Hotel Indigo Auckland

IHG's Hotel Indigo brand made its New Zealand debut in April 2025 with a 225-room boutique property occupying 27 floors of a 41-storey tower in Midtown Auckland. The site once held a 1912 motor house that imported Cadillacs into the country, and the design leans hard on that automotive history rather than papering over it. It is the fifth Hotel Indigo in Australasia and a bet that a purpose-built high-rise can still carry the brand's neighborhood-storytelling premise.

The place

The hotel sits on Albert Street in Midtown Auckland, within walking distance of the Sky Tower, SkyCity Casino, the Viaduct Harbour, Britomart and the site of the planned New Zealand International Convention Centre. It occupies the lower 27 floors of a 41-storey tower, with the upper levels given over to residential apartments, including three penthouses. Midtown has been one of Auckland's busiest construction zones in recent years, and a 225-room hotel anchoring a mixed-use tower on a historic industrial site adds a fixed point to a stretch of the CBD still filling in around it.

The concept

Hotel Indigo Auckland is built into the shell of a 1912 motor house that once imported Cadillacs into New Zealand, and the brand has made that history the organizing idea rather than a footnote. Guest rooms carry automotive-inspired touches (rear-view mirrors mounted above the beds, industrial-style open wardrobes, headlamp-style lighting, pegboard shelving and upholstery referencing car interiors) while the carpets in public areas are printed with street maps of Auckland. Stylist Simone Haag designed the public spaces around handcrafted local artworks, including paintings, sculptures, ceramics and glasswork.

The hotel leans further into local storytelling through two dedicated art commissions: photographer Stuart Robertson's exhibition, spanning all 25 accommodation floors and depicting distinct Auckland neighborhoods, and two installations by artist Raukura Turei incorporating natural elements tied to Māori tradition. The rooms also carry a set of locally sourced touches (Kokako coffee, Karma soft drinks and Zealong tea in the minibar, GHD hairdryers and MARACA body-care products in the bathrooms) consistent with Hotel Indigo's brand pitch of reflecting the neighborhood it sits in rather than a standardized template. A second-floor gym offers strength, cardio and Reformer Pilates equipment.

Dining & wellness

The hotel's primary restaurant, Bistro Saine, serves French and Mediterranean cuisine under executive chef Yutak Son. Café Etiquette operates as a café and wine bar, and The Henry is a cocktail lounge styled after bar culture in New York, London and Paris. Some outlets opened in stages around the hotel's launch, with Bistro Saine established as the anchor dining venue from opening.