Auckland Airport Kiwi Hotel

The bathroom isn’t as modern or nice as the room, but it works perfectly well. Both times I’ve stayed, the rooms have been clean and modern, and being close to the airport is very convenient. The shuttle comes every 25 minutes, which isn’t ideal. A late-night Uber is a short ride and costs $20 NZD. Great value and perfectly nice.

I regret not getting a refund and staying somewhere else during my four days in Auckland. I arrived after buying groceries, expecting to use the kitchenette described on Booking.com, but the room only had a mini fridge and kettle. That’s not what I’d call a kitchenette. I also had the $150 bond in cash as the listing said, and a foyer poster said bonds were accepted only in cash. The woman at reception instead took my card information and said they’d charge it only after checkout if there was damage. The room was filthy. The bed had three top sheets with a thin duvet shoved between them, and the mattress protector was on the wrong way and stained with what looked like urine. There were large urine stains on the mattress itself, strange brown marks on the pillows, grime on the sticky aircon remote, dust all over everything as if it hadn’t been cleaned in months, and scuffs and marks across the walls. I also found long hairs in the bed. A woman I met on the way back to my room said she’d found several in hers too. The shower flooded within a minute, and the water wouldn’t drain. Reception said maintenance would come in 'a few minutes' and that I could shower that night. I waited 20 minutes. The maintenance man came with pliers and a plastic bag, got into the shower with dirty shoes and stood on the WHITE, CLEAN towel I’d laid down so I could keep my feet dry. He spent about five minutes pulling clumps of hair out of the drain. I can’t see how that shower could have been cleaned in the last six months. The grout colour also showed the difference: brownish red inside the shower, and its usual colour above it. The restaurant was just as bad. I waited 15 minutes to be seated, then went to reception to ask where the waiter was and was told they’d be there in a minute. I went back and waited another 5-10 minutes before they came out to seat me. When I asked for dessert, they said they didn’t have any. I asked how long that had been the case and got, 'we don’t have that'. The napkins were stained and used, the water jug was filthy, and the food was stingy for the price. Absolutely horrendous.

The bed was good and the shuttle was the only good part of the hotel. Service was uninviting and shit, and the guy at the front desk couldn’t have cared less about customer service. I stayed one night before flying back to Brisbane the next morning. I’d rebooked another stay for November this year, but got my dates wrong and asked to move them to July. They refused. I then asked to cancel so I could rebook the right dates, and that was refused too. Absolutely ridiculous. I’ve stayed at several hotels while travelling, but now I’m expected to pay $115 NZD for one night because they refused both requests, and they’ll most likely book it out to someone else and get paid twice. I’m absolutely pissed off about the response, if there was one. No reason was given.

I booked travellers to use this service, and their stay was fair overall. But at the service desk, the owners seemed impatient and judgemental when handling their extension, check-in and checkout. They didn’t greet our travellers properly or give the customer service needed to help international guests with booking conditions. My advice is to stop judging people when they make last-minute booking changes and just treat customers politely. Customers help finance the business.