Not really recommended (Boulevard Manor Hotel Auckland)

Member Name: worst_trip

Product:	Boulevard Manor Hotel Auckland
Date:	13/05/09 (3 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cheap

Disadvantages: A bit too dirty and dreary

Sorry, Boulevard Hotel, you were in a good location and the staff were great and friendly, but I found that this was overall, frankly, a scarey place to begin a three-week vacation in a country so very far, far away. First impressions were not good - when I saw where we were staying I may have wept. Overwrought from travelling quite literally half-way across the globe I might have been, perhaps, but blimey, that dominating view of the motorway overpass from our window, seen through the grey Auckland rain! The pervading smell of gas that permanently invaded the foyer and that aparently, nobody could do anything to fix! And my god, what on earth had previous customers been doing in the room to so badly besmirch our bedroom carpet?

So the main point I usually consider when rating whether I like a hotel or not is how clean and well-appointed the en-suite bathroom is, and I have to say in this case the Boulevard was all well and fair enough. But the room - though cheap (in Nov 2008) - was in dire need of a refurb; what you get for the lower-end money is nothing like, let me reiterate, NOTHING AT ALL LIKE the pictures you'll see on their website. There is an equally cheap but significantly nicer-roomed hotel directly across the road from the Boulevard; the ground floor rooms there have balconies and despite some worrying occasional brown stains on the bathroom tilework, are hardly frightening at all. Unless the Boulevard has been entirely refurbished - no, let's say, unless it has been completely gutted, and rebuilt from the inside out, I'd advise you to stay elsewhere instead. Sorry, lovely staff aside, overall impressions were not good.

Summary: Stay if you absolutely must