PARK HYATT Auckland, New Zealand 🇳🇿【4K Hotel Tour & Review】Beautiful Hotel, Horrible Service 

🚨 "Response" from Hotel... One of my long time subscribers independently sent an email to the Park Hyatt Auckland directly, stating she had been considering staying there, but changed her mind after seeing this video. She shared the link to the video. She received a lengthy reply after a few hours, the full text of which is below. I must make it perfectly clear: *THE HOTEL STILL HAS NOT CONTACTED ME*. The blatant lying in the email is truly, next level unreal. I have deleted the employee's name, who identified as a Front Office Manager. Normally, I would NEVER post the correspondence sent to someone else, but I honestly cannot get over the lying, so I have no problem returning the favor. Have a gander: "My warmest greetings and thank you for writing to us. I trust you are well and appreciate you sharing the video review links with us. My name is Jonathan and I oversee the Front Office operations here at Park Hyatt Auckland. Please allow me to respond to you directly and address any concerns you may have with regards to your upcoming visit to Auckland. After reviewing the video, I can attest that we are investigating this matter further with related colleagues for further trainings. We have been in direct contact with the guest to discuss the case post-stay and relating the issues face. I would like to be completely transparent with you and hopefully assure you that this video is not a true reflection of the hotel or Park Hyatt brand. Our hotel and like many in NZ had faced severe challenges due to the pandemic. For the hospitality sector in particular, this evidently one of the hardest struck industry given the circumstances of the environment and factors outside of the hotel’s control. The after-effects of the pandemic was very evident through until recently in the past couple months where the industry began to recover as we entered winter and demand for hotels slowed down and we were able to re-focus on trainings, upskilling our teams and review processes in place to better suit our new environment. Prior to that, we faced severe short-staffing challenges which has affected our service levels. This was simply due to a large lack of talent, excess of job opportunities, and immigration implications which resulted in a large portion of hospitality workforce being no longer eligible to work in NZ. Working in hospitality was challenging and especially given the environment and ample job opportunities around, hotel businesses faced high staff turnover rates where maintaining brand standards & service levels was impossible to achieve. Since only about 2-3 months ago, hotel operators including ourselves finally saw improvements in our environment and began to rebuild. I am pleased to advise we have tremendously improved service standards and offerings within the hotel during these months and are now in a much better position to cater to the expectations our guests are accustomed to when staying with Park Hyatt hotels. I simply wanted to provide insight of external factors leading to a poor experience this particular guest received as this does not reflect a true standard of the hotel. Although we were not able to provide recovery during the short-stay for this guest, we have made effort to do so post-stay. I hope this sheds some light onto the situation and circumstances surrounding this review. We understand where we fell short and have since made all necessary efforts to bring up service levels to where it should be as soon as we possibly could. We hope you would reconsider your upcoming stay and I would be pleased to personally assist with securing your room and ensuring things goes smoothly. Please let me know and I can assist further from here. Thank you and I look forward to hearing further from you. Kind regards, Park Hyatt Auckland"

We're at this hotel now, and the service has been absolutely flawless. Everyone from the front desk, bell service, wait staff in the Living Room and Onemata restaurants has been exceptionally attentive. I upgraded my room with a certificate, but they gave me an additional upgrade without me requesting it. The staff in the restaurants remembers what we ordered the previous day, and have all been exceptionally courteous and friendly. I'm vegetarian and mentioned this only to restaurant staff, but the little "welcome snacks" they've dropped in my room the last couple of days have been labelled vegetarian. The cleaning staff have been very responsive to our requests. Every interaction with everyone in the hotel has been positive. I did find that the range of operation of the climate control system is limited. We like to turn the heat up a bit after getting out of the shower or when getting back from a wintertime walk outdoors -- and it seems no matter what the setting it just doesn't get very warm. Also, my son likes the aircon down under 70 F when sleeping, and no matter what the setting, it doesn't seem to get quite as cold as he likes. Not really a problem for us, so I haven't complained. I've seen these kind of limitations in other hotels recently -- where it seems like they want to limit our control of the room temperature. Not sure it's always to save money -- for example I've stayed at several hotels on Guam and in Manila where the room was very cold regardless of the setting. I don't like this trend but I guess I'm kind of getting used to it. I hope my experience means the response from the hotel is partially true (about the retraining of staff to restore service standards and so on) even if the part about contacting you is not. I thought twice about this booking after seeing your review last week, but very glad we went ahead. As you mentioned, the hotel is beautiful and thankfully we've had a much better experience with the service. I do appreciate your honest reports. Nearly everything we see online these days is essentially an advertisement. Please keep up the good work.

Now knowing your faults with the hotel I think the criticism is ABSOLUTELY valid and fair. I would not be surprised if the GM attempts service recovery with you after this posting. Please do let us know how that goes. Brett Sweetman has A LOT to answer for this to happen at a Park Hyatt of all places

I fully sympathise, as my own experience with the airconditioning at St Regis Singapore was very similar. I woke up sweating profusely and had to ask Housekeeping to change my sheets etc at 3am. The next night the same thing happened. I was taken aside by the maintenance engineer who told me it didnt matter at which temperature I set the thermostat: the aircon would cut off at a pre-determined setting! The reason I was given was the hotel's "green" policy...which I translated as "greenback" 🙂

Been to a Hyatt property once in a different country. The staff literally looked down on us, as if we were undeserving to stay there, even after paying the full price. I've rarely felt so unwelcomed and judged at a hotel. And this was a year before the pandemic.

Core facilities, such as wifi/internet and aircon should be dealt with as follows: 1. redundancy - get a fan and put it in the room straight away, no excuses. 2. proper back up /solutions - change the room, including upgrade, whatever it takes to solve the problem; get an engineer out, and ensure you have a set up that means that they are available or face financial penalty. 3. policy - write down what you will and will not do in such cases, so that the potential guest can read and decide for themselves whether it is what they can tolerate or not. That last part is very important, ime. The customer service part you mention, management ducking issues etc is a whole other story... Thanks, as ever, for the review.

Re the billing without authorisation: I had a similar experience at the Puri Wulandari in Ubud, Bali, a resort with a STUNNING location and magnificent views from each pool-villa...but poorly maintained, mismanaged and with mediocre food. I was told, on the second day of my stay, that my credit-card was needed to authorise payment for the remaining days; but I was actually charged! The GM and her henchwoman refused to acknowledge this; and continued insisting this was only an authorisation. This resort REALLY needs the swift kick up the butt that only you can provide!

Good review. Fabulous combination of architecture and art, with brave use of I-beams on the exterior. Nice mix of future content sign-posted.

Australia and New Zealand luxury hotels are not known for incredible hotel service. I agree with you that there are a number of problems with this property, and all they are interested in is revenue. If you think this Park Hyatt is bad you should try the Park Hyatt Melbourne. Opened in 1999 it is owned by a Chinese property group who due to all the problems in Chinese property have no money to invest an ageing and outdated property. Some departments have not great management and the attitudes of their staff reflects this.

Thanks for the info + video!

"Room for improvement" is an understatement!! I am genuinely shocked, all they had to do was upgrade/find another room with working AC. Like you lve had to call reception on many occasions regarding AC (especially in SE Asia) but also in London and Paris and the issue is always resolved immediately, this was just unacceptable and l really dont get it. Moving on from that, the hotel is great love the theme, art work, vibe and waterfront views. Could have been a great stay. 👍

As I said before Stayed in the Park Hyatt during the last week of February and had such a wonderful experience, service was very good, room was clean, spa massage was very well executed and so was the food!

Good review Kevin. You were treated so badly by the staff and we would not even think of staying there if we ever visited Auckland. As others have said they could have moved you to a down graded room that had air con that was working. We had a similar problem in the Rydges in Wellington where the air con kept going on and off every 5 minutes or not on at all. They came up to have a look and within a few minutes they moved us to an upgraded room with full air con. Could not fault the service at that Rydges really good staff experience. Debbie & Patrick in NZ.

As I am working at the Front Desk department, I feel very sorry and angry how the receptionist talked to you like that. Especially under the Luxury Brand like this. 😭 By the way I'm your fan of the channel too, can't wait to watch all your truthful and enjoyable contents! ❤🎉

Great review as always Kevin. To your viewers looking to stay in this area, I suggest the Hilton as an alternative. I stayed last year. While the property isn’t quite as plush, the service was friendly and solid. Had dinner at FISH which was superb - food, wine and service.

USA, Australia, South America, Canada have no idea what a good hotel is and what hospitality really means. They can't hold a candle compared to Asian or Middle Eastern top hotels.

I'm bound for Auckland in a couple of weeks and haven't booked my hotel. Good insight into this waterfront property! Pity about the issue you encountered. Hopefully this isn't the norm. The nonfunctional a/c really peeves me off, and I've encountered this several times in my trips and they've thankfully never happened in tropical humidity and heat. One thing I cannot tolerate in a hotel room, is external noise. And I feel your pain. Hope your next stay elsewhere would be better. Otherwise, it's a stunning hotel!

Sound advice. Thank you!

My wife and I stayed here when it first opened. We were excited to try out this hotel as it has an incredible location. We didn't have a great experience too. unfriendly staff. slow service. even though it was very quiet. The so-called heated pool was cold. Even brand new the decor was poor, lots of scratches and damage by installers. from what I've heard it was built by a Chinese construction company. and was poorly fitted out. one of the floors was closed at the time of our stay as it was being completely refitted out again. We thought it might be teething problems and would stay later on again, disappointing to hear it hasn't improved.

This video was absolutely worth my time ❤❤❤

Another fantastic episode. Kevin, I agree and hold hotels of this quality to the same standard, and the GM was clearly playing hide and seek with you, hoping you blinked first and just simply went away after giving up. Some New Zealanders are somewhat like their Hawaiian distant cousins; it happens when it happens. I'm not having a go at my NZ cousins (as an Australian). I'm just saying it ain't the US ! I'm with you in any case

First off, fantastic pronunciation of Waitemata. You did really well with your pronunciation of the te reo Māori words. It’s so unfortunate that your stay at the Park Hyatt was like this. Sadly this has been the standard of hospitality in our city for the past 3 years, since covid the standards have really dropped and is plagued with constant excuses as to why the basics aren’t being done.

Thanks for this very helpful review - I was seriously considering booking here for an upcoming trip and this is giving me second thoughts. Somewhat relatedly, if you had to pick one or the other to spend a couple of nights in before embarking on a South Island road trip, would you choose to stay in Auckland or Wellington? I'm torn between the two at the moment.

at least you get the upgrade . We had to wait until 3 pm to check in & got no upgrade despite booking with Amex FHR

My experience at SO/ in June as mentioned in comments on your Cordis review has your problems here beat! My absolutely woeful stay culminated in my car being in an accident when returned from concierge on checkout morning between valet parking and the hotel! Noise appears to be a major problem at Auckland hotels, particularly at the wharf end of Queen street around SO/, Movenpick and Britomart Hotels. A number of strip joints in the area with doof doof music until 4am on Saturday and Sunday mornings.

I am not surprised at all. Try going offscript in Australia or NZ, you‘ll get the same answer. It just boils down to lack of manning either be a luxury or a normal hotel. Probably the front desk lady was a part timer just filling up hours outside normal working hours. Service in this part of the world is always impersonal and patronizing.

Contact Hyatt, not just the hotel itself. Always I had something to solve with Hyatt I contacted them and it was positive every single time.

Yes, I am afraid my experience at this hotel was similar with poor service, aside from the restaurant Onemata, where the service staff were friendly, but, as you, say, the food very slow. I stayed in a suite that cost $NZD1,500 a night. There are many small examples of poor service there, none of them very serious, but they all added up to leave a sour taste in my mouth. Just one example was when it was raining, and there was no umbrella in my suite. I politely asked the front desk if they had an umbrella I could borrow, and they brusquely told me they do not give out umbrellas to guests. I politely asked if there was somewhere close by I could purchase one, the guy shrugged his shoulders, turned around and walked away.

My favourite Auckland hotel is the VOCO so awesome!

Thank you ✈️

Thank you so much Kevin for your honest opinion and Review, this has ruined Park Hyatt Brand however and I was apalled by the Response and audacity to defend themselves. I was considering Park Hyatt Bangkok for my upcoming trip to Thailand but not anymore.

no maintanance guy at night? WTF..its the park hyatt for God sake

I wonder if complaining to Park Hyatt head office would've seen a different outcome. When mothership gets involved, action is usually more favourable :)

Have you done a review on skye view in Sydney... ???

You mention the next video in line is the Jumeirah, but isn’t the Celebrity Cruise guide ahead of that? Whatever it is, I’m looking much forward to both of them! Shame Hyatt dropped the ball here…thanks for the great review!

Is worth pointing out that the pool is useless. There's always a lot of wind coming in from the ocean and the pool is entirely shaded. Even in the middle of Summer it's way too cold to pleasantly swim in.

Thanks

Thanks forall the reviews that you provide us all. This review has me curious. You were given a room fairly high up and it was considered an upgrade from your booking level. Surprised to hear the music and chatter with doors closed. It appears your windows faced east. Did the hotel advise you beforehand of the possibility of noise until midnight? Was the noise from the Living Room then? Do you think those who faced west, who likely still had a good harbor view, still had to endure that noise, given the building's layout? Would you have accepted a "downgrade" back to the original room category? Thanks -

Typical of the level of hospitality you find at most New Zealand hotels.

You didn't say anything about what car parking is or isn't available?

Well done video. Did you not contact Hyatt Corporate Offices?

I need to know something, how do you get a $100 (assuming thats USD) credit for your stays at all these Hotels, lve never had that inclusion, is it an AMEX perk?

so true !

Lovely hotel, sad that you had a bad experience. Worse even when it's not handled well...or at all in this case! Excellent review none the less, even better that you said water 4 times! 😂 🥰

I usually need a bottle of DP when I can’t sleep, would have been my response 😅

Just appalled by their so call Service Recovery. Well guess what I had a similar experience at Park Hyatt LAX, since then I moved my business to Hilton Honors and Bonvoy, there is no room for Arrogance-Ineptitude. Stay Healthy

Do let us know if they try to contact you. And it raises a question, when I say “they”, I presume it’d be a rep local ownership. But do you ever hear from the corp headquarters? Obviously, the local owners, and the hotel operators, are often separate entities.

So it seems like you were in Auckland just 1 or 2 days before I arrived in NZ, but we first immediately started heading down south to see the country and only came up to stay in Auckland at the end of our trip, when the PH was so much more expensive, especially booking 2 rooms so we didn't stay there. I had previously, foolishly accepted it was one of the best in the city because of Nonstop Dan's second channel's sponsored tour. Oh, and on an unrelated note, don't you think it would be a good idea to include the Gulf Air disaster in the welcome playlist? It's kinda iconic. 😂

What worries me the most is the lack of ownership from management … as you can say you can have the best work tools but if you don’t know how to use them, there’s absolutely no point trying …

Do you belong to any hitel ir airline loyalty programs offering certain and occasional extra benefits?

Well Kevin, you saved me another $1K. Thanks! We are booked at the Intercontinental on points. This PH is 20K Hyatt points/night which is actually a good value. But why bother because there are other commenters who also had issues with their stays. I think I would have put on clothes and presented myself to reception. Have them tell me to my face that they can do nothing. I might even film it with my smartphone.

The service you received would be unacceptable at a Motel 6, much less an alleged luxury hotel at luxury prices. Travelers to New Zealand are warned!!!

Must have been tough to shoot this, since you had only one night, no proper sleep and a bad mood. Thanks for the review, i will avoid this property. Unlike the Park Hyatt in Saigon, wich after seing your review, has become a frequent place for weekend trips for us.

Love this review my daughter who is 13 and I stayed here in December last year. I was amazed what a wonderful modern clean new building. It was looked fantastic from the outside, and the inside was artistic but a bit meh a bit more We had had a terrible arrival in Auckland with Europcar stuffing up a car hire to be picked up at the airport. Nothing available. The manager was out playing golf apparently So $120 taxi ride to do the Park Hyatt from the airport No communication as to what to do the next day etc etc. The concierge was brilliant he helped me out greatly. In fact he took me himself in the hot hotel the vehicle to the local downtown Europcar office problem was solved and back to the hotel we went So I agree with you the air conditioning system was terrible. It does get very humid in Auckland at that time of year and I like you want to be cool when it’s hot and warm when it’s not Those bloody light switches and control switches, frigging, annoying and useless quite frankly. The stains on the table was terrible. Now let me say this I’m very fortunate financially my daughter and I were staying in corner suites, but they were supposed to be at the same end of the building, but they weren’t. I guess that’s no problem other than navigating the hotel hallways Problem, number one the food is average only, the service exceptionally slow and lacking finesse, and I sense of urgency for the staff Mind you let me be really clear I’m paying for two nights 10,000 AUD. Yes, lucky me I can afford it On one particular night, they didn’t deliver the room service menu that we had ordered and had to be followed up substantially with somebody who just didn’t seem to care So my the last thing I would like to say is that I prepaid with Flight Centre in Melbourne Australia for my holiday with my daughter everything including the car hire, including the Park Hyatt charges for hotel rooms but A few days later, when I looked at my AMEX charges, there was a double charge on my account from the front desk that they said was everything was prepaid so I get back to Australia a week or so later I go to my travel agent say listen what’s going on here it took six weeks for the hotel to acknowledge and reimburse the payment to Flight Centre who via the wholesaler who knew that used wholesalers reimbursed my $10,000 Overall it’s in a good location, but it’s not up to Park Hyatt standards globally and I stay at them everywhere around the world. The Park Hyatt in Sydney is exceptional are well oiled wonderful machine What they should’ve done for you? Mr flip-flop was simply give you another room, and in fact, a better room, you have to give the customer a delightful experience, even when there are problems basic commerce. Loved your review.

Two comments, 1, this was built by a Chinese company and fly in staff. 2. I would guess the reception staff was either indian or Chinese, there are very few hotels in Auckland that employ NZers for some reason . I pulled up another hotel in Auckland re maintenance,simple things that house keeping staff should've made aware to get fixed. But that hotel is over 40 years old. This hotel is really only a few years old so materials should be better quality and maintenance right upto date. Re hotel I had problems with, senior management text and email me within 48 hours ,staff offered to move me,even with a FIFA team and supporters on site. Under circumstances I didn't take off up but appreciated the offer and the follow up. Well done Copthorne hotel. Kaipara, New Zealand.

It amazing New Zealand did a lot of building during COVID in supposed preparation for reopening it is such a shame many of the bigger chains did not get the message

Apologies for the shit service. I stay at other Hyatt in NZ and are good. I noticed the food prices were very top end. May pay to go out of the hotel. I can assure you that seagulls would not be an issue.

That is quite annoying the AC. I live in Australia and almost every hotel I stay domestically in, I always have issues with the air con. Have no idea why no one can get this right. Sleep quality just goes to sh#t.

I’d love to see some Middle East/North Africa content from you, Kevin, if that’s a region you’re even interested in!

I know you said nice things about the look and decor of this Park Hyatt, but I'm sorry I just think it looks so banal and generic, and it just looks like any 3 or 4 star property. A Park Hyatt should strive to be more than just a rectangular building covered in I-beams, with the occasional paintings and flowers here and there. Look at the Park Hyatt Kyoto, Park Hyatt Bangkok, Park Hyatt Saigon, and Park Hyatt Paris-Vendome, those 4 PHs are the gold standard of what a PH should be. The Bangkok and Kyoto ones blow your breath away, you truly feel like you belong in somewhere special, and the service at Kyoto and Saigon are just unmatched. This Auckland branch, and hearing about their service, just makes me sad.

Hi Kevin, I don’t understand what you mean about anonymous and being recognized-do you travel under pseudonyms? Thanks :-)

Write directly to the Pritzker family head in Chicago, who own Hyatt . Also did u dispute the charge with ur credit card company

Your caption should read “not even remotely good.” Bad ac is a deal breaker. To say nothing of bar noise. At least it’s no Shangri la!

Because you always mention the pipeline hotels. There are significantly more hotels in the pipeline than are listed on the homepage and the Park Hyatt Milan is not in the pipeline but will reopen after renovation. Current Park Hyatts in the pipeline are in Kuala Lumpur, Changsha, Taipei, Johannesburg, Goa, Los Cabos, Mexico City and two in Vietnam. In addition to those listed on the homepage.

Sydney Hyatt is exactly the same ! Everywhere they give you bottle of wine if something get wrong so is look good !

I stayed there NYE weekend prior to a cruise....and even as a WoH Globalist, similar experience with uncaring / unconcerned attitude by the front of house staff and management. Great design and superb location, but service rather questionable.

I hope that this is just an anomaly, and not the standard of service in New Zealand. However, on my trip to New Zealand, several years back, there was a noticable lack of genuine friendliness with service staff everywhere. They weren't necessisarily rude (like I think that you experienced) but they also weren't warm and friendly. Check-was completed, food was delivered, sales were finalized, etc., but no one seemed to want to do any more than was necessary. I didn't get the impression that anyone really wanted to go out of their way to make the customer happy. I pointed this out to someone else, and they said that they had a similar experience in New Zealand. In your case with the Park Hyatt, I think that you should reach out to the corporate headquarters. Please do keep us informed if there is a resolution to your situation.

Interesting review, I was wondering if you had or considered escalating your concerns higher up to the corporate level? At the very least to let them know what happened.

oh!

A little too easy, but Six Senses Fort Barwara in Rajasthan!

Thank you for the video, I booked at another hotel after watching this.

What a disappointing experience Kevin. I hope your next visit to AKL is much better! Cheers.

Nice hotel, beautiful setting, shame about the service 😢

how is it everytime when u encounter a "bad" hotel, u were able to find so many faults LOL.... all the faults u found are all true and legit though, but how is it all so coincidentally haha... But thanks to this video, im not gonna stay here now. I was gonna stay in dec, just cancelled it :P If Kevin says its bad, its bad...

It's really disheartening to see such a well appointed room being such a disappointment when you really look into it. Well, I say well appointed but I don't get why hotels have to install such novelty technology that can easily break, just a simple switch would do for the electric blind. And those electric windows? Just why?

Fiji could never 💀

As a huge fan of Park Hyatt's this is very disappointing to hear. Particularly, the lack of followup by the GM. That is unacceptable and Hyatt should be conducting a full review of that hotel, its operations AND leadership (or lack thereof). Total fail. Will be skipping this location next time I find myself in Auckland.

Hotel run by a bunch of part-timers (including the undermanned kitchen).

Infuritating. One to avoid. Charge back?

Not my cup of tea I'm afraid. Looks like an office building. Sorry they were rotten to you.

Poorly insulated

typical nz attitude

Wait is it me or the White bench in the shower was cracked ??🫨🫣

Well that’s a big nooooo from me thanks