So, I am in night 2 of a three night stay here.
It is a beautiful hotel with a lot of charm. As mentioned the elevators are unique. Checkin area is very small but organized. There is a mini-cafe right behind it. Ironically enough, it isn't manned and when I asked for a coffee they brought it down from the restaurant.
As a diamond, I was upgraded to an x02 room. These are Junior suites and are very nice. Comfortable bed.
The water pressure is surprisingly week but fine. I just expected a little bit more. The junior suite comes with a ceiling mounted rain shower head and stand alone bathtub.
The room also comes with two TVs, which while makes sense is also kind of funny when you look at how close they are. Annoyingly the HDMI ports are directly on the back, rather than the side so it was a pain in the ... to plug in my Chromecast. There is no Lodgenet or any such nonsense which is nice and input switching was no problem.
Received a free drink cert for each night of my stay which is a nice touch and a welcome desert was waiting for me in my room.
A funny quirk of the room. Decided to try out the Nspresso style machine was I was too lazy to leave the room. Took me a while to find the coffee cups as they are behind you under the second TV, in a cabinet with no clear glass to see inside. It was funny and clearly they did not have a great place to put it.
Breakfast is DoubleTree standard. The usual buffet and made to order eggs. The bacon was surprisingly crispy and delicious (for buffet bacon). Coffee was instant but you could order Espresso coffee from the bar. There was no mention of any additional charges for that. That could of course change when I receive the room bill.
Wifi is fast but there is no Splash Screen/Login. Just click Hilton Honors and you are online.
I generally tend to stay at the Ibis in Wellington primarily due to the location and given that this one is down the street, I cannot complain about the location either.
There is still work being done to this hotel and not all the rooms are available yet. It seems the breakfast/bar floor is only open for such. Looking down the hallway you can see all the rooms under construction.
I don't know if it is coincidence but I suspect the x02 rooms are the primary 'upgrade' rooms for status visitors. I only assume that because each x02 room was represented at breakfast this morning all at the same time.
Overall, I cannot find any faults with this property. Staff are still learning but are very friendly, room is very nice. Not much more one can ask from a hotel. 9/10 would stay here again.
Some pictures of the room
