I can absolutely not recommend the place. It’s far away from any historic charm, it just old and filthy. Whoever did the renovation in 1993 did a poor job, tasteless, cheap and without any sense for style. What a shame for the building. The rooms are small and just fell horribly (out)-dated (and I usually love everything Victorian). The service was lacking any professionalism, obviously they hire some work and travel students with no previous hospitality experience. Nothing wrong with this in general, but please train them. The front desk was mostly deserted. If you love to hear some hooligans at 1.00 am smashing glass on the footpath outside, you are in the right place, the (nasty) Irish pub is just on the other side of the road. You can also hear (absolutely) everything from your neighbors in the next room. Oh, and they charge for the daily newspaper (without clearly stating this at check in). However, they reimbursed me after I complained about this.

A hotel with character with staff that certainly did their utmost to please their hotel guests. Not a hotel that is up to the quality of the Peninsula Hotel in Hong Kong or the Shang Ri La hotel chain but the quality and service are a match to this hotel's charm. The dinner in the dining room was superb and this was the first place in New Zealand that met my expectations on making a decent cup of coffee in a country that has it's own defined way of making coffee. The banana loaf for dessert was so good I ordered it two nights in a row. The staff even arranged for my room even though I arrived a day early, had a newspaper delivered to my door in the morning and relayed messages from a tour company. I will make it back to New Zealand one day and this is one of the hotels that will be on my list.

I’m not sure how this hotel achieved a five-star rating. The remodel of the hotel is poorly (and cheaply done). Fixtures in the rooms to not match (with their being a mix of brass and silver). The cleaning staff did a bad job . After arriving I went to pick up a remote control, only to find that it only had one battery in it (the second battery and the back cover were missing). The bathroom was not cleaned well either (and there were some wires hanging from the ceiling). When we went to check out they wanted to charge us for the newspapers. On check in they had asked if we would like a morning paper, but no mention was made of charging for this (and to do so seem plain cheap for a so-called five star hotel). Whille they dropped the newspaper charge from the room, I didn’t like having to object to this in the first place. Check out was held up because the front office was waiting for their computer to update. The bar area (Churchill’s) had seating that was so close together that some elderly woman was only inches away from me. And some of the leather chairs (well, maybe fake leather) had frayed on the arms and looked decidedly tacky. Some of the staff seem to be work/travel folk. We got a waitress who was on her first day. Beers were not available on tap as the tap was not working. They did have a good selection of beers by the bottle, but no beer menu (so I was asked to go and look at the beer fridge). My girlfriend ordered a Mocha. The waitress was unsure about whether or not this could be made, consulted with colleagues for ten mins or so, and eventually came back with something that tasted and looked like muddy water. Then, help arrived from another co-worker who knew how to make a mocha, and did so successfully. The noise insulation between the rooms is also somewhat poor.

One first arrival the manager seemed rushed off her feet and the hotel seemed full, our rooms were full of character if not a bit cramped. Brekfast was good, although the service was a bit slow- we never ate in but should have given the opportunity as it looked like the busiest place in town.The added bonus that they had a library was a good surprise as well as the complimentary port! The wifi was brilliant in room service, with many added unexpected bonuses as mentioned by other users. One downside was that reception seemed to close very early at about 7pm and the front doors were locked at 8, so coming back in at the tradesman's entrance seemed quite liked breaking in. However seemed like the best option in town!