As I’m checking in at the Grand Millennium Auckland, I mention casually to the delightful lady behind the desk that I have a hire car.
She looks a little perplexed.
“Sorry sir, I’m not sure how big the opening on our car park is?”
She thought I said “high car”, not “hire car”. You probably had to be there…
Vehicular misunderstandings notwithstanding, my three-night stay at this famous Auckland hotel was simply delightful, allowing me to follow in some pretty impressive footsteps.
Bill Clinton, the Sultan of Brunei and Vladimir Putin were just some of the 21 world leaders who graced its hallways when the hotel hosted the 1999 APEC conference. Its bones go back even further than that.
Opened in 1988 as a Pan Pacific, the hotel was born from a partnership between Auckland Council and the Tokyo Foundation. Its design is similar to many hotels in Asia – slightly trapezium in shape and full of light and air.
Over the decades the property changed hands several times before becoming the Grand Millennium in 2016.
The property recently underwent a staged $30m refurbishment with the rooms, corridors, ballroom, Ember restaurant and the Aviary completed in 2024. Estelle’s bar launched last November while the gym and the Club Lounge remain on the to‑do list.
The hotel has re-emerged with refreshed public areas and guest rooms that match the expectations of contemporary business and leisure travellers.
“It’s just been re-credited as a five-star property so the refurbishment was aimed at repositioning the hotel back to that level of standard and experience,” says General Manager James Billing as we chat in Estelles.
“People these days are willing to pay good money for a great experience and you have to have the product to match that. We’ve got the room size to match their expectations – we just needed the right look and feel.
“Service can only go so far, but what you touch, what you experience, how you interact with the hotel – that’s as important as the greeting you receive and the warmth that you feel from the team member.
“We pride ourselves on trying to see and hear our guests and making sure that they feel connected to the hotel.”
Billing has been the GM for nearly five years and his familiarity with the building – its past and its potential – is evident in every sentence. The Grand Millennium, he says, is more than bricks and mortar: it’s a piece of Auckland’s hospitality heritage.
I was lucky enough to score 1121, a 36-square-metre Club Room that also allowed me access to the Club Lounge (more on that later). As you would expect following a refurb, the room was fresh, fragrant and comfortable, with a large bed I really wanted to pack up and ship home!
Amenities were totally in line with a five-star hotel: Wi-Fi, the ubiquitous tea and coffee making devices, a safe, ironing board and iron, bathrobes, plenty of space for suitcases and clothes.
The bathroom was especially spacious, with loads of room for both him and her. It had a bath, shower and some delightful Christian Lacroix products to take advantage of. The full length mirror was also a welcome touch, preventing any unfortunate wardrobe malfunctions.
Suitably refreshed, we made our way to the Club Lounge and instantly found it to be our go-to space for early evening drinks and delicious snacks. You can also have breakfast here, but the offering at Ember is pretty good too.
A well-stocked bar – and an equally impressive bar staff – kept us entertained and the views over the Auckland arts precinct were kaleidoscopic (the hotel is superbly positioned for the Auckland Arts Festival, running from March 5 to March 22).
According to James, dining and food experiences have become “the beating heart” of the hotel.
The recent renovation included a renewed focus on F&B, not as an afterthought but as a primary driver of guest experience, with the Grand Millennium offering five different dining venues.
At the centre is Ember, the hotel’s all-day dining restaurant, where breakfast is a tantalising mix of buffet and a la carte. The dinner menu is a true restaurant experience built around sharing plates.
“What we found with sharing plates is that it’s easier to get food out to the table faster and with greater variety. It’s actually more appealing for travellers who can then try lots of different dishes,” says James.
Guests can also take advantage of Katsura, the hotel’s specialty Japanese dining restaurant, and Dans Le Noir, where you can ‘Dine in the Dark’, complete with blind wait staff and a mystery menu.
“We’ve really tried to focus on providing great restaurants and a great hotel, not great hotel restaurants, and to create something that people from the outside might want to come in and try.
“That’s the hallmark of a really good restaurant, that it appeals to casuals or locals as well as guests. That’s really the aspiration that we have set ourselves. We’re trying to create dining experiences that really resonate and are unique.”
Needless to say, the Australian market is huge for the Grand Millennium, being their second highest source market after domestic visitors. Like many properties, this elegant lady is still playing catch up after the pandemic.
“Australia was probably faster out the gate post-Covid and probably got things sorted a little bit quicker than New Zealand. While we’ve still got a little way to go to catch up, New Zealand seems to be turning a corner to exactly where we need to be,” says James.
“There’s a real buzz around town – our new Convention Centre just opened – and a lot more people are coming down to Auckland and New Zealand, which hopefully will be demand drivers for the hotel.
“It’s a hotel of great nostalgia and great history and for me, it’s been a real joy to be the General Manager and even more so now following the refurbishment.”
“It’s a space designed for people – not a space that’s been modified for people.”
https://www.millenniumhotels.com/
