Cotter House Luxury Retreat

Hotel

Stayed there with the family and can highly recommend the house. Nothing was too much trouble. Gloria is genuinely concerned to make sure your stay is perfect and she works endlessly to obtain that goal — nothing was too much trouble. We also had the Titanic dinner which was a lifetime memorable experience. By the end of the stay we considered Gloria to be family.

Such a wonderful experience. So charming and intriguing the history of the house — the perfect backdrop for High Tea. And the Ballroom — a hidden gem indeed. Loved the collection of artwork and the decor was amazing. Overall great experience with an abundance of food and tea to satisfy all! Loved it.

I have been to Cotter House for High tea and found that the House — a wonderful 1847 heritage building beautifully decorated and furnished with antiques — offered an ideal setting for a most unusual type of High tea: we selected the French high tea made up of 2 entrees, and 2 desserts, silver served. The china and silver were really lovely. We had a very good time and were well looked after. We understand that they have a hospitality training programme that helps young people to develop skills at 5-star level. We also saw lots of art. Gloria our hostess informed us that CH only opens on special request, and publicly only during Auckland heritage Festival, so we were pleased to be invited.

I was recently invited to Eleanor Wright's art exhibition opening "Human Kind" that shows off the skills learned after 3 years in Florence. It was quite an experience to be able to view Cotter house, a lovely heritage 1847 Private luxury retreat that supports young artists and sculptors. We had a "nosy" around the house and were impressed by the charm of the bedrooms (only 3) and all the art and antiques. For an old mansion, it has been restored beautifully. Sometimes they inform people that are not on their newsletter mailing list about this type of events, at Event Finder. Watch to them.

Far from 5 star. We were invited to a high tea for a birthday surprise. We let ourselves in as no one answered the door. Gloria showed us into the lounge then told us she doesn't normally do Mother's Day celebrations! The house is tired, gaudy and dressed up with tacky furniture and offensive "art" work. As for the food, four pastry's and a dessert were edible but poor quality. The waiter was a young Asian girl who was deaf and we were told, had Asberger's, this is not 5 star service, Faulty Towers has nothing on this place. We were had.

Perfect experience: Had the “perfect” experience for a special celebration: this is not a public restaurant, just a private retreat very different from normal hotels so treatment and catering was special: just for me and my guests, in the privacy of our own dining space! House is lovely, food is great and Host is gracious, caters for your special needs and numbers, speaks several languages and can manage the thorny issue of “etiquette” for different nationalities! Was referred as something special – Very well regarded in Asian community – and lived up to my highest expectations. Try it (call well ahead, as bookings are on request only). Highly recommended.

We recently had our tea party there to celebrate our engagement with some friends. Not sure if it is because we did not book the accomodation or the wedding reception with her (because high tea can be booked without accomodation), Gloria (the owner) did not seem to be very happy with us. Since we are having our wedding overseas, we just planned to do a small party in NZ to celebrate. After the high tea, we received so many complaints from our guests. Someone got told off for parking the car in the wrong place. Someone complained she never received the choice of tea she would like. Someone complained that Gloria slammed the door when she entered the kitchen and scared a few guests sitting near the kitchen. Someone complained that he got told off because he stood in the hallway. Someone complained that she got told off when she attempted to show some of her friends of the lounge in the Cotter House as Gloria told them the lounge were not open to the public while I was previously told by Gloria that once we started the function from 2:30pm, we would have access to the lounge if there were no other guests there. We understand that this is just a small size high tea party, maybe we are not paying as much as the other guests who are staying overnight, but we still expect to receive the high standard of service as indicated on the wesite. After all, what we paid for each guest's high tea is enough for people to get a decent dinner in the restaurant.