The County Hotel

The staff were amazing, we felt really pampered. The room was beautiful! The restaurant has delicious food too. You can't beat the location, right near shops and restaurants.

Nothing, we loved it all

One of our top 5 favourite New Zealand properties. Feels like home when we return to stay. The management and staff are always friendly and efficient - the most important part of any hotel are those people. A little disappointing that they don’t serve breakfast any more - but we understand the reasons and there are lots of eateries 2-3 minutes walk away. One of the highlights was eating in that lovely breakfast room. My only real criticism is the lack of access to sport on the in room tv. We stayed on a big sports weekend so had to find a bar where we could watch it. Plan B had been to watch it on our iPad - but the internet speed was very slow and just wouldn’t handle it. A 4G hot spot on our phone was way faster. Maybe fibre hasn’t come to the Hawkes Bay yet? However, eating out and watching 2 big games with the locals was fun. But the hotel sadly missed out on our dining dollars.

Friendly staff. Room well equipped.

There was no food or drink at breakfast, and dinner was only Thursday to Saturday

The staff and location was excellent.

Aircon didn’t work in the room and it was way too cold. We did explain this to the staff and it was rectified immediately with a small fan heater which did the job perfectly. :)

We had 3 nights in Napier's County Hotel. The Edwardian-era building is historic in that it was one of the few substantial commercial premises in the city that survived the devastating 1931 earthquake. In those days it was the HQ for Hawkes Bay County Council. So, it predates the great Art-Deco reconstruction of the city in the 1930s, for which the city is famous, and its architecture and style do not reflect that. The hotel is well located with regards Napier's downtown area and the shoreline of Hawkes Bay. The hotel is quite small, with rooms not numbered but each named after NZ native bird species, which is a nice touch. It calls itself 5-star, which I thought a bit of a stretch. The public areas are certainly decorated appropriate to a bygone era and the place has the feel of an old-fashioned gentleman's club. There is even a library with lounge chairs and complimentary port available. Didn't actually see anyone using it; in fact guests were few and far between when we visited. The whole place was very quiet. Our room was of moderate size at best and was definitely not 5-star. There had been a half-hearted attempt at a luxury feel but didn't quite cut it. Perhaps we were meant to luxuriate in the library. There was limited space for our luggage though one bag did just fit inside the narrow, stand-up wardrobe. The bathroom was of a good size but I thought the shower mounted over the steep-side claw-foot bathtub was an accident waiting to happen. I guess if you did take a stumble getting into/out of the bath you could always clutch at the sheer nylon shower curtain, but pretty sure it wouldn't save you. There was also a small balcony overlooking the carpark and which provided access to other rooms. Off-site parking was available in a lot across the street for an extra $15 per night. Staff were super-polite and helpful, though they could not do much when the lift was broken down on our last day.