Hotel Debrett

“Lovely boutique hotel (old on the outside and modern on the inside). Good Location and Great Service.”

While I found a few things that need fixing, overall it was a lovely stay, wonderful room, terrific service (including the owner, Adam), perfect location. While I would not necessarily say its truly a 5 star hotel, it’s definitely a 4 plus…with 5 star service and amenities. The hotel retains it… more

While I found a few things that need fixing, overall it was a lovely stay, wonderful room, terrific service (including the owner, Adam), perfect location. While I would not necessarily say its truly a 5 star hotel, it’s definitely a 4 plus…with 5 star service and amenities. The hotel retains its 100 year old charm (it was originally built in 1841 and destroyed and rebuilt in the 1920’s). I understand the new owners bought the place in 2022. I gather it was not in good shape then (and I see lots of bad reviews from 2022 and before so not sure those are indicative of the hotel today). The new owners did a great job turning the rooms into workable modern rooms and making the common areas new…but retaining the old charm. Many old 5 star hotels “put lipstick on a pig” and rely on their star status from years gone by. Here they rethought the layout and created an effective, and modern, room design. The bar area is old fashioned to keep with the theme and the indoor atrium area for breakfast and dinner is very romantic. We had breakfast there one morning and found the food excellent, prices comparable to other places, and the service superb. The eggs benedict, on a hash brown patty instead of an English muffin...was wonderful. Service was top notch…front desk, bar, waiters, everyone….even this one fellow who came down the stairs, looking casual and like he was enjoying his holiday....like any other guest... but then asked if I needed anything (thought he as just joking around) …..and turned out to be the owner …Adam (he never said so, I learned it after he left). Lovely fellow and glad to see the owner “getting their hands dirty” and checking in on the staff, hotel etc. The staff held our luggage the day we left (we had a late flight), and since we were about to take a 12 plus hour flight, they also let us use a bathroom to change and freshen up. (if they were not so booked, they told us they could have given us a late …late. .checkout.) Our room was one of their deluxe two room suites. The suite had good size living room. And a balcony overlooking the atrium where people are having breakfast or dinner. Bedroom was good size and the bed was comfortable. As it was a suite, there was plenty of room to spread out. Bathroom was big with double sink lots of counter space. A big bath tub, walk in shower (modern combo of comb shower and rain, and separate room for the toilet…with its own sink. TV not very big and in the one in the living room was in the corner away from couch so could have been placed better. Also there was a TV in the bedroom…. But I forgot to mention to the staff that I could not get the TV in the bedroom to work…until I figured out the plug was loose so they might want to look at that as I am sure it will come out again. Both TV's were not that modern...but functional There was no desk but a round eating table with two chairs (plastic connectors at rear of both chairs were broken and sharp so they need to fix those chairs). Besides a couch, there as another mismatched chair…which I was not sure …why… …as it was just taking up space in my view. Space that could have had a desk. I used the table as a desk, no problem, but no plug near it. Fortunately, I bring an extension cord (as it’s a common issue in many hotels) so I was able to plug into a near by plug near the minibar. Both nightstands DID have two plugs right where they should be…. At the nightstand level…so we could charge all our gadgets. (Some hotels don’t put plugs next to one nightstand or only have them behind the nightstand or worse behind the bed), Wi-Fi worked fine. Excellent location. Lost of restaurants near by, and a short walk (couple of blocks) to Queens road , and 10 min to the wharf area. Website photos are an accurate depiction of the hotel. Overall, we loved our stay there. Besides the room and location, the staff, and owner, made it a “grand” stay. Absolutely recommend staying at Hotel DeBrett

less

“Good place for stylish stay in Auckland”

Good location, stylish hotel with some beautiful original features. Attentive and helpful staff.Good restaurant, modern cuisine focused on spicy options ( could do with some more basic dishes?).

“Deeply Disappointing”

We chose DeBretts due to past excellent experiences, to say this visit was deeply disappointing is an understatement. An Auckland icon, we love the quirky style of the decor, and for this weekend, its perfect location, near to a restaurant we were dining in with friends. Sadly our first negative ex… more

We chose DeBretts due to past excellent experiences, to say this visit was deeply disappointing is an understatement. An Auckland icon, we love the quirky style of the decor, and for this weekend, its perfect location, near to a restaurant we were dining in with friends. Sadly our first negative experience was as we walked in the door. We asked if we could have our car valet parked, something we were happy to pay for, and were told “we don’t do that”. My partner was handed a map for a 5 minute all weather walk to a car park that was more like an obstacle course than a parking building. I waited in the lobby where I was told that the hotel had been sold in 2022, which was the reason for the lack of a valet parking service. Although DeBretts advertises itself a as 5 Star Hotel with a concierge, no offer was made to carry our two bags to our room or to show me up. A concierge definitely does not exist. When we did get to our room, the sound of drilling in the Crane Brothers building next door was appalling, we told the receptionist, who advised us that if we stayed out till 4.00pm it should have stopped. They were still working when we returned from dinner at 9.00pm, although not so loudly. We had a great evening away from the hotel and returned to that stunning house bar, looking to end the night with cocktails and possibly some soft jazz and conversation. Forget the jazz or the conversation, a pleasant but very quiet barman mixed an adequate cocktail, we drank it and left. What a sad misuse of one of Auckland’s most stunning bars, such a wasted opportunity. I’ve taken the time to write this not out of spite, but out of concern that the new owners are completely missing DeBretts heartland clientele with this new approach. Instead of trying to compete on price and pack in as many mature Americans, who are unlikely to ever return, as possible, look at what’s in your backyard and target mature, stylish Aucklanders who will return for memorable occasions in what is still a beautiful hotel. The mad, sad days of Covid stupidity may have bought you to this, but at least try to salvage the weekends for couples like us with money to spend. Bring back weekend jazz, Saturday AND Sunday, find bar staff with personality to charm the punters, (we saw one in action during dinner at Gilt) and bring DeBretts to life again.

less

“Fair experience”

Cute boutique hotel, but a few disturbing things…. Safe didn’t work on arrival, no free refills on coffee/tea at breakfast and the fire alarms went off during the night—-rang for about 5” and it kept repeating “wait for further instructions”, then just went off with no follow up from staff nor expl… more

Cute boutique hotel, but a few disturbing things…. Safe didn’t work on arrival, no free refills on coffee/tea at breakfast and the fire alarms went off during the night—-rang for about 5” and it kept repeating “wait for further instructions”, then just went off with no follow up from staff nor explanation. Good walking location, but I would not return to stay there

less