Overview
Adding to the CBD's growing skyline and in anticipation of the city's booming visitor numbers (an estimated 3.8 million by 2025), luxury hotel brand SO/ will open its first hotel in Auckland this November. The 130-room property will occupy the former Reserve Bank on Customs Street in the heart of the city.
It will join seven other hotels worldwide under AccorHotel's Sofitel boutique label. The lifestyle hotel aims to shatter conventional hotel norms with points of difference like a free mini bar service and staff without name tags. Local designers are often enlisted to translate their artistic vision. At the Auckland property an "avant-garde masterpiece" has been inspired by NZ fashion label World. The brand spent three years with SO/ to create an emblem, a signature design print, artwork, wallpaper designs for the signature suites, cushions for the chauffeur cars and attire for the staff.
Instead of a dull lobby, Auckland General Manager Stephen Gould says the guest entry has been fitted with a bar that "looks like it might be the meeting spot for celebrities, the fashion elite and rockstars." The watering hole is one of three bars inside the property. Found on the top level, the HI SO has been described as one of Auckland's highest outdoor rooftop bars, offering views across Auckland harbour and the city.
On the 15th floor is French-inspired restaurant Harbour Society helmed by French chef Marc de Passorio, former owner of Michelin-starred restaurant L'Esprit de la Violette. Elsewhere, the hotel will feature a café, a spa, a fitness centre and a 20-metre indoor heated pool.
SO/ Auckland will open at 62 Customs Street, Auckland CBD on 1 November, 2018.