Really liked the Sofitel, the location is lovely - a short walk to the busy restaurant precinct at the Viaduct and beyond that to the city, yet far enough away to be really quiet and relaxing for a city property. All staff were always friendly yet very polite and professional. The room was incredibly spacious, the decor plush yet understated and the bathroom was great; a big deep bath and a wonderful rain shower. And to top it all off I still believe the Sofitel beds are some of the best in hotels! The only downside would be rooms looking onto the internal courtyard / reflection pond lack a bit of privacy but the timber shutters and curtains take care of that.

The Sofitel is located in a quiet part of the Viaduct approximately 5-10 minutes walk from the major shopping and entertainment areas. Check-in was friendly if not somewhat labored and was shown to a very clean and comfortable marina facing room. Was very happy with this until I looked at the fire chart on the door and saw that it was considerably smaller than the room which I had booked, which billed itself as a larger luxury room. On pointing this out, I was changed to a much bigger corner room, though interestingly with no coffee machine. Wi fi internet in this room was significantly slower than the previous room, though problem solved when connected to hotels broadband cable in the room. An irritation, however is the inability to have more than one device connected to the internet at any given time (which is certainly an option in other hotels I have stayed in). Breakfast was good, though had a bonus of a large thin strip of plastic in my fresh orange on the second day, which had apparently broken free of the juicing machine. Staff were very apologetic and offered a complimentary glass of wine, had I stayed into the evening. Check-out was efficient though the late check out of 2.30pm was at a 75 NZD charge. Additionally the hotel wanted to add 1.5% credit card charge to my bill, which I refused to pay on the basis that I was not made aware of this in advance and indeed had never come across such practices anywhere worldwide before. I was informed that the rules within NZ had apparently changed in the last month which allowed the hotel to do this. The charge was waived for me in this case. Concierge services were great

Formerly the Westin, this hotel now under the Sofitel brand and the service from the staff and the rooms are really excellent. Rooms are big, with separate seating area and small balcony overlooking the viaduct harbour and the bathroom is equally large with bath and separate shower cubicle. Location wise it's perfect for visiting the harbour area and no shortage of taxis to get around Auckland or to and from the airport. Perhaps the only minor issue was that the concierge was unable to lend us an umbrella as we had to walk to a meeting 15 minutes away and in typical Auckland fashion it was raining(!) - to be fair he was very apologetic and assured us it was stop raining very soon...which it did...so this particular concierge had talents far beyond making recommendations for dinner...a great stay, pity it was only for one night.

We stayed using a complimentary night that we had and paid for an upgrade to a luxury room with harbor and marina views. We had previously stayed in December when it was the former Lighter Quay. This time the restaurant and bar were up and running which made a huge difference. Dinner and breakfast were great. The room, location and service were excellent and our only comment was that this time we had a smaller room with a queen bed as opposed to last time when our room was considerably larger as was the bed. Air conditioning got very hot and stuffy and although we tried turning it down we ended up turning it off altogether durning the night. Now that this hotel is part of the Sofitel chain there are great improvements. Would certainly stay again.