Originally Posted by DCF
Surely the Sheraton Auckland must have been at least Category 4, as it is now a Langham Hotel which is as good as any St Regis in the world. The Kiwi $ probably kept it down to a Cat 4, but I'd be surprised if it was any less.
It was a very, very good hotel, but with a slightly inconvenient location.
The Sheraton was a far cry from St. Regis ... it was an OK business hotel, with mediocre butler service on a couple of floors, very pretentious (touches like pre-printed stationary in your room, with your name) but really just an ordinary competent and pleasant business class hotel. Exactly what you expect from a good Sheraton. Completely unable to do anything more than that -- and yes, I did stay there many times. Much better run now that it is a Langham, fwiw. I actually liked the location, on the rather picante K road (I guess this qualifies as Aucklandīs red light district). Finally, it was Cat 1 or 2 (varied by year), which did make it quite a bargain.
Presumably starwood has learnt from this experience and will have more competent management running their new operation in AKL.