Cordis Auckland

Due to a number of events going on in Auckland, hotel rates were absolutely sky high on the one night we came to town, so I figured if we’d be paying out the nose anyway, we might as well go all out. American Express Fine Hotels & Resorts suggested the Langham Hotel, which has since rebranded under Langham’s Cordis brand.

We arrived at the hotel at 12:45 pm to try out the Amex rate’s early check-in. The agent at the front desk looked up our reservation and went through the list of benefits on the Amex rate, paged through her computer, and told us that since it was still quite early in the day, we could have a standard room right away, an upgraded room a bit later, or both! Since we had a rental car to return and some sightseeing to do, we decided to leave our luggage with the porters and just go for the upgraded room later.



Twenty whole minutes later, I got a text saying our upgraded room was available. We eventually made our way back to the hotel and to our room, which was a very nice suite on the second floor.









The bathroom had marble for days.







After getting settled in, we decided to stop by the Lobby Lounge for drinks and a light dinner.




The next morning, we woke up early enough to get breakfast at the hotel’s main restaurant 8.




The food selection was a sizable buffet, lacking in variety compared to some others we’d seen on the trip but making for a very nice meal indeed.















The review

It’s hard to immediately put a finger on what sets this hotel apart from the other places we stayed in New Zealand.

On the one hand, the room was in very nearly perfect shape, but on the other, it seems like there was some renovation done when the hotel rebranded only a few months ago.

Or maybe it was the staff: they were all very friendly and accommodating as could be. But that also kind of seems like Kiwi hospitality in general.

I guess it comes down to the little touches: the wine glasses in the room were crystal instead of cheap glass, for example. The person who checked us in inquired off hand about our trip and after we mentioned it was our honeymoon, there was a small box of chocolates printed with “congratulations” waiting in the room. The valet parking people kept our car close at hand when we were planning on staying only a few minutes to drop our bags and attempted to give us directions to our destination on our way out.

The location isn’t on the waterfront. In fact, the location isn’t that great in general. But other than that, this was a really great hotel, and even after staying some other very nice places, we came away from the Cordis somehow feeling just that much more impressed.