I stayed there on Saturday and Sunday nights. As mentioned before, the hotel wasn't 100% ready, but I think they were 'ready enough' to welcome guests.

Various things were missing, e.g., my room only had one bedside table. The interior design was very well done, IMHO. If you take the Westin Melbourne to be one of the better Westins around, then I like the Westin Auckland design better. The design has a heavy Maori influence, which is very tastefully done, I'd call the design theme 'contemporary Maori'. The shower is very nice, as is the entire bathroom.

Having said that, I think there're several design issues with the hotel. The lobby is laid out with black marble and on both sides of the front door are ponds. Given it's a black floor and the overall lighting is fairly dark, the 2 ponds are rather dangerous. I saw a big security guard literally walked into the pond. I talked to one of the staff and they said even with only 2 operational days, there have been 6 different people falling into the ponds. They're trying various things to make the ponds more obvious, but they haven't put any clear markers to mark the ponds yet. (They've tried candles on the water, lighting, etc., but obviously aren't working...) The ponds aren't deep, only about 30cm or 1ft or so, but dangerous nonetheless.

One thing that was slightly annoying me by the end of the stay was the light switches. Since things tend to be a bit dark lighting-wise, all the light switches are big black switches on the wall, and I'd trouble telling which switch does what or even how many switches there are on the wall...

There're also issues with the lifts...

I found all staff to be friendly, but being new, many staff was acting like a script.

The room I had was a junior suite, at the corner of the building, overlooking the marina. As mentioned, it's not a tall building, and I was on level 3 (which is really level 2), but you could hear people yelling from street level after a drunken night out.

Prior to the Exec Club opening, drinks were served at the Living Room (I think), which is a lounge on the ground level. Evening drinks are the usual affair, canapes, drinks, etc.

On Sunday afternoon, the Assistant Manager left me a voicemail saying the Exec Club is now open. The Exec Club is not big. I suspect it's around 15 to 20m by 5m. Seating capacity is only about 30.

Breakfast at the Exec Club was a simple but good quality buffet. Cold cuts, smoked salmon, various breads/bagels, cereals, fruit, etc... It's not bad, compared to some lounges in North America, but it's not in the same league as the Westin Sydney or Sheraton on the Park, for instance.

Car parking is $30 for 24 hours, but given the area of the hotel, you should be able to find a spare park on the street.

When I checked out this morning (Monday), there're plenty of construction people working in the lobby.

There're plenty of teething problems in this hotel, but I do feel they're complete enough to open. Insulting? IMHO, no.

imm2b, I think the original opening day was 30 June. Then they brought it forward to June 18, then pushed it back to 25 June. Eventually, it opened essentially on 29/30 June...