Accommodation
Five categories across three floors of the timber wing and the 1937 block. Every room has been re-lined since 2019; none of them has a connecting door.
The hotel is one building on a slope, so no two floors have the same footprint. Rooms on the valley side face the pines; rooms on the north side look over the flat towards the airport. The lift reaches every floor, and the eight step-free rooms are all within twenty metres of it.
Check-in is from 3pm and checkout is 11am, with bags held either side at no charge. A cot is free, an extra bed is NZ$45 a night, and there are nine of each. Parking is under the building and included — on a road this narrow that matters more than it reads. Wi-Fi is free and there is a charger for electric cars in bay 14.
What is in every room: tea and plunger coffee with Canterbury milk, a proper desk, blackout curtains, heating you can set yourself, a hairdryer, an iron on request within ten minutes, and a window that opens. What is not in any room: a minibar. The bar sends up whatever you want until eleven, at bar prices rather than room prices.
Sixteen rooms along the back of the timber wing, on the ground and first floors. The windows give on to the pines above Bowenvale Valley rather than the city, and the rate is lower for it. Quiet from about nine at night, because nothing on this side faces the road.
Twenty-one rooms on the first and second floors, facing north and east over the flat. The sun reaches them early and is off the glass by two, which in a Canterbury summer is the right way round. Beds split into twins if you ask at the time of booking rather than on arrival.
Thirteen corner rooms on the second floor, named for the road along the ridge above the hotel. Two aspects each, so they hold light from breakfast through to evening, and a sofa bed that takes a third guest. Three of them have a small balcony facing the hill.
Six suites at the west end of the second floor, each with a sitting room that closes off from the bedroom. The ceilings here are the original 1937 rafters, sanded rather than replaced. Suites 24 and 26 have a wood burner, laid and lit for you when the forecast drops below nine.
Two suites, one at either end of the top floor, each across three rooms. The terrace runs to 14 m² and faces north, so it holds the afternoon and takes in the flat as far as the airport. There are only two because the roof line does not allow for a third.
Eight rooms are step-free from the car park through to the shower, four of them Silver Fern and four Understorey. Two have a ceiling hoist fitted; both need to be booked by telephone so the desk can check the fitting is where you need it. The lift takes a wheelchair and a person with it, which not every lift of this age does.
The quietest rooms are on the valley side, second floor. The road is audible on the north side until about ten at night, less so above the second floor. Rooms 12 and 14 sit above the kitchen delivery bay and are let at the Understorey rate whatever their category, because deliveries start at 5.40am.
Dogs stay in four ground-floor rooms at NZ$35 a night, in the room rather than in the restaurant. Assistance dogs go anywhere in the building except the kitchen, at no charge, and do not need to be declared in advance.
