manager seemingly more preoccupied chatting to the barman than checking in guests, he eventually swanned over to check someone in before passing the guest over to a staff member.

I waited in the lobby bar for 20+ minutes waiting for one of the bar staff aimlessly wandering around to offer to take a drink order. When we ordered a bottle of wine with three glasses, they bought out 3 glasses of wine … when we queried it they then brought the bottle & tried to charge us for both!!

We booked 2 premium upper floor King rooms, which detailed they offered a turndown service. On our way out I asked the front desk if we can have the turn down service before we returned from the concert. To which 3 of the staff responded “What’s a turn down service??”

As we were going out we asked for 2 umbrellas .. they agreed & said they’d send them over to the bar while we were having a drink with a friend. 45 minutes later when we asked again we were told we could only have one per room … when we told him we had two rooms he seemed to just shrug & walk away.

We also asked the concierge if they could fetch something from a store 200m down the road that we had called ahead to have picked up. 20 minutes later they called back & advised it’s against hotel policy to leave the hotel for anything … never heard that before from a concierge.

The rooms were tired & dated. Extremely expensive for what they were. Room service trays covered in food scraps left out in the halls until 12pm the next day. While house keeping just walked by them.

The lifts also don’t work. Often going down when trying to go up & never picking up the swipe card.

We pre ordered room service on our way back from a concert as we were told it finished at 9pm 🤯. It took an hour & a half for 3 burgers & a bottle of wine. They also had to come back THREE seperate times because they kept forgetting things. One set of cutlery for 3 people for example. Room service was also $225 without tip.

The bar also closed at 9pm. On a Friday night. I find this bizarre, even country pubs are open past 11?!

We did an express check out due to the huge lines & lack of check in staff, so wasn’t able to provide feedback in person, but we’ll also follow up with hotel management with this feedback. When we collected our car it had clearly been scraped against a wall. I got the attention of the valet who proceeded to lick his hand & try wipe off the white paint. I’ve never experienced anything like it.

JW Marriott is supposed to be the hotel group’s luxury brand … it has a jolly long way to go in Auckland if that’s the aim. There is no way this hotel is at a 5 star level. There are much nicer places to stay in the city that are far more reasonably priced.

One staff member that was very helpful & friendly was Liza in the concierge team. A real credit to...

This hotel is probably ok for families, but as a business traveller I found it extremely disappointing. While the staff on the ground at breakfast and room cleaning were very good, various managers and processes left a lot to be desired.||Having arrived after a 16 hour non stop flight, I noted what time the bar food area closed for food, and went for a walk. On arriving back at the hotel in time for food, I was told that the kitchen had already closed. The bar staff were fairly nonchalant about this, it seemed to be the norm from their reaction. This is frustrating when you are tired, jet-lagged, hungry, and have a business breakfast early the next morning.||I was later told that the early kitchen closure was due to a human error in timing (whatever that means). Personally I highly doubt that it was a ‘one off’, but the guest will never be told the truth.||In the end I made do with a sweaty Margarita pizza on room service. While room service is advertised as 24/7, after 10pm the choice of dishes becomes tiny at Marriott.||The next day I put clothes in for express laundry, due to a business meeting that evening. Hotel literature states it will be returned at 5pm, I was calling housekeeping at 6pm as it hadn’t been returned and I hadn’t received a call on its status.||I was told that the laundry delay was due to another human error in timing…..there is a theme here!||The hotel offered me NZD 50 to say sorry (approx USD 30) for their shortcomings, I got the feeling that they were used to paying off disappointed guests in this way. I asked them to donate the NZD 50 to a charity that the hotel supports instead, but that was the last I heard of it. I have no idea if the hotel did donate the money, and if so to which charity. ||There are a number of five star hotels in this part of Auckland, I will give each of them a chance before ever returning to Marriott. As a traveller that will be in AKL for two weeks every quarter going forward, I really have no reason to be loyal to Marriott Auckland. Usually I am happy to give hotels a second chance, but on this occasion I get the impression that the hotel won’t address issues. ||Given the location of New Zealand, a high percentage of guests will have travelled a long way to reach Marriott Auckland. Business travellers are likely to have tight schedules, and need their hotel to help make these schedules as fluid as possible. Instead JW Marriott made my schedule more difficult...