HOTEL REVIEW: Museum Apartment Hotel, Independent Collection by EVT, Wellington

• NEW ZEALAND: Introduction — Wellington, a ferry to Picton for a South Island holiday
• LOUNGE REVIEW: Update to Qantas First Lounge Sydney for Autumn 2025
• HOTEL REVIEW: Too much style? Naumi Hotel, Wellington, New Zealand
• TRIP REPORT: Interislander ferry between Wellington and Picton, New Zealand
• HOTEL REVIEW: Bring boltcutters? Picton Waterfront Apartments, New Zealand
• NEW ZEALAND: Top of the South Island, what we did and ate in Picton, Havelock and Blenheim
• NEW ZEALAND: Flight from Blenheim to Wellington on Air New Zealand
• HOTEL REVIEW: Museum Apartment Hotel, Independent Collection by EVT, Wellington

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This hotel has a split personality. Although they share public spaces, the two buildings in this accommodation are marketed as two different hotels, even though they share a lot of the same DNA. Yes, it’s confusing.

I stayed at the other half of the hotel a few years ago, marketed as a QT property. I wrote then that it was a hotel designed by a teenager but with ADHD. Well, this experience just adds a diagnosis of split personality.

I must admit, I thought I was booking a larger suite in the QT part of the property. The rooms looked the same, although I had an inkling that maybe I was staying in a different part of the hotel. I didn’t realise that what I thought might just be a name change was, in fact, a sibling property, or indeed the other ‘split’ of the personality of this hotel.

I’m going to keep this review short because most of what I said back in 2023, including the moving of the hotel building across the street, still applies. The Museum wing we stayed in has consistent room decoration, and shares public spaces with the other wing of the hotel. Want more? Head over to that review.

Booking and Price

I booked the hotel through Qantas Hotels. It offered the best deal, with more flexibility than booking directly with the hotel and at a similar price. This was the final couple of nights of our trip, where we intended to do a bit of chillaxing rather than burning up the nightlife of Wellington. So, a bit of space, and a comfortable lounging space were important. Unfortunately, we were to be disappointed.

Stay: 27 to 29 March 2025
Stars: 4
Room: One Bedroom Apartment (Breakfast included0
Size: 50 sqm (538 sqf)
Bed: King
Per Night Average: ~AU$404
Address: 247-257 Wakefield Street, Wellington 6011, New Zealand
Phone: +64-4-8028900
Email: reservations_museumapartmenthotel@evt.com
Web: www.museumapartmenthotel.com

The Apartment

Upon entering the room, there was the bathroom, then the kitchen to the left, and the laundry to the right. Following the small corridor along the kitchen, you entered the dining room straight ahead, with the sitting room and, from that, the bedroom to the right.

Everything you needed but not well arranged. For instance, to get to the bathroom from the bedroom, you basically had to traverse the whole apartment, through the lounge, dining room and kitchen, back to the entrance.

I can’t begin to explain my disappointment when we saw our room. It kind of looked like it had been stocked with leftover furniture from the QT in front. With obvious space sufficient for two sofas or an ‘L’ shaped sectional, the crushed velvet, cheap foam-covered chaise longue was an insult. Don’t these two fur-threw metal net chairs look integrated and cosy, along with that matching blond wood furniture?

The contrast with the dark wood kitchen and bench is a design statement. Confused and garbled, but a statement nonetheless. Essentially, the interior design looked like the creative in charge fled in horror. But hey, we could share the chaise, or one of us could use one of those metal net chairs, and use the other as a footrest. Right? And anyway, the most important things in a hotel room are the bed and the bedroom.

Looks OK? Well, it was, as long as you didn’t mind the lack of space on either side of the bed. The lack of window was not an issue. It’s a bedroom. You want it to be dark.

A minor point is the coffin-like wardrobe, with no light inside. The concertina/bifold doors tell the story. If you had single or even double doors, they would have hit the bed when they opened. The bifolds are there for a reason. Still, the wardrobe came with essentials like an iron, an ironing board, and hangers. No safe, though; that was elsewhere.

No chair in here to assist in dressing, no drawers to place your things in. No mirror, no makeup table or dresser, nothing but the basics. And, only enough space to unpack your suitcases. Not much consideration for guests’ needs.

The Bathroom

Well, with all this lounge space, the bathroom will be a reasonable size, right? Sort of. It did not have a shower over a bath, which is one of my pet hates, but it did not have a bath, and was a little shoe-horned into the space behind the kitchen, to the left of the entrance.

The issue with this arrangement is that to access it, from the bedroom, you needed to traverse the entire lounge area, and then head past the kitchen to get there. Sort of the opposite of an ensuite.

Yep, it’s fairly small, and of course, that shower is going to spill out into the rest of the bathroom, isn’t it? Still, it had a heated towel rack for plenty of towels.

Amenities are by Kevin Murphy, and were perfectly acceptable, although nothing special. That terracotta-y pink colour, although apparently ‘on-trend ‘, somehow reminds me of vomit. Is that just me?

The Lounge

This is possibly the most disappointing area in the entire apartment. Am I being mean, but doesn’t it look like a collection of furniture left on the street for council collection day? No wall art, no area rug, no place for two guests to comfortably lounge, no coffee table. Need I go on? Whoever thought those gold metal chairs were comfortable, or that a synthetic fur throw would make them so, needs some serious ergonomics training.

And what’s that bedside table doing under the TV? And why is the TV in the corner instead of closer to the middle of the wall?

Now, if you are buying nights at an apartment hotel, it tends to indicate you might be spending a bit of time in the room. So, you want a comfortable place to sit and relax. Well, this was not the room to find it.

Aside from the furniture being old and tired, there was just not enough of it, nor was it the right kind. A couple of lounge chairs, or an ‘L’ shaped lounge suitable for two people to stretch out on. A couple of side tables to put a drink on, and oh, maybe a coffee table? Revolutionary, I know! Did this room have any of that? No.

This lounge room failed on every measure. It was not well furnished, nor comfortable. It was not well designed. And, that lounge was being held together by duct tape!

The Kitchen & Laundry

Now, this was where this apartment had the potential to shine. The kitchen was quite extensive, with a large island bench and excellent facilities, including a good-sized fridge, microwave, double dishwasher, oven and hotplates, plus a coffee machine and exhaust hood. What a good start.

And if we had wanted to cook a basic meal, we could have done so with the supplied kitchen equipment. The safe seems a bit out of place, but given there are no shelves or drawers in the bedroom or wardrobe, this is acceptable.

Having a coffee machine of some description in the room is now a basic for any hotel that aspires to more than three stars. This one was good, and I appreciate the espresso cups, since that’s how I like my morning coffee from these pod-based machines. T2 teas, although not my favourite, were a premium brand to stock up on.

If you are observant, you will notice that the sink has an ‘insinkerator’, or garbage disposal unit. It was non-operational, as far as I could tell. One of my pet hates is non-operational facilities. I can understand why they may have chosen not to make it usable. A single teaspoon going down the sink can be disastrous. But if that’s the case, remove that facility altogether.

The laundry had a combined washer/dryer. These machines are fine, although all the cycles are exceedingly long. The space certainly had room to have two machines – a washer and a separate dryer. Maybe there was insufficient exhaust ducting or something that prevented that option. Still, after a week in New Zealand, the washing and drying facility was much appreciated.

Dining Room

Not a lot to say here. Table and four chairs. Done.

We didn’t cook at all. This became a breakfast bar really. We ate out every night. Fortunately, Wellington has a good choice of restaurants both close by and further afield.

I can highly recommend Rita for both the food and the extremely attentive and friendly service. Here is our bill.

And here is the delicious plate of food from our meal. It tasted as good as it looks.

The restaurant in an old retail space is small, probably seating about 30, but the fit-out is great, including these bespoke tables with drawers for cutlery. You can see we are already one gin and tonic and a negroni down.

2PAXfly Takeout

The Museum Apartment hotel room was a bit of a disappointment. On the upside, it was spacious and had a great kitchen. On the downside, the lounge room facilities were inadequate and lacked any consistent design or comfort.

Unless you specifically want these facilities, I would recommend staying at the QT itself. They also have rooms with kitchenettes, and I think they also have one-bedroom suites. The decor and comfort are much superior, and you have access to the same restaurant, bar, and other facilities as those shared with the Museum Apartment hotel. You can read a full review of the QT Wellington here.

It’s a pity. The Museum Apartment Hotel could be great with a bit of thought, putting the guest at the centre of the experience. And isn’t that what hospitality is meant to be about?