Kingsgate Quality Hotel Oriental Parade


We were off to Wellington for a couple of days and needed accommodation for two nights.
As we have loads of rewards points to use up we checked out our options and chose to book into the Quality Hotel Oriental Parade.

I enjoyed my stay here, the views were great, the staff was great and the hotel seemed to have a nice, relaxed atmosphere to it.

~ ARRIVAL ~

We drove from home (yikes, 8 hours in the car) and got to the outskirts of Wellington around 4pm on a grey and showery Monday afternoon.
We took the first city exit off the motorway and made our way around the waterfront until we saw our hotel.
We pulled in to the hotel driveway and eased our big car through the ridiculously narrow entrance to the doors.
Entering the hotel, we were surprised to find no reception area, just a couple of lifts and a stairway.
We hopped in the lift and hit the button for reception and up we went to the 6th floor.

As Wellington is such a hilly city, this hotel is in two blocks. One with the entrance on Oriental Parade has the harbor facing rooms and the other, has the city/inner harbor view rooms.

What we thought was the rear entrance, turned out to be the main entrance with reception, the bar and restaurant all on this level.

Check-in was swift and pleasant, after a swipe of the credit card we were given a room key and road directions to the rear of the hotel and the main car parking area.

Getting out of the Oriental Parade driveway required lots of fine driving; inching our way around a very tight brick wall wasn’t the easiest thing to do with a big car. Thankfully there was no one behind us which gave us room to maneuver the car back and forth.

We worked our way through Wellington’s narrow streets to the rear/main entrance and car parking area and once again, had to maneuver our car into the last remaining park beside another big car and a brick wall.

~ ROOM 915 ~

We made our way to the 9th floor via the lift. There was only one lift to this wing but we never had to wait too long and only shared the lift with other guests on one occasion.

Out the lift and through a fire door to a narrow corridor and there was our room.

My first impression of the room was that it was very spacious and the view was fantastic.


The room was set out simply enough, on entering there was a closet to my left, the bathroom to my right and the room could be closed off from this area by a sliding door.

The queen size bed was against the right hand wall, two bedside tables and wall lamps.

On the left was a mini fridge (stocked with over priced goodies, water, juice, cans of coke, wine, spirit mixes and chocolate bars) on the bench over the fridge was the kettle and an assortment of complimentary tea/coffee/sugar sachets, a wall cupboard held three big coffee mugs and some wine glasses.

The luggage rack was next to the fridge and turned into a working desk area which turned into storage drawers. The TV was on a separate shelving unit which provided yet more storage space. A basket of over priced snacks was on top of the telly but I quickly put it out of sight in the cupboard so I wouldn’t be tempted to snack.

The sitting area consisted of an easy chair, coffee table and a two-seater settee.


The glass sliding doors opened up to a small balcony which overlooked the harbour, the rooftop and the city. A small window over the sitting area provided yet more light and more views of the harbour and another wing of the hotel.

THE BATHROOM.

The bathroom was a very small space. I was glad to see a big bathtub and the shower was over the bath.
The loo was between the tub and the wall and the vanity unit took up the rest of the space. The tiled floor looked a bit battered and chipped but the paintwork was fresh and with loads of clean white towels, wash cloths , small sachets of soap and shampoo/conditioner it provided everything I needed.


INCIDENTALS .

~ The blankets were the real deal, woollen and warm. Three extra woollen blankets were in the closet as well as two extra pillows.

~ embarrassing moment ~

It seemed to be taking a long time for the kettle to boil and on closer inspection, the kettle didn’t seem to be going at all. The TV wouldn’t work either so we rang reception and let them know the plugs weren’t working.

About 5 minutes later there was a knock at the door and a porter had come up to sort out our problem.

We felt rather stupid when the porter took our room key and pushed it into the slot provided at the door by the light switch. The room key activated the power points and on leaving, when you remove the key the power points cut out again.

Once we had got over the finger pointing we settled back on the comfy sofa and enjoyed our coffee and the view.

RESTAURANT AND BAR.

We had breakfast here both mornings and had one dinner here with friends.

The breakfasts were self - service with the options of ...

1) Cooked Breakfast = (NZ)$19.95

2) Continental Breakfast = (NZ)$13.90

3) Tea/coffee and toast and jams = (NZ)$7.90.

We had the cooked breakfast option which covered the lot.
The buffet style set up was well stocked with bacon, sausages, hash browns, grilled tomatoes, mushrooms, french toast and pancakes and syrup.

Cereals, a selection of fresh fruits and yoghurt, toast, bagels and pastries completed the picture.

A selection of fruit juices and tea and coffee were also included.

Dinner.

We were a bit pushed for time our 2nd night and as we had tickets to see Eddie Izzard (yay) we didn't have much time for dinner so decided to eat at the hotel.

I'm glad we did as the meal was great, the service was friendly and the view of the city from the restaurant was pretty nice as well.

The hotel runs special deals for guests and we got a voucher for free starters which, when added up, came to (NZ)$29.

The night before, the offer was for two mains for the price of one but we were going to visit family and didn't take up the offer.

We told them that we had to be gone by 8pm and they had our meal ready for us with plenty of time to spare.


ROOM SERVICE

There is an extensive room service menu to choose from and a 24 hour snack menu as well. The prices seemed pretty reasonable.

LOCATION.

The hotel is on the waterfront at the eastern end of the city centre.

Courteney Place with its myriad of restaurants, bars, fast foods and theatres is a few blocks away.

The Downstage Theatre, St James Theatre and The Opera House are all within a few blocks or a 10 minute walk maximum.

A large supermarket is across the road which is open 24 hours and I recommend the bakery goodies.

OVERALL

I enjoyed our stay here. The staff was always friendly and the overall atmosphere was light and relaxed.
The main clientele seemed to be tourists with a few business folk thrown into the mix.

I would gladly stay her again.

HOTEL FACTS

* 113 ROOMS
* 3 suites
* Rooms have iron and ironing board, hairdryer, sky TV.
* Free parking
* 3 conference rooms available.
* Heated indoor swimming pool.

73 Roxburgh Street
P.O.Box 9555
Wellington

Tel. (04) 385 0279
Fax (04) 384 5324

Toll Free New Zealand 0800 782 548
Toll free Australia 1800 124 420

email. quality.oriental@mcqhotels.co.nz

website. www.mcqhotels.co.nz

...... On the website look under KINGSGATE ORIENTAL PARADE, there seems to have been a name change......

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PS : EDDIE IZZARD was fantastic, if the SEXIE TOUR comes to a town near you, get yourself there for a fun night.

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Recommended: Yes