The 139-room property is part of the final piece of infrastructure in the NZ$1 billion Commercial Bay precinct on the waterfront in central Auckland.
“Pinned as a must-visit destination in 2024, InterContinental Auckland will assist in the growth of the city’s reputation as a luxury travel destination,” said InterContinental Auckland’s general manager, Ryan South.
“Located at One Queen Street in the heart of Commercial Bay, the hotel provides a perfectly located vantage point for Auckland’s city business district and offers direct access to Auckland’s main transport terminals, retail centres and dining experiences.
“With 139 well-appointed rooms and suites, the majority of which provide scenic harbour views, I am confident InterContinental Auckland will redefine luxury hospitality in the City of Sails.”
While the hotel does not offer much in the way of meeting space, it’s a welcome addition to room stock for high-end incentive programs in Auckland, which the city’s bureau is now targeting, alongside conferences.
“Through the pandemic there was a considered shift in our strategy to [look at] how do we position Auckland as an incentive destination too,” head of Auckland Convention Bureau, Ken Pereira, told micenet in December, adding, “with the intention that we’d have a balanced approach…and we’re not just solely reliant on one aspect of business events, because there’s so many more opportunities that we could leverage.”
The city’s incentive potential has already been successfully tested with Amway China bringing around 10,000 incentive delegates to Auckland and Queenstown in late 2023.
The InterContinental Auckland’s debut comes during a hotel boom for the city. The new 311-room Te Arikinui Pullman Auckland Airport opened in December 2023, the five-star Horizon by SkyCity is set to open in March with 303 rooms and the 273-room Abstract Hotel will open in 2024.
The JW Marriott Auckland is also gradually emerging through a transformation of the existing Stamford Plaza, while the Grand Millennium Auckland is undergoing the largest refurbishment in the history of the hotel. Pullman Auckland and Sofitel Auckland Viaduct Harbour have also undergone recent refurbishments.
