The Sebel Auckland Viaduct Harbour — Hotel in Waitematā

Firstly I would like to start by saying I don’t like giving negative reviews but I feel that this time it is warranted. We always stay in the Sebel on our way back from our holidays and we have done this for many years. We have stayed in different levels of rooms over the years. So we are fully aware of the different style and size of rooms. However, this will be our last time. This time we had booked a Marina View Deluxe Apartment. When we arrived we were given the wrong room. We were given a room which was much smaller and not the one that we had booked. My husband went back to reception to let them know and the girl at the desk said you would have needed to request the room and was subject to availability. He told her that he booked over 2 months ago and the room was available as he booked it. She said all those rooms are booked out and not available now. Even though we had booked and paid for the bigger room. When he asked ‘how would he know he had to specifically request it at the time of booking even though it was available and he booked it’ she said she couldn’t answer that, she didn’t know. My husband said that doesn’t make sense because it was available when he booked it. She said we had a Deluxe Marina View room. We didn’t because we have previously stayed in a Deluxe Marina View room so we knew the difference. We had a Marina View room which is much smaller. As we are guests that don’t like making issues and she said there were no other rooms available and we had paid for the room we stayed. But this will be the last time. The staff on reception when we arrived were not helpful at all which is not how the staff usually are. Being Accor Gold members we always get a welcome drink for both of us and a welcome letter, this time one little bottle of wine and one chocolate was on the kitchen bench. The tea and coffee box hadn’t been restocked so I had to go and buy tea and coffee. That’s not an issue but you should be able to have a cup of tea when you arrive after a flight, yes we could have rung reception but after the way we were treated we decided to just go to the shop. We went to open the glass door in the lounge room so we could sit on the balcony only to find that the door couldn’t be opened and it had been permanently bolted shut. We couldn’t enjoy the breeze from the harbour. The bathroom had mould in the shower and the tiles were cracked on the floor in many places. The bathroom door was split at the bottom and had peeling paint and one of the lights in the bathroom was not working so the bathroom was very dark. There were marks on the curtains in the bedroom and they looked like food stains and the blind in the lounge room couldn’t be stopped from going down, so we had to leave the blind fully opened. The carpet was covered in stains and looked like it needed a deep clean. We were so disappointed in the way we were treated and the state of the room we have made the decision to never stay here again. It’s such a shame because we have always enjoyed staying here and we love staying here because of the restaurants and cafes at Viaduct Harbour. The hotel is looking very tired and needs some updating but it is the way that the staff treat their guests that really makes a difference. The difference this time was extremely negative and extremely...

We stayed at the Sebel Hotel (Viaduct) Fri 5th Jan 2024 to Sun 7th Jan 2024, on arrival at reception waiting to check in the hotel receptionist didnt acknowledge we were standing there despite not having any customers in front of him; we waited a while to be served. Instead of serving us the receptionist greeted the large group behind us and proceeded to gesture for them to move forward to commence their check-in process and if it wasnt for the leader who advised we were there first waiting to be served we would’ve had to wait even longer. As a first time guest at Sebel Viaduct this wasnt a great first impression.

The stay itself went by without a hitch as the double bed was comfortable, the shower had great pressure and temperature, and the facilities were modern.

2 days after we checked out we noticed an amount of $680.34 deducted from our account without reason or approval (the room was paid in full before we arrived). We contacted the hotel by email which seemed to prove inefficient so we phoned instead to discuss this in more detail to gain understanding for the transaction.

The 1st person i spoke to couldn't find the unauthorized transaction on their system and said they needed to speak to someone else and would call us back in 30mins. They didnt.

I phoned again the next day and spoke to the duty manager who advised that an employee had used our card details to pay for another guests room. The duty manager advised they organized the refund, i asked if there was any risk to our privacy being breached and they said they didnt know. I asked if there was anything they could do to provide reassurance our privacy was safe and they put us on mute without warning for 5mins before hanging up without saying anything. I immediately called back and the phone was answered by the oncoming duty manager starting their shift and was advised the duty-manager who we were in mid conversation with had finished and gone home for the day; this was highly unprofessional.

Our overall experience was poor and this could be a one-off we’re unsure, but based on what we experienced we wouldn't stay with Sebel again. The insufficient level of customer service, the severly poor management of our privacy breach and being hung up on without notice or a good & sufficient reason other than their shift finishing is completely negligent , demonstrates their lack of customer care and highlights areas of training required.

P.s.

There's cheaper parking at the undercover carpark that sits just behind Sebel. Sebel charges $40 per day, we paid $29 for our 2 day stay as opposed to $80 at...

I stayed here recently for three nights and rate this hotel in the top five worst places I’ve ever stayed at in over 25 years of business travel internationally.

I booked a Marina View Room, as was checked into room 112. This room had no view of the marina. All you could see out the windows was the roof tops of bars around the outside of the hotel. You couldn’t see one yacht or boat.

I also noticed the carpet were heavily marked and stained. Overall the room was poorly maintained. This is something you might expect to see in a 2-3 star hotels.

I found out later that night, my room was above the Fox Sports bar and they were showing England playing Croatia in the Euro 2020 Cup. From 11pm all I could hear was passionate football supporters singing and yelling from the bar below.

After making a complaint to the front desk, they said there was nothing they could do about it, as the bar wasn’t part of the hotel. I asked them why they would check guests into a room above a sports bar on a Sunday evening with live sports games on until 4am, and was told there was no other rooms available. I continued to makes two further complaints, and they then managed to find me another room at 1am, after telling me earlier none were available.

The next morning the front desk offered no apology, and I never heard from the Duty Manager during the rest of my stay.

Upon checkout on Wednesday morning, I raised the issue with the front desk again regarding how the hotel had failed to contact me, or to offer an apology during my stay, and to date I still haven’t heard anything from the Hotel.

I certainly won’t be staying here again, or recommending this hotel to anyone. If you’re after a good night’s sleep in a clean room, with staff that show some respect to their guests, then I would stay at other hotels in the Auckland...