Holiday Inn Auckland Airport [AKL] (Master Thread)
Sep 13, 2010, 2:49 am
#1
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Holiday Inn Auckland Airport [AKL] (Master Thread)
Mr. FB and I spent one night here after our TPA-MIA-LAX-SYD-AKL itinerary spanning 45 hours. I booked the room using 15000 PC points.
Finding the shuttle for the hotel required asking someone at the airport where to go. Following the "Hotel Transfers" sign will take you to the wrong place. The shuttle leaves from the same place as the other airport buses into Auckland. The shuttle leaves every 30 minutes, so we only had to wait about 10 minutes. Airport transfers are NZ$10/person return and can be billed to the room.
We arrived a little after midnight. The fellow who checked us in offered no greeting. When I handed him my AMEX, PC Platinum card, passport, and slips from the shuttle, he merely pushed the PC card and passport back to me. Then he wrote "+$20" on our folio and gave us transfers for the trip back to the airport.
We had booked a "King Leisure Room" with points. Before he gave me keys to the room, he looked at Mr. FB and me and said, “You are booked into a king leisure room but I can give you a room with two twin beds.” I told him that we wanted the king bed and he said, “Are you sure?” I said, "Yes," and he gave us the keys and my AMEX.
Before going to the room, I asked if I was entitled to any amenity as a platinum. His reply? “You have a mini-bar and coffee and tea facilities in your room.” There was no place nearby to purchase a bottle of water, so the mini-bar was the only option.
Room 1050 was nice, and the bed was comfortable. The room did indeed have coffee/tea making facilities (which we used), and a mini-bar (which we did not).
About 9 hours after checking in, we checked out. Check out took awhile, because there were a few people buying shuttle tickets. The young lady who assisted me with check out was very friendly. I would have much rather had her check us in the evening before. However, she had no record that we had used points for the room. I had to provide my printed confirmation. It's been two weeks since we checked out, so I assume everything was fine.
A couple of days later, I addressed my concerns to IHC about the stay, including the attitude of the fellow at check in and the confusion over payment for the room. A little over a week later, I received this reply from the Revenue Manager:
Dear Flying Buccaneer,
Thank you for contacting our guest relations team with regards to your recent stay at Holiday Inn Auckland Airport.
Please accept my sincere apologies and do let me know if I could be of any further assistance.
Kind Regards.
XXX XXX
Revenue Manager
Even though Accor's loyalty program is about as underwhelming as the apology letter, I will stay at the AKL Novotel when it is completed instead of returning to the HI if I ever need to spend a night at AKL in the future.
Finding the shuttle for the hotel required asking someone at the airport where to go. Following the "Hotel Transfers" sign will take you to the wrong place. The shuttle leaves from the same place as the other airport buses into Auckland. The shuttle leaves every 30 minutes, so we only had to wait about 10 minutes. Airport transfers are NZ$10/person return and can be billed to the room.
We arrived a little after midnight. The fellow who checked us in offered no greeting. When I handed him my AMEX, PC Platinum card, passport, and slips from the shuttle, he merely pushed the PC card and passport back to me. Then he wrote "+$20" on our folio and gave us transfers for the trip back to the airport.
We had booked a "King Leisure Room" with points. Before he gave me keys to the room, he looked at Mr. FB and me and said, “You are booked into a king leisure room but I can give you a room with two twin beds.” I told him that we wanted the king bed and he said, “Are you sure?” I said, "Yes," and he gave us the keys and my AMEX.
Before going to the room, I asked if I was entitled to any amenity as a platinum. His reply? “You have a mini-bar and coffee and tea facilities in your room.” There was no place nearby to purchase a bottle of water, so the mini-bar was the only option.
Room 1050 was nice, and the bed was comfortable. The room did indeed have coffee/tea making facilities (which we used), and a mini-bar (which we did not).
About 9 hours after checking in, we checked out. Check out took awhile, because there were a few people buying shuttle tickets. The young lady who assisted me with check out was very friendly. I would have much rather had her check us in the evening before. However, she had no record that we had used points for the room. I had to provide my printed confirmation. It's been two weeks since we checked out, so I assume everything was fine.
A couple of days later, I addressed my concerns to IHC about the stay, including the attitude of the fellow at check in and the confusion over payment for the room. A little over a week later, I received this reply from the Revenue Manager:
Dear Flying Buccaneer,
Thank you for contacting our guest relations team with regards to your recent stay at Holiday Inn Auckland Airport.
Please accept my sincere apologies and do let me know if I could be of any further assistance.
Kind Regards.
XXX XXX
Revenue Manager
Even though Accor's loyalty program is about as underwhelming as the apology letter, I will stay at the AKL Novotel when it is completed instead of returning to the HI if I ever need to spend a night at AKL in the future.
Sep 20, 2010, 11:36 pm
#2
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Thanks for the head's up on this property. I am there tomorrow night flying in from SYD and also arriving close to midnight. Nowhere on the web site does it mention a charge for the shuttle and $10 for a mile long drive is rather excessive! (Just paid that for s shuttle to Sydney city centre.)
Sep 22, 2010, 4:06 pm
#3
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Just wrapping up an overnight out here and had a more positive experience than previous poster. Arrived at about 12:30am after catching the shuttle bus (large yellow with green HI logo displayed) from the main city shuttle waiting area located towards the Domestic Terminal, not as noted, from the other end of the International Terminal where other hotel shuttles depart. Driver gave me a green ticket which at the desk is exchanged for a yellow one for the return trip, and the tab is added to one's bill...at least we get points!
Anyhow, desk clerk advised that as a Plat PC member I had been upgraded to a suite, and indeed it was a nice two room high ceiling room tucked away on the 2nd floor (no elevators, steps required for bags). Quite overlooking a courtyard. (Maybe they read the previous post?) No other benefit for elites, but for a short stay, this is no real issue.
Off to downtown for a couple of days, albeit at the Hyatt as I've given up on the CP after several okay stays, but at least at the Hyatt I know I will be upgraded to the Club...not always the case at the CP as a top tier elite.
Anyhow, desk clerk advised that as a Plat PC member I had been upgraded to a suite, and indeed it was a nice two room high ceiling room tucked away on the 2nd floor (no elevators, steps required for bags). Quite overlooking a courtyard. (Maybe they read the previous post?) No other benefit for elites, but for a short stay, this is no real issue.
Off to downtown for a couple of days, albeit at the Hyatt as I've given up on the CP after several okay stays, but at least at the Hyatt I know I will be upgraded to the Club...not always the case at the CP as a top tier elite.
Sep 23, 2010, 12:49 am
#4
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: TSV, Australia
Posts: 2,401
I agree the double bed thing when travelling as a male couple gets old. I always give a hotel a bigger thumbs up for not asking if really want what I've booked.
Dec 1, 2016, 7:08 am
#5
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Would like to do an award stay at this hotel in March 2017, but I see they've blocked all the award space for Feb, Mar and Apr but opened again in May. Also wide open availability from Dec 16-Jan 22. All seems very odd.
Does anyone who is familiar with this property, know if they are likely to open space as we get closer to the date?
I never use my points and have a lot of them. Is it possible to call the hotel and offer to pay a higher points rate in order to get a room?
BTW, there are rooms available for my date at $525 NZD!
Does anyone who is familiar with this property, know if they are likely to open space as we get closer to the date?
I never use my points and have a lot of them. Is it possible to call the hotel and offer to pay a higher points rate in order to get a room?
BTW, there are rooms available for my date at $525 NZD!
Feb 5, 2018, 3:55 pm
#7
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I was upgraded to the King Executive Suite. Further comments in the Rewards Club Experiences thread.
The entrance was the nicest part of the building. But it is on a road with nowhere specific to walk and in fact when going to my rental car I was nearly hit by a coach.
The parking lot for residents is to one side of the building. There are barriers which require your key card to open, but they were up during our entire stay. Of course, when we were leaving and had already checked out, the barriers were down. Fortunately, at that point we realised that we had forgotten to return 1 of our 2 key cards. One positive at least was that parking is free.
The hotel has an odd shape, kind of like the letter A. Tilt your head 30° to the left (or your device 30° to the right) to see it.
There are two very long corridors of rooms /\ surrounding a courtyard with garden/pool. These are connected in the middle to the reception/restaurant/function rooms (the horizontal - of the A).
There are two storeys of rooms, but the only way to get to the upper floor is by stairs. The check-in staff did not bother to mention this despite watching us wheeling very large luggage to the front desk. Although, the hotel did not seem like the kind of place where your luggage would be delivered to your room anyway.
The check-in staff did not mention anything about being upgraded either so my first thought was "where is the bed". Bathroom on the left and the living area straight ahead. The air-con did not reduce the temperature in the living area, so we just stayed in the bedroom when it was too hot.
The shower was rather basic but the water jets in the bath functioned properly.
There was a tiny balcony but it faced directly into a tree and the carpark.
At least the bed was comfortable although it was difficult to access plug sockets by the bed. To charge my devices, I had to put them on the pouffe and move it to where the sockets were in the middle of a wall.
In the central courtyard
The restaurant looked like a school canteen, but the main building is under renovation.
Unfortunately I seem to have lost the remainder of my photos.
Overall an unremarkable hotel which is not even that close to the airport.
I found the issues with service mentioned by Flying Buccaneer in his first post on this thread (7 years ago) to be repeated at many of the other places we visited in NZ.
Unfortunately, there seem to be enough people paying NZ$400+ per night, that they can continue to charge these silly rates, and probably see no reason to do much better.
The entrance was the nicest part of the building. But it is on a road with nowhere specific to walk and in fact when going to my rental car I was nearly hit by a coach.
The parking lot for residents is to one side of the building. There are barriers which require your key card to open, but they were up during our entire stay. Of course, when we were leaving and had already checked out, the barriers were down. Fortunately, at that point we realised that we had forgotten to return 1 of our 2 key cards. One positive at least was that parking is free.
The hotel has an odd shape, kind of like the letter A. Tilt your head 30° to the left (or your device 30° to the right) to see it.
There are two very long corridors of rooms /\ surrounding a courtyard with garden/pool. These are connected in the middle to the reception/restaurant/function rooms (the horizontal - of the A).
There are two storeys of rooms, but the only way to get to the upper floor is by stairs. The check-in staff did not bother to mention this despite watching us wheeling very large luggage to the front desk. Although, the hotel did not seem like the kind of place where your luggage would be delivered to your room anyway.
The check-in staff did not mention anything about being upgraded either so my first thought was "where is the bed". Bathroom on the left and the living area straight ahead. The air-con did not reduce the temperature in the living area, so we just stayed in the bedroom when it was too hot.
The shower was rather basic but the water jets in the bath functioned properly.
There was a tiny balcony but it faced directly into a tree and the carpark.
At least the bed was comfortable although it was difficult to access plug sockets by the bed. To charge my devices, I had to put them on the pouffe and move it to where the sockets were in the middle of a wall.
In the central courtyard
The restaurant looked like a school canteen, but the main building is under renovation.
Unfortunately I seem to have lost the remainder of my photos.
Overall an unremarkable hotel which is not even that close to the airport.
I found the issues with service mentioned by Flying Buccaneer in his first post on this thread (7 years ago) to be repeated at many of the other places we visited in NZ.
Unfortunately, there seem to be enough people paying NZ$400+ per night, that they can continue to charge these silly rates, and probably see no reason to do much better.
Feb 5, 2018, 8:11 pm
#9
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Auckland has a shortage of accommodation when there is a big event on. NZ$400 a night is not the usual rate (NZ$200 odd) for Holiday Inn Auckland airport, although I have also seen it much higher.
Feb 6, 2018, 12:59 am
#10
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Looks very similar to the room they gave me when I stayed here last summer (their winter). It was only 20K points (which I value at about US$120) at the time, and I remember thinking that that was too much!
The upgrade was nice, but the hotel seemed drab and dated to me. I stayed there the evening before an early-morning flight so did not get to see much of the hotel in daylight, which perhaps was for the best.
The upgrade was nice, but the hotel seemed drab and dated to me. I stayed there the evening before an early-morning flight so did not get to see much of the hotel in daylight, which perhaps was for the best.
Feb 6, 2018, 1:07 am
#11
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It’s a classic airport hotel, in an airport hotel precinct which is just down the road from the airport. It’s old but does the job, quiet and on points often attractive rates wise. Auckland as mentioned is often expensive hotel wise, with the Hilton going for $600 a night, strangely the bigger chains have struggled to build a good list of properties.
Aug 17, 2018, 2:42 pm
#12
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We are arriving Feb 26 then fly to Queenstown Feb 28. My original plan was to stay at the Hilton (120k), now my wife is suggesting we stay here (50k). Her logic is - we land at 1300; drop off our luggage then make our way downtown on public transport, eat dinner, walk around then make our way back - flying from LAX so will be pretty wiped. On the 27th she wants to do a day trip up north, I assume any tour company would pick us up at the HI. This plan will allow us to have a more relaxed morning if we book the 10:30 to ZQN on the 28th.
Any thoughts?
Any thoughts?
Aug 17, 2018, 9:23 pm
#13
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Join Date: Jan 2002
Posts: 44,600
my thought would be to look at other hotel chains in Auckland itself and see what hotels have reasonable rates
If you stay in the city you have 1 taxi ride to the city ( or bus ride ) and will , taking into account frequency of services, likely be in city same time or not much later than you would get to the Holiday Inn
You will then still have to take a cab to the city from the hotel and then back ( or have the longer journey time on a bus compounded by the bus ride to and from the airport ) - taxi fare would be around NZD70 each way
The city is north of the airport , so for a tour to the north, the departure time in morning from city is going to likely be a fair bit later than from the airport
On morning of 28th, it is going to take 10 minutes for the shuttle to get you to the terminal ( plus allow waiting time ) whilst a taxi ride out from City will likely take about half an hour - it isn't going to make a lot of difference in time of having to leave the hotel
If wanting to be at the airport and visit city , then I would suggest booking the Novotel which is attached to the International terminal
You
If you stay in the city you have 1 taxi ride to the city ( or bus ride ) and will , taking into account frequency of services, likely be in city same time or not much later than you would get to the Holiday Inn
You will then still have to take a cab to the city from the hotel and then back ( or have the longer journey time on a bus compounded by the bus ride to and from the airport ) - taxi fare would be around NZD70 each way
The city is north of the airport , so for a tour to the north, the departure time in morning from city is going to likely be a fair bit later than from the airport
On morning of 28th, it is going to take 10 minutes for the shuttle to get you to the terminal ( plus allow waiting time ) whilst a taxi ride out from City will likely take about half an hour - it isn't going to make a lot of difference in time of having to leave the hotel
If wanting to be at the airport and visit city , then I would suggest booking the Novotel which is attached to the International terminal
You
Aug 18, 2018, 3:53 am
#14
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We are arriving Feb 26 then fly to Queenstown Feb 28. My original plan was to stay at the Hilton (120k), now my wife is suggesting we stay here (50k). Her logic is - we land at 1300; drop off our luggage then make our way downtown on public transport, eat dinner, walk around then make our way back - flying from LAX so will be pretty wiped. On the 27th she wants to do a day trip up north, I assume any tour company would pick us up at the HI. This plan will allow us to have a more relaxed morning if we book the 10:30 to ZQN on the 28th.
Any thoughts?
Any thoughts?
But it is very unlikely tour company would pick you from this hotel. Unless you book a tour from the hotel where transportation can be arranged. If this can not be arrange, you could either take Uber (yes it is available in Auckland) or get up early and take the shuttle to airport then the airport bus to downtown to join the tour.
Since your morning flight is around 10:30, personally I would use this hotel so that I can get up early and have a nice breakfast before heading back to airport. But if you wish to explore the North Auckland, you must do some homework on where you want to go and whether there is a tour available, or whether the public transportation is available on the day you are there. I highly recommend Google map to search for schedule if you have a good idea on where you want to go. If you want to take public transportation, a Auckland transportation card is very necessary. Otherwise make sure you can use Uber with roaming on your phone by either purchase a data package or a local SIM. I recommend a Glocal Me device if your phone is locked to your network in the US.
Aug 18, 2018, 6:07 am
#15
Join Date: Jan 2010
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HI AKL usually 25K for a room. Recent change was from 20K to 25K. This hotel also goes on sale sometimes. I value IHG points at 1/2 cent each. Check the cash amount as range is unbelievable and also F&F rate. I stay here 6 times a year when forced to do overnights (including next weekend). Bar is ok for Fish and chips and beers. Plats get a free beer or points (beer is better). Yellow Bus from terminal works. You can charge to HI room if you want. I get a ticket from machine to hotel and have the desk clerk give me ticket for return.
added: I never had breakfast there as I take the early flight to ZQN but have seen airline crews and others. Would not expect too much. Koru Club probably better if you have access.
added: I never had breakfast there as I take the early flight to ZQN but have seen airline crews and others. Would not expect too much. Koru Club probably better if you have access.
Last edited by zebranz; Aug 18, 2018 at 6:13 am Reason: added