Spent four nights last week at The George Christchurch Hotel.

Based upon what I was able to read in various places, it seemed this was the nicest property in town. It's a small (50-some rooms), boutique hotel.

There's a reason the hotel website doesn't feature an exterior shot of the property. It's ugly -- 60s-70s glass, dormitory style architecture. We were nervous when we drove up.

Fortunately, things dramatically improve once inside.

Public areas are very nice. Contemporary, bright, clean. wood floors, nice comfortable chairs in a living-room type set up in the lobby. Similar to the nicer, newer W Hotels.

The guest rooms are quite nice. Incredibly clean, bright and new feeling. We booked an upgraded Executive Room and found small, standard-sized hotel rooms. (The 'standard' rooms must be really small.) Either a king or two double beds in a room; desk against the wall, with an appropriately sized Plasma screen TV on one end; small round glass table with two side chairs -- no room for anything else. Just enough space between the bed and the window to set your suitcase on a stand.

Bath products were in ample supply (100 ml sized) and seemed to be refilled daily. (I can't imagine they threw the slightly used ones away and started fresh each day.) They were decent (hotel label, so no indication of brand), though unremarkable; didn't make it into the bag to bring home.

The Bed! The best part of the room was the bed -- absolute heaven, and not just the first night, after traveling 30-some hours from the US to get there. Feather-bed feel (though I didn't look), firm enough but still luxuriously soft, fabulous linens. Slept incredibly well all four nights.

Service was attentive and friendly but not particularly competent. Reception/concierge made a couple significant mistakes:
Another irritation: Was directed to the bellman for driving directions out of town on a very major road to the south and he couldn't help me with a route on their map. "I could drive you there, but I'm not sure how to tell you how to do it." We stopped asking for their help at that point.

Restaurants: We intended to eat at both restaurants, as reviews indicated they're among the very best in the city.

Dined first at 50 on Park, which is the lower-end of the two, though by no means a standard hotel restaurant/coffee shop. It's a beautiful room and relatively expensive, with a fine dining menu and style. It's not a place for a light meal, as the menu is dominated by fancier lamb, beef, seafood and fish dishes. Our food was mixed. Some was good, other was overcooked or not particularly inspiring. Service was below-average. We seemed to be handed off a couple of times and there was no rhythm. They keep the wine across the room on a buffet stand and glasses went empty for unacceptable periods of time. Ordered food listed on the menu was left off and the waitress explained it away. Overall, the value wasn't there. While I can see how one might have a great experience here on a different day, with different staff, we certainly didn't.

Based upon the experience at 50 on Park, we decided to forgo the higher-end restaurant experience, Pescatore, which has such glowing reviews. The menu is heavily seafood oriented, which didn't work for half of our party, and since our other service experiences at the hotel were sub-par, we decided it was a trend worth acknowledging.

50 on Park is also the breakfast restaurant, where a light continental breakfast can be had for NZ $19, with other options available for additional charge. No other breakfast options that are close by -- several blocks to the closest coffee shop.

We did find two excellent restaurants in Christchurch, though: Hays and Minx, both of which I'll discuss in more detail in this Christchurch restaurant thread.

The location of the hotel is nice, across from a major park with beautiful tree-shaded walking/running paths along a small river. It's reasonably close to the center of town and walkable in 15-20 minutes, but there are certainly more central hotels than The George (ie. The Crown Plaza). The hotel is about a 15 minute, easy drive to/from the airport.

All things considered, I would stay at The George again. I liked the feel of the place (lackluster service notwithstanding), found the rooms small but comfortable, loved the beds and the location was nice. It's by no means cheap, but a reasonably good value at the end of the day and made a nice base for our four-day stay.