Review of QT Wellington 4*

Check in was good and efficient, friendly. Very nice vibe to the lobby (which has some great artwork we spent time looking at later). The room was great, if not large, and worked really well. Plenty of electrical sockets well positioned, good Wi-Fi, comfortable bedding, and a great bathroom, plus a spacious furnished balcony. Smallish gripe: our “Harbour View King” on the first floor offered a view of trees, a bit of the Museum, and a few yacht masts. Lesson: ask for a hig…h floor room when booking I guess. A big plus for the property is its great location for harbour front walking, the museum, Cuba Street/restaurants, and just a15-20 minutes stroll to Lambton Quay shopping. Loved that! BIG GRIPE: On checkout, I had to pay a surcharge for using my credit card. The only place in the world in a large hotel chain where this happens is in New Zealand and Australia. I've experienced it before, so QT is not alone in this sin. It's not the actual amount of money that irritates me, but the principle of it. If you are a local, you can always pay by EFTPOS, but as a foreigner you really have no choice unless you carry oodles of cash around with you. And non-city hotels in NZ don't do it… this was the only hotel booking where I was levied a credit card surcharge in a month's travel in the country. Why do they do this? The smaller hotels that DON'T surcharge probably have to pay a larger commission to the banks than the big chains do, so WHY? I raised the issue politely with the cashier (it's not his fault) and he sympathised ("thank you sir. The more people that complain the more they will be heard" was his appropriate message). I would definitely rate this property 5-star, but drop it a notch simply because of this really irritating, mickey-mouse credit card surcharge.