Hotel Review: Copthorne Hotel Auckland

I arrived into Auckland at 4:20am and after a quick shower at the airport, I made my way to Britomart and walked the 15 minutes it took to get to the Copthorne Hotel.  It was around 7am when I finally arrived and I was able to drop my bags off at the hotel before heading out for breakfast. 

Arriving at 4:20am after a 14 hour flight definitely contributed to my lack of energy and by 11:30am, I decided to make my way back to the hotel to see if they would have a room for early check in.  I was advised that they did have a room next to the elevator, and because the hotel was full the following night, I would have no chance of switching rooms, which I was totally fine with.

As soon as I made it to the room, I decided to check the shower and good thing I did.  The shower didn’t work properly and when I saw one of the housekeepers, I asked her to come check on it.  Unfortunately, she was unable to figure it out either and told me that she would ask a manager to come up in about 10 minutes.  At this point, I was dead tired and dozed off while waiting for the manager.  Good thing I didn’t stay up and wait as the manager never ended up coming.

After my nap, I went downstairs to ask the front desk again and after a few minutes, I was told that I could switch rooms.  This worked out quite well as we got put into a room across the hall, against a much quieter street!

I was traveling on a G Adventures National Geographic tour and was told that we would be staying in 4 star hotels.  From the first impression, I was quite skeptical and wondered whether New Zealand rated their hotels differently, as I would probably call this a 2.5 star property at most.  It also left me wondering whether the hotels on the rest of the trip would be at this service level.

The room was a fair size and the beds were comfortable, but the bathroom was not very clean and on the second day, after they cleaned our rooms, we could still see hair on the floor.  The room (and hotel in general) were in need of renovations as everything appeared quite outdated.

Breakfast was included in my stay and I am happy to say that there was a good selection of fruit, cereals, breads, and hot breakfast items including lamb sausage, scrambled eggs, baked beans, and bacon.  I also had dinner at the restaurant one night and the chicken burger was fantastic.

As mentioned earlier, the hotel is approximately a 15 minute walk from Britomart, but there is a bus stop right by the hotel that will take you to Britomart in one direction and to Mt. Eden in the opposite direction.  It is also located across from the University of Auckland, and it was nice to be able to walk through the campus to get to the inner part of the CBD.

All in all, it is not a bad choice for a couple of nights, but for a little bit more money, I think there are better choices in terms of cleanliness and location.