Booked a bay view room for a trip to visit relatives. The hotel is billed as one of the best in Auckland in the new 'Wallpaper' guide.

The hotel design, layout, rooms, quality furnishings and formula are indeed impressive. The niggling annoyances were the very poor level of welcome received on arrival......I'm not precious or fussy, but when a hotel bills itself as a 'cut above' the average, I would at least expect the valet parkign attendants and porters to actually get off their colective arses and help guests on arrival.

As me and my wife struggled in the rain to lift bags and accessories from the car onto the concourse, three attendants sat texting on their phones and pretended to ignore us as we tried to politely indicate our need to hand the keys over for valet parking.

I had to queue up to check in, while my wife hung around by the car, waitinmg for the valet parking attendant to do something. It took nearly 30mins from arrival to check in, unload bags, get the car parked and actually have anyone bother to assist us. Not waht you expect for a $300 a night so called 'premium service hotel'.

On the upside, a good breakfast, nice gym, comfy rooms. Service was indifferent and spoiled an otherwise enjoyable stay.

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The SKYCITY Grand Hotel is not the usual type of hotel I would choose to stay in. By nature I prefer a more classically styled property like The Goring in London or The Observatory Hotel in Sydney. I was in Auckland on business and the location suited.

I must say I was somewhat surprised, my room was on the 18th floor and had a westward outlook taking in the Harbour Bridge and Westhaven (forgive me if I have got that wrong) Marina. The room featured a large window and the late winters afternoon sun streamed in. The room was coloured in warm neutral tones with a deep scarlet coloured throw over on the base of the bed as well as a matching bolster. I loved the framed photo's of country scenes on the wall, they are quirky a little like the kiwi's themselves.

Whilst New Zealand has lacked in a service culture it would appear in-roads have being made. A special mention must go to the hotels Concierge Jim a former Liverpudlian who supports Everton (no ones perfect) you can tell he has a passion for his job and I enjoyed his dry wit.

Needless to say, this hotel has great location. Right inside of the Skycity complex and very close to other attractions, too. The hotel lobby is very stylish, room is nice and spacious. The east day spa products in the bathroom are delightful. The decoration in the room is geared towards a more modern style. I was surprised to see a traditional analog clock on the night stand instead of a more standard digital alarm clock. (No flat screen TV either). It actually took me sometime to make sure I did set the alarm correctly. Is this a retro throwback or design oversight?

Hotel check in and check out was quick and easy. I did not eat at the hotel restaurant, so can’t comment on that.

Overall, it is a great hotel to stay in Auckland.

I live in Auckland, but me and my boyfriend stayed here for a night out together. We loved this hotel - the lobby is stunning and the rooms beautifully decorated, and extremely clean.
We are students, so staying in a 5 star hotel was really just a novelty for us (at a really great rate of $175 for one night)! We didn't order any room service, and the mini bar prices were horrendous, but we just bought our own snacks and a few bottles of wine for ourselves (the cheapest bottle of wine was about $42 in the mini bar), but all mini bars are expensive. The room has a really decent stock of mugs and glasses, including champagne glasses and wine glasses, which we used. The tea and coffee chest was really plentiful, and the coffee was really nice! The only downfall was really that we had to use the bathroom tap for water and to fill up the jug, other than that they only have bottles of water for $6.50.
We didn't eat there, opting instead for dinner in Ponsonby. We did, however, eat at the cafe accross the road for breakfast, which was a great price and delicious! The Atrium bar in the Sky City Complex was also great if you can't afford the prices in the Lobby bar, it was priced greatly and had really good sized servings of delicious bar snacks for cheap.
Anyway, I should get back onto the hotel itself. The bathroom was gorgeous, had both a roomy bath and a shower which was really nice, and the complimentary toiletry set was nice.
The pool was nice, but they didn't just have a pool for relaxing in, it constantly had lane swimmers in it. The spa was really nice to relax in, as was the sauna. The gym had really up to date equipment.
We heard no noise from anywhere, not from the city below or the other hotel rooms which was great
The king bed was HUGE! Very comfortable.
Check in and check out took less than 5 minutes combined.
This hotel is good for those without a lot of money who want a luxury night if you can get a good rate, and would be wonderful if you had money to splash too!