NZ Accommodation - The Parnell, Auckland
My Hotel of choice when I’m in Auckland!
I don’t get to Auckland very often, but when I do, I almost always stay at The Parnell Hotel & Conference Centre. It might be a little out of my realistic budget, but I still choose to stay there, and there are a few reasons why.
Through Booking.com, I can pay on arrival, rather than getting the money together months in advance.
Every single time I’ve stayed there, all the staff I’ve encountered have been super friendly and helpful.
Free parking. It’s Auckland. IYKYK.
Late checkout of 11 am for all bookings. That extra hour makes so much difference.
The comfiest, biggest beds and pillows of probably any accommodation I’ve ever stayed in.
I was in Auckland last weekend for International VA Day with a bunch of my biz besties, and so of course, I made the most of it and stayed 2 nights!
As always, the staff at reception were lovely and check-in was as easy as ever. I have always stayed in the rooms above reception, but this time I was in the separate building across the car park. The rooms are quite a bit smaller, but OH, they are so much quieter, too!!
I’m not a super experienced traveller, but I can honestly say The Parnell has THE comfiest beds of anywhere I’ve stayed!
The beds are the comfiest beds I’ve slept in, and the pillows are amazing, so much so that I don’t even bother taking my own pillows anymore! I was tempted to just stay in bed the whole time I was there and make the most of it.
The rooms on the other side of the hotel tend to have actual desks, but this being a smaller room I was pretty stoked to find this cute little nook in the kitchenette! Just enough space to smash out some work in between outings.
The strangest “quirk” in this room? Can you pick what it is?
Yeah, the toilet setup is odd. Even for a short ass like me, my knees are up against the shower door, and that full length mirror…. I’m really not keen on watching myself on the toilet, especially THAT up close!! It is better than the shower set up at a place I stayed at in Wellington last year, but still… It’s an odd setup.
Every time I’ve stayed here, I’ve walked in to Newmarket to the Westfield Mall. I think it’s still my favourite Westfield Mall in Aotearoa. It’s less than a 2km walk from the Hotel, and it feels very safe, so this time I wandered in about 5pm on a Thursday night. I didn’t feel like wandering the shops, so I bought some dinner in the food court, and people watched while I ate.
Then it was a quick trip to Woolies for hotel snacks, and it was pretty dark when I left, so a $9 Uber home was faster and safer for a Nervous Nikki like myself.
Saturday morning was checkout time, and like every other time, reception were kind enough to let me keep my car in the carpark while I went for another wander into Newmarket for a couple of hours.
If you’re looking for a place to stay that’s close to the city (an Uber is around $12-15 on a busy night), has free parking, clean rooms and COMFY beds, then make sure you check out The Parnell.