The Grand by SkyCity

Nice rooms and a good selection at breakfast. The gym was nice when not full of children using it as a playground and the restaurants that we tried were all excellent.

One afternoon when we were trying to use the gym a group of small children came straight out of the pool and into the gym and started using the equipment and treating the gym like a Playground, dripping water all over the machines, hogging most of the machines to play on them and setting them dangerously fast. It’s a miracle none of them were hurt and I do think the hotel ought to have some sort of surveillance and control over the use of the gym as this was unsafe and so disruptive we had to cut our workout short and leave.

I arrived mid morning tired and jet lagged after a long flight, expecting to have to leave my luggage and return later to check in. The young lady on reception was very understanding and arranged to have a room ready for me within an hour and even organised a coffee for me from the restaurant whilst I waited. She rang me within 30 minutes to say the room was ready and I could check in. Great service. The room was fantastic and the buffet breakfast superb - everything you could possibly want - although a little pricey and any coffee other then standard filtered was extra, which it shouldn't be really.

The only reason this gets a 9 rating (rather than 10) is the small let down on something as simple as a wake up call. No call was received at the requested time, but 20 minutes later there was a knock at the door instead - all very odd. I needed a call as I am a bit hard of hearing and a ringing telephone is a great back up should I not hear my phone alarm (if I had not been awake I certainly wouldn't have heard a knock on the door).

Walking distance to wherever you want to go Plenty of options for bars, restaurants.

We didn’t receive the twin grand room that we were meant too and because it was a busy weekend with the warriors game we would’ve had to take someone else’s room to get our room and I didn’t want to do that. Appreciate the bed being bought over. That was more than enough to fix our situation. My kids and I dealt with it accordingly. We were checked out of our room earlier than check out time of 11 so we got stuck down at the spa and had to sort the card out to go back up and get showered and packed up. These things were minuscule compared to the whole experience

Accommodating, responsive and friendly staff. I was upgraded on arrival to an absolutely lovely room. Great view, loads of space and excellent in-room facilities. Lovely swimming pool and spa, nice looking gym although I didn't use it. The breakfast was nice but on the pricey-side. It's great that you can opt to not have your room serviced in return for $20 dining credit. The location is perfect for a trip to Auckland and is close to many of the attractions you'll want to see. There is also a bus to the airport from just a few minutes walk away so it's easy to get to and from.

The room was generally very clean but there were a few areas that could have had a bit more attention to detail, e.g. the hair dryer was quite dusty. I also felt the breakfast was a bit overpriced. I had paid for the room in advance but for some unknown reason, the hotel then charged me again for it on the card they were only holding for a security deposit. I wasn't notified of this and it was an unauthorised transaction. To their credit, when I spotted this and raised it, it was reversed quickly and a further payment made to cover the exchange costs I incurred. However, given they weren't authorised to use the card, it shouldn't have happened and isn't what you expect from a hotel of this calibre.

Location was great, able to walk to the harbor, museums and ferries. Bed was very comfortable and room was very quiet.

The lobby burn scented candles at night whose smell bothered us. One of the elevators was being repaired so sometimes it took longer than needed to get to our room. The bathroom had a see through wall to the room, making it tough to turn on the light bathroom when others are trying to sleep. We righted the closet light so it would not come on so we could close the see through wall.

We were upgraded to a suite. It was my husbands birthday. We were very grateful. A king bed with a rollaway single bed for our daughter. Two impressive sized TVs - one in the lounge and one in the bedroom. The bathroom facilities were excellent with two toilets one off the main bedroom and one in the lounge/kitchen area. Impressed that the room service food turned up nice an hot. (The food came in a portable heating trolley thingey). Free water in the rooms. Bed and pillows great. Thank goodness our air conditioning was working as well as I need cool air flowing to sleep! Lounge suite was big and comfortable. Concierge staff very helpful. The gym, pool, sauna and spa was excellent. Great location of the hotel and shops close by. Definitely recommend a visit to the sky tower! Easy walk to the waterfront and ate at the Coops restaurant twice - great spot if you love the sun and they have the best caesar salad!

My daughter did not like the butter chicken which we ordered through room service. Our coffee machine pods were not replaced for the second day. Other than those two minor things it was an excellent stay and we definitely would return.

The room was spacious, the facilities were lovely and the staff were very friendly. Our check-in process was very smooth, as was our check-out, and they allowed us to store bags for the day so that we could do some sight-seeing.

There were laundry bags/cleaning trolleys on our floor for an entire 7 hours - it was messy walking down the hallway, we only stayed for one night so this dampened the experience. Also, there were kids diving in the pool when there were signs clearly specifying this shouldn't occur. Our room wasn't very quiet either - we could hear cleaners outside and the doors shutting. The lighting in the bathroom is a little tricky too - so many light switches.

The Grand is in the centre of the city so t is a really good location , near Queen Street, short walk to Viaduct, Britomart Station and surrounding CBD attractions. Room was a good size , very comfortable and bed was also accurate in size when it says King size. Room was equipped with Nespresso machine, fridge, a nice lounge chair to relax. We had a great view of the tower and the bridge in our 19th floor. They provided water bottles too during the duration of our stay. There is a spa, gym and pool in the hotel and lots of dining choices in the hotel building. It was our 23rd anniversary and Concierge knew. The chief concierge Shaun Ryan sent a nice bottle of champagne to make our stay extra special what a nice touch! We stayed at the Sky City across the road first two nights and moved across the last two so we can experience both properties , and the reception remembered my situation and had my room ready really early when I moved across as I had a really early activity booked when I switched hotels. That was really putting customers first :)

None to note

We really enjoyed our stay at the Grand Hotel. It was wonderful to be close to the Aotea Centre where are meeting was, and was just an overall great stay. Thank you so much for having services available for us, the concierge was amazing! Our drivers were impressed that they just needed to give the keys and walk inside, thank you for that too, a highlight for our staff. Just everything was amazing...Oh my goodness breakfast!!! KEI RUNGA NOA ATU!! Above and beyond!!! YUMMMMMMM

That I spent to much money at the Cassino hehehehe..No just joking NO COMPLAINTS HERE

In our experience, The Grand is great accommodation. The staff (everyone) are excellent and so helpful. The rooms are very nice and cleanliness and presentation is to a high standard. The Grand Deluxe King Room is quite spacious. There are also really nice views of the city and skyline at sunset from where we were.

For our needs, the lack of power outlets and the positioning of the existing ones, for charging devices. Laptops, phone, tablets, etc. They are not really positioned well and don’t cater for the different size plugs eg the Mac plugs don’t fit well where the outlets have been placed on the wall, either right at the bottom of a wall or under the bedside table. It would be good if you could plug your USB or Type C cord etc directly into a multi plug of sorts) with those outlets.