I always stay at the Rydges in Auckland and am never disappointed. It is well located to the main street (Queen) a couple of blocks from the casino and a short walk to the harbour which has some fantastic restaurants.

The hotel offers great value, through the priority guest system I received a room upgrade and free internet during my stay. So check out the internet deals available when you book.

If I was to list any negatives it would be that it doesn't have a fitness centre or pool. You can get a free pass to a gym about 5-10 minute walk from the hotel, which is sufficient. The hotel seems to be undergoing some new construction, so maybe there are some changes coming in the future.

You won't be disappointed!

Our room was fantastic. The hotel was clean, quiet, and close to everything. We were able to walk to the viaducts (harbour), and the buses ran just a block away. I could lay in bed and watch people jump off the skytower. It was a great room for the price.
The valet parking was fairly expensive, you had to pay full price everyday even if you didn't move the car, but other than that there were no complaints.
I would definitely stay here again.

14 of us stayed at Rydges in Auckland as part of an extended family vacation. We had just arrived from a 20 hour overseas flight. We unpacked, and went out for a walk around town and a bite to eat. When we returned, my 11 year old son's brand new iPod was missing. It had been plugged in to be recharged (unfortunately, in plain sight), and it was taken. We immediately reported it to the front desk. The young manager in charge investigated, and found that there was some 'suspicious' activity (ie: that one of the staff had entered more than once, or at a time that was unusual). Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, he did not locate the stolen iPod.
We also had a bad experience with being locked out of the same room that evening. Something happened with the electronic key lock, and it wouldn't open the door. We ended up having to use a coat hanger and my brother-in-law was finally were able to open the door with a coat hanger -- just before the maintenance manager came in (on his off day, I should add). We were exhausted (after having flown half-way around the world), and all we wanted to do was go to bed -- which we couldn't because we couldn't get into our room. Needless to say, this experience, on top of having the iPod stolen, left a horrible taste in our mouths.
I should add that the manager did try to make it up (he gave my brother-in-law a bottle of wine for opening the door to our room), and he did upgrade us on our next visit, but the overall feeling we had was very bad.

Really good location, but we were not told about the building site out the window during our stay. Slightly dodgy taxi service at this hotel. On leaving, we enquired about a bus to the airport, and were told by the hotel reception that it was worth getting the taxi as it was only $35. We left our bags with the hotel and were told when we returned to pick up the bags, we could book a taxi for $35. The concierge booked the taxi, but on arriving at the airport, the taxi charged us $70. On informing the hotel of this, we were told that we should have specified 'discount taxi' on booking. We were not told about this secret password, and surely all the hotel guests should receive the good deal, why isn't it be the default? On raising the issue, the hotel were very unhelpful and took days to respond to our complaint. But the location is great - guess you can't have everything!