Hotel So Christchurch

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TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

4.00

165 Cashel St, (opening Sept 2007) Christchurch, Christchurch-Canterbury, South Island, New Zealand, 3-968-5050

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Travel Blogs by Travelers Who Stayed at the Hotel So Christchurch
Omarama to Christchurch

We spent most of Saturday travelling - leaving Te Anau behind and experiencing some of the most spectacular views of the lakes and mountains of South Island. Arriving at Cromwell we decided on a game of golf at the pretty parkland course. One of us finished the round and the other did not - enough said. It was then a bit of a schlep to Omarama in the middle of the island. A bit of a dustbowl kind of place where the motel owner also runs a fishing tackle shop. A comfy motel though where we not...

Christchurch, South Island, New Zealand 2711andrea
Warm, sunny, and battery died on camera!

What a beautiful day. I have no idea what the temperature is. Maybe I should check online.... [pause] okay, it's 24C. I slept in a bit (the hotel is great, but it's strange since it has no windows, and so I had no concept of time, unless of course, I lifted my head, opened my eyes and checked a clock)... and no concept of the weather either. Once I got moving, I walked around the city centre, and went through the botanical gardens, which are very impressive. That's when the battery on my came...

Christchurch, South Island, New Zealand alyttle
NZ ends

Wow, I can't believe I'll be leaving NZ tomorrow. I still need to get more memory for my camera since 12 MP pictures tend to chew up the space really quickly! This morning we went to Punikaiki and saw the pancake rocks and then had a quick stop in Greymouth before taking the train across the south island to Christchurch. We had a good dinner in town tonight. Now, I need to check my flight times and get ready for hot weather in Fiji...

Christchurch, South Island, New Zealand alyttle
Arriving in Christchurch

To post later

Christchurch, South Island, New Zealand babiemia
Civilised city life

Our final stop we had to return the van - was sad to see Uranus go. The most amazing thing is that the cost of buying & converting the vans into campervans is $7,000 NZ - Ade was slightly gutted that someone had already set up the Spaceships franchise in the UK - keep your eyes peeled for orange cars on the road. We are staying in a hotel - luxury - we decided to stay in Hotel So - a funky hotel in the heart of the city - reasonably priced with a funky bar and a mood lighting system in th...

Christchurch, South Island, New Zealand bec_f
Sooo smooth hotel

hi I hope these blogs are arriving. Anyway I should explain the refrence to Admiral Withers in a recent blog. Audi send me letters and advertising addressed to "admiral withers" I have no idea why but the postman is impressed. We have left Cairns and arrived in Christchurch after a change of flight in Auckland. It hass been a long day and a shock was to greet me when we arrived at the Hotel So. Margaret booked it and its what one may call a boutique hotel. The room is about 7 feet by 10 feet ...

Christchurch, New Zealand chrisandmarg
It's Over

Today we got off the boat, But because I didn't get to bed until 4 I slept through 3 announcements. I woke up as they announced floor 7. So quickly dressed and ran up barefoot. But I passed and I was allowed to enter the country. Then it was a bus ride to the airport where I picked up the new NZ mobile and left the luggage. Because the others were flying out today I hung around at the airport. We walked over to the Antarctica centre. But we didn't go in (it was NZD78) as we had just left the ...

Christchurch, South Island, New Zealand conrad.bear
23 Hours of Travel

We made it to Christchurch! Our flight from Auckland was a snap - 70 minutes and Murphy made friends with the person in front of him.

The car rental (Apex) went smoothly but the driving? We survived. Never thought about the turn signal being on the other side of the steering wheel. Yes, we were that car driving with the windshield wipers on in no rain when we needed to turn. Richard did a good job though; I haven't taken a crack at it and won't until we're in open road.

We chec...

Christchurch, Canterbury, New Zealand cpollak
A Little Strange

Woke up this morning wicked tired. Not so crazy about this hotel - it's ridiculous. I'm not sure I can even explain except to say it's tiny and strange, There is a user manual for the "sleep system." You can't get a wakeup call and if you need anything like towels you have to go to the basement laundry room and get it yourself. 3 hangers. I kid you not. It's trying too hard to be hip for it's own good.

Christchurch is a garden city so you definately need to get out and see it during t...

Christchurch, South Island, New Zealand cpollak
Bonjour!

Before going back to where we started our trip 7 days ago on the South Island in Christchurch, we took a detour to Akaroa.  It is located on the Banks Peninsula.  The tourist drive over the Summit Road is breathtaking.  It reminds me of Switzerland (of course the bay doesn't exist but the rolling pastures etc...)  The weather was nice and sunny so it made the scenery much better.  We arrived around lunch time and choose a cafe to dine outdoors with some French food.

Akaroa was the only...

Akaroa, South Island, New Zealand davidwshih
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Historical Traveler Reviews of Hotel So Christchurch

Yes, it's a pod

from lighthouseboy
I stayed at Hotel So Dec 9th-12th. Only the 6th floor was open to guests. I was actually one of the first people to book a room when their website went live. I was in a double room which basically had a bigger bed.

I will say this, this hotel will not be for everyone. Personally, it suited my needs. It had a ensuite bathroom, a refrigator (which is common for NZ motels/hotels), a comfortable bed and TV with both cable and 'webchannels' where you could see folks in the bar, the computer room (with 4 Macs for guest usage at no cost) and a sidewalk shot. The location is great and I didn't feel it was noisy.

Only disappointment was the laundry. It had only be opened one week and, apparently, the washer did not automatically put in the detergent and the dryers did not have heat (I tried 4 times to dry my clothes to no avail). However, the hotel credited me the $10 I used on the machines and I was able to go to the hotel next door and use their machines so it was all good.

New concept hotel

from elise160
I bit worried about booking as we knew the hotel was only due to open 3 weeks before our stay, but luckily it was all finished. The only problem we had was that the card didn't work the door a couple of times and there were some teething problems with getting into the car park. Stayed in a standard room, which is very compact but well arranged. I would suggest that you need to know each other very well if sharing as the bathroom is only seperated by a frosted glass screen!

Really liked the sleep/wake system where a lamp gradually dims to send you to sleep or brightens to wake you naturally.

The bar/cafe looked good but we didn't use it.

Overall, a good new concept and I would stay again.

Neues Konzepthotel

from elise160
Ich hatte mir wegen der Buchung ein paar Sorgen gemacht, da das Hotel erst drei Wochen vor unserer Anreise Eröffnung feierte, es war dann glücklicherweise aber alles fertig geworden. Das einzige Problem war die Schlüsselkarte fürs Zimmer, die ein paar Mal nicht funktioniert hat und es war auch noch nicht ganz so einfach auf den Parkplatz zu kommen.

Wir hatten ein Standardzimmer, das recht klein, aber gut geschnitten war. Sie sollten sich schon gut kennen, wenn Sie dort ein Zimmer mit jemandem teilen, denn die Badezimmertür war aus Milchglas!

Mir hat das Schlaf/Wecksystem dort gefallen. Beim Einschlafen dimmte das Licht langsam runter und am Morgen wurde es langsam natürlich heller.

Bar/Cafe sah gut aus, wir waren aber nicht drin.

Insgesamt ein gutes neues Konzept und ich würde wieder hier übernachten.

A fantastic hotel - I'm a big fan

from transtasmantraveller
I'm constantly back and forth between Sydney and New Zealand for business and wrote a review about Hotel SO when I first stayed there, a couple of days after it had just opened in November.

I've now had the opportunity to stay there two more times and wanted to write another review. Quite simply, and I've stayed at many hotels around the world (yet never felt the need to be an advocate for any of them), this is the best hotel in its price range that I've ever come across.

Every time I've been back I've been made to feel welcome by the friendly staff who already know me by my first name. Yes, the rooms are very small, but as I said in my first review, that's to be expected - they are after all charging me $89 a night, a price that is cheaper than most dive motels and on par with most backpackers. And this is a brand new hotel, not a backpackers.

The rooms are packed full of features. Comfy bed, the technology is great (flat screen TVs and a plug for my iPod), and it has an alarm clock system that is quite possibly the coolest I've ever come across. The food at the restaurant/bar is great, I've had breakfast, lunch and dinner there, the breakfast was especially fantastic.

When I first stayed there they were having some teething problems but in my two visits since nothing's gone wrong. If you're after a huge room with a balcony or something like that then you should think twice about booking - Hotel SO is probably not for you. If you're after a hotel room for an unbeatable price, then this is the one for you. Quite simply, I don't think that you'd be able to find a better hotel for the price around New Zealand or Australia.

What can I say? I'm a fan of Hotel SO. And will definitely be back.

Worst hotel I have ever stayed in!

from KarenSussex2
This hotel is a complete shambles. Rooms are small and claustrophobic. Most are without windows. Lighting system in rooms quite often not working. Staff have no idea what they are doing, I was sent to 3 rooms on one occasion (one not made up, one broken units and third was twin and should have been double). On getting the correct room it was clear that the cleaning staff had given it a quick spritz over and not a proper clean. This hotel was already looking shabby after only 2 weeks of opening. I dread to think what it will be like after a month. Location was good but there are much better hotels around to choose from.

Good value hotel for gadget lovers

from Chromes
This new hotel is close to the shopping district of Christchurch and has lots of modern technology such as the in-room lighting system. The large wet-room shower was also really good. They have done without some normal hotel basics to keep costs down though, such as a wardrobe or drinking glasses so may not be the best choice if you are staying for more than a few nights. The only issue we had was a significant amount of noise during through the night, most likely from the hotels own bar, even though we were up on the 5th floor.

Technology as never seen before in hotels

from ssSydney
We stayed in this hotel for 1 night & it was a beautiful experience....we were very lucky as the hotel had just opened on the day we checked in....we really wished we had some more time to enjoy the room.....the room had various mood lighting's & a wall mounted LCD TV.....this hotel is particularly good for people who have trouble waking up in the morning....15mins before the alarm there is artificial sunlight to help you wake up & the TV switches on automatically with mood sounds to help you wake up ..(would love to have @ home)....perfect for Jet Lag.....there is so much this hotel has to offer although i must say the rooms are a bit cramped up......friendly staff & good location as its in the city center.

Haven't seen a hotel quiet like it .......it's definitely a MUST experience !!!

Technologie, wie ich sie in einem Hotel noch nie gesehen habe

from ssSydney
Wir waren für eine Nacht in diesem Hotel und es war ein wundervolle Erfahrung. Wir hatten Glück, denn das Hotel feierte bei unserer Ankunft gerade Eröffnung. Wir hätten wirklich sehr gerne mehr Zeit im Zimmer verbracht. Das Zimmer war mit diversen "Stimmungslichtern" und einen an der Wand montierten LCD-Fernseher ausgestattet.

Das Hotel ist besonders für Leute geeignet, die morgens nicht aus den Betten kommen. 15 Minuten vor dem Wecker geht langsam ein künstliches Licht an, um einem das Aufwachen zu erleichtern und der Fernseher geht auch automatisch an und auch relaxte Musik hilft einem beim Wachwerden (das hätte ich gerne Zuhause). Perfekt für Jetlag. Das Hotel hatte wirklich recht viel zu bieten, die Zimmer waren allerdings recht klein.

Freundliches Personal und gute Lage, da es im Zentrum liegt.

Habe so ein Hotel noch nicht gesehen. Das muss man einfach einmal erlebt haben!!!

So hated it

from SleeplessSleepless
No double glazing on windows and one side of the hotel has a really noisy bar - kept me awake from 2.30am to 6.00am and I was on the 6th floor. I asked for a room change for the second night and was offered the room next door but without a window. This room was like a sauna because the air conditioner was stuck on hot only. I opted to stay in the noisy room and had another sleepless night because they wouldn't refund as I had booked through wotif.

Ich habe es gehasst

from SleeplessSleepless
Keine Doppelverglasung der Fenster und auf der einen Seite des Hotels gab es eine recht laute Bar - ich war von 2.30 bis 6 Uhr wach und ich war im 6. Stock untergebracht. Ich fragte nach einem anderen Zimmer für die zweite Nacht und mir wurde ein Zimmer nebenan ohne Fenster angeboten. Dieses Zimmer war wie eine Sauna, da die Klimaanlage nur auf warm gestellt werden konnte. Ich blieb daraufhin in dem anderen Zimmer und verbrachte dann noch eine schlaflose Nacht dort, da wir vorher über wotif gebucht und bezahlt hatten und sie uns das Geld nicht rückerstatten wollten.
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