Business travellers heading across the Tasman have a new top-notch option for hotels in Auckland with the recent opening of the Sofitel Auckland Viaduct Harbour.
The Sofitel sits just to the west of Auckland's city centre in the relatively new Viaduct Harbour district, with easy access to town and a great location for dinner, drinks and relaxing after a day of meetings.
Every one of the 173 rooms and suites has a balcony, floor-to-ceiling windows, plus bathrooms with rain showers and separate soaking bathtubs.
Appropriately for the City of Sails, the Sofitel even has its own boat pontoon for easy access to water taxis and sailing excursions.
The Sofitel is one of Auckland's newest hotels, and was initially the MGallery Lighter Quay when hotel group Accor picked it up. It was previously the Westin Auckland Lighter Quay. Various hotel property ownership issues meant that it had been run as the Hotel Lighter Quay most recently.
Accor's Vice President for New Zealand, Paul Richardson, explained the naming shuffle to Australian Business Traveller today: "We always intended the hotel to become a Sofitel because it is truly 5-star and boasts such a prime location."
"Fortunately, all the remaining property issues were resolved recently and we were confident of being able to deliver both 5-star facilities and 5-star service."
Within the Accor family of business-friendly hotels in Auckland, the Sofitel Auckland Viaduct Harbour joins business traveller favourite the Pullman Auckland on the other side of the city centre, the conference-focussed Novotel Ellerslie in the southern suburbs roughly halfway to the airport, and the excellent Novotel Auckland Airport across from the international terminal.
Read Australian Business Traveller's in-depth reviews of the Pullman Auckland and the Novotel Auckland Airport for more.
Aviation journalist and travel columnist John took his first long-haul flight when he was eight weeks old and hasn't looked back since. Well, except when facing rearwards in business class.
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