IHG Hotels and Resorts has opened the first property under its Voco brand in Auckland.
Voco Auckland City Centre is located on the corner of Albert and Wyndham Street, and is part of a dual tower development which also features a Holiday Inn Express property, which is due to open next month.
As previously reported, the Voco property had originally been announced under IHG’s wellness brand Even Hotels, but in 2020 the group said that “following IHG’s launch of Voco in 2018 it became clear that the new brand would not only resonate with the colourful, unstuffy and laid-back Kiwi spirit, but also that its ‘tread light’ philosophy made it a perfect fit with [owner] Pro-invest’s culture of environmental governance, which includes a commitment to targeting high energy efficiency ratings across its portfolio”.
The hotel offers 201 rooms with designs features including “plush, sustainable bedding with cocoon-like comfort, hand-picked artworks, smart in-room technology and stylish marble bathrooms that feature eco-conscious rain showers and amenities from Antipodes”.
Ground floor all day dining restaurant Mozzarella and Co serves buffet breakfast and a pizza and pasta menu for lunch and dinner, and the Art Deco style Bar Albert is due to open in mid-June, when it will become New Zealand’s highest rooftop bar. Other facilities include a fitness centre and five flexible meeting rooms.
The hotel is targeting a Level 3/Level 4 Green Engage certificate through the implementation of sustainable initiatives including bedding filled with 100 per cent recycled materials, aerated shower heads in guest bathrooms, and refillable amenities which IHG says reduce plastic waste by up to 80 per cent.
IHG launched the Voco brand in 2018, with the first property opening on Australia’s Gold Coast – recent European openings include Voco Dusseldorf Seestern and Voco Milan-Fiere.
