On TripAdvisor, CityLife is ranked higher than the Crowne Plaza, but both Earl and I prefer the latter to the former.

The main draw is that this hotel has a really great location - it's right on Queen Street so there are a lot of shops, restaurants, and even two supermarkets that are all an extremely short walk from the hotel.

There's also a bus stop right outside where you can catch the Link Bus (to get around the city) and the Airbus Express (for those taking the airport shuttle).

And while both the room and the bathroom were clean, they felt a bit cramped. The bathroom, for example, had a heated towel rail, but no other towel bars in the room. I prefer having more space to hang the towels (and not have to fold them just so they fit).



One huge negative for Earl was the fact that they did not provide free wi-fi. It's NZD 15 for 24 hours which irritated him to no end as he had to work while on vacation.

There's no direct flight from Queenstown to Singapore so we had to spend an extra night in Auckland before catching our return flight. This was the reason we needed another hotel and though CityLife's room rate was slightly higher, I wanted to try it out thinking its location would be more convenient. In hindsight, if we had to do it all over again, I'd stick to the Crowne Plaza.

Crowne Plaza Queenstown

Hotels abound in Queenstown, but many are either an uphill climb (literally) or expensive. A happy medium is the Crowne Plaza. It has a great location and you won't be huffing and puffing just to get there.

Pros:

- The room is clean and the bed is comfortable.
- Gift shops and restaurants are all a very short walk from the hotel (some are across the street).
- There's a convenience store next door. More expensive than the supermarket (which is 10 minutes by foot), but great in an emergency.
- Free wi-fi (just sign up for membership which is also free).
- There's a laundry room - cost is NZD 3 per machine. Total washing and drying fee is NZD 6 for one load.

Cons:

- It was hard to get a hold of housekeeping - it seemed like only the number for the reception desk worked.
- In the three days we were there, the breakfast buffet never changed and the options were mediocre at best. Basically, it's just so that you have something to eat without having to walk out in really cold weather.
- The temperature in our room was either cool or cold as the thermostat had no heater option (either that or it wasn't working).
- The in-room safe was located at the bottom of the closet - good thing my husband was around as it's hard to bend down when you're pregnant.
- The laundry room was very musty and needed airing. They provide free detergent, but the machine will only dispense about a tablespoon of liquid soap. We ended up buying our own as I could not imagine how such a tiny amount of detergent could clean a large load of dirty clothes.

For the location alone, I wouldn't mind staying here again, but I'd also be willing to try out some place new if our budget permits.

Crowne Plaza Auckland

For those into aesthetics, this hotel is not for you. Earl and I agreed that the Crowne Plaza Auckland was very generic looking - no style, just a place to crash for the night. But if you want a room that's clean, very conveniently located, and comes with free wi-fi, then this hotel is hard to beat. Aside from which, the room rate is lower than the others in the same area.

I cannot stress enough just how convenient its location is! First, it's attached to a small mall with a food court at the basement, Countdown Supermarket is just a few steps away, across the street is Smith & Caughey's (which we used as a shortcut to Queen Street), it's next door to the Elliott Stables, and a lot of other dining options are all within a short walk from the hotel (thus, no need to pay extra for the breakfast buffet).

Actually, Earl liked this place better compared to CityLife Auckland (hotel review to follow) which is ranked higher in TripAdvisor. I must say I agree with him since our room here was more spacious and again comes with free wi-fi (very important) - you just need to sign up for membership which is free.

Above is the view from our room. The hotel is parallel to Queen Street which has fast food options such as Wendy's and a 24-hour McDonald's.

One list I found useful is The 100 Best Cheap Eats in Auckland 2013 as many of them are located in the central business district (that's how I found out about the NZD 5 pizza slices at Sal's Authentic New York Pizza which is just around the corner from the hotel). There's a 2014 version of the list which you can view here.

One of the few cons I can think of during our visit was the concierge. We booked a tour through them and they quoted a rate of NZD 275 per person. When we went on the tour, it turns out the correct rate was higher at NZD 280. I told the concierge about it right away and they sent an email explaining the situation a few days later. I was thinking that had this been another country, we would have been refunded the difference.

Also, I asked housekeeping for a copy of the mini-bar menu and I never got it in the three days we stayed there. But these incidents are minor in the greater scheme of things.

The hotel also has a laundry room and provides free detergent. The fee is NZD 2 for the use of washer and the dryer (your total laundry bill for one load would be NZD 4). Needless to say, I would definitely recommend the Crowne Plaza to anyone who plans to visit Auckland.

Sydney: Meriton Serviced Apartments Campbell Street

There is a reason why I always bring a bottle of rubbing alcohol with me every time I travel - housekeeping agents usually do not care about the cleanliness of the rooms they clean, but I'll get to this later.

Here's what I loved:

1. There are literally tons of great dining options within walking distance from the hotel starting with Chat Thai just two doors down.
2. Darling Harbour is 15 to 20 minutes away depending on how fast you walk.
3. The free shuttle bus (route 555) stops practically beside the hotel.
4. Free wifi.
5. World Square Shopping Center is at the next block and it has two supermarkets.
6. Capitol Theater is right across the street.

Here's what I didn't like:

1. Leftover poop on the toilet seat cover (not in picture is the other end which was just as problematic). I had never encountered this before in the other hotels we've stayed at.

2. Another first is the huge cockroach that greeted me on my second night at the Meriton. I didn't want to squish it because of the carpet, so I emptied a tissue box and trapped it with one of the hotel information cards. I then hurriedly brought it out to the balcony and left everything there.

3. The carpet wasn't clean as every time I took a shower, the water beneath my rubber slippers turned black. I did not use my flip flops outside so I can't think of anything else to account for the dirt. This also hasn't happened before.

4. The soap dish in the shower had soap scum from previous guests.

5. Dust under the swivel TV mount. It was so thick I wrote a note for the housekeeping agent and it never disappeared during the four nights we stayed there.

I told the duty manager about the toilet problem and he offered to let housekeeping go back and clean it. I declined by saying that since they couldn't get it right the first time, I'd rather do it myself. He also offered to give us late check-out, but I told him that we didn't need it as our flight was early in the morning.

Tip: Unless you want water dripping all over the place, bring your own soap dish because the one they have is a wire basket that's located on a ledge away from the sink.

Canberra: Aria Hotel

For this trip, we went with a two bedroom apartment as I was with my parents and sister. First off, the location is not convenient in the sense that there are no nearby shops or restaurants, so you will really need a car to get around.

In general, the rooms were clean except in some areas like the top of the mini-fridge which was thick with dust and placemats that clearly needed washing. But those were minor in the greater scheme of things.

The bathroom, as far I could tell, was mold free. My only complaint was that there were no toothbrush holders or anything tall enough to put toothbrushes in the entire apartment.

Dishwasher was not great at washing - had to do everything again by hand. Take note, we followed the instruction manual to the letter.

The dryer was not working at first, but was fixed the next day. Only problem was that we did our laundry the night before and had to hang everything on the dining room chairs.

If you're in a hurry, don't bother doing the laundry as the washing machine takes a minimum of two hours to do one cycle - and that's the quick wash option. Others take even longer.

There's also no free internet, but what really frustrated me was that there was no wifi signal in our room. I reported it to the front desk twice and the agent said they had it re-routed but to no avail. Quite inconvenient to have to go down to the lobby to get internet access. If you have a laptop, then no problem as you can just plug in the cable. Ipad users will be out of luck.

The hotel waived the AUD 4 fee for the 30 minute internet package I used while in the lobby. That was nice, but it did not make me feel any better as I use Skype to talk to my husband. Needless to say, I am dreading my next phone bill.

Breakfast is a separate charge and costs AUD 19 if you pre-book (AUD 23 regular rate). Good thing I decided to take a look first before making a decision. The buffet is quite small and looks as though not a lot of thought was put into it in terms of menu and presentation. There were two attendants at the time I entered the cafe and both were too busy talking.

In all, it's not bad but I would probably try some other property on my next visit to Canberra.

The Mayflower, Jakarta - Marriott Executive Apartments

My husband had a business trip to Jakarta so it was the office that arranged for the hotel. The room was comfortable in the sense that there's a lot of space for just two people, but given a choice, I would book elsewhere. Here's why:

1. Breakfast is very basic and not great. I've had much better meals at smaller hotels that are not even part of an international chain.

2. We had dinner at the café one night and when we needed our bill, no one was around. I tried calling out to the staff inside the kitchen three times, but they could not hear me. Good thing the front desk agent a few meters away saw me and gave our bill, otherwise we could have left without paying.

This happened again when I returned the next day to place an order. The staff were nowhere to be found when I entered the café and had to call out "Hello, anybody home?" a few times before someone attended to me.

3. The soap dish had old soap leftover by previous guests and the toilet needed cleaning.

4. Kitchen drawers need repair. Not in picture: the gap cover below the oven fell off every time I opened the oven door.

5. Thick dust that can easily be reached by a vacuum nozzle and a water dispenser with what I assumed were coffee stains. Take note this is after I wiped some off. It then makes you wonder how long the water has been sitting there.

6. The refrigerator shelves needed a bit of wiping, but that was minor compared to the state of the oven:

7. There were no mosquitoes, but something always seemed to be biting me whenever I was in the room.

8. I called Guest Services on two separate occasions to ask how much local phone charges cost and was told by two different people that it's less than IDR 5000 per minute to a landline. I made a seven (7) second phone call to my husband's office and was charged IDR 11,217. Take note that the phone just rang five (5) times and I didn't even get to talk to anyone.

9. There is not much nearby in terms of food or malls except for The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf outlet on the ground floor along with a Japanese restaurant, but both are closed at 8 PM and on weekends.

In addition, the traffic makes you not want to get out because even at 10:30 AM or 3 PM, you can easily rack up a rather huge cab bill. I think only on Sundays and public holidays can you get relief from the traffic jams.

There is a pharmacy (Guardian), but that too is closed during weekends. The only silver lining is the small convenience store that is open everyday until 9 PM.

So was there anything about the hotel that I did like? Yes. First is that they had more TV channel options than other hotels I've been to (which I believe is typical of serviced apartments). And second, the staff were friendly - when they're around.

Tips:

- Grab one of the hotel's business cards at the lobby and keep it in your wallet. Some taxi drivers do not believe that there is a Marriott at the Indofood Tower and will refuse to leave until they've made sure you understand that.

- If coming from Plaza Senayan or Pacific Place Mall, best to ask the taxi driver to drop you off at Wisma Nugra Santana which is the building across the street from the Indofood Tower and take the overhead foot bridge back to the hotel. Otherwise, you'll have to go all the way to the rotunda near Grand Indonesia to make a U-turn. The highway unfortunately does not have breaks in-between and the traffic is so terrible that what is supposed to be a 5 minute trip, ends up taking close to an hour.

Ho Chi Minh: Liberty Central Saigon Centre Hotel

Every time I asked the concierge agent about taking a cab to go somewhere, he always told me not to bother and just walk. Yup, the hotel was so centrally located that, airport transfers aside, we only used a taxi on two occasions during our four day stay.

The tour guide that we hired even skipped going to the Bến Thành Market since it was literally just a few steps away from the hotel.

The hotel itself is nothing fancy, but all things considered, it was quite comfortable. The bathroom was basically clean, and while there were a few mold spots, there was nothing that would make you cringe in horror.

Their breakfast buffet was more than adequate - neither huge nor tiny. On the whole, breakfast was enjoyable, though with room for improvement as their fried rice was a bit dry, omelettes had too much oil, and the muffins were rather crunchy.

I would recommend this hotel to anyone looking for an affordable and convenient place to stay in Sài Gòn.

Shangri-La’s Rasa Sentosa Resort & Spa

Earl and I decided to spend our seventh wedding anniversary at Shangri-La’s Rasa Sentosa Resort & Spa. They currently have the Rasa Family Fun promo which includes both breakfast and dinner for two adults and two children.

I compared the rate of a regular room with two buffet breakfasts, and it's just an additional SGD 65 for the promo. Basically, it's like paying SGD 65 for four dinner buffets inclusive of free-flowing soft drinks, chilled juices, house wine or beer. Considering the regular buffet price is SGD 90+ for just one person, that was a steal.

I liked the look of our room, but when we first entered, we found a note and a gift box addressed to another guest. The envelope had our room number written on it so it made us wonder if Front Desk had made a mistake. We called to inform them of the mix-up and after some time, they told us that we could keep the room and the box. Someone then came over to pick up the letter and also gave us a box of chocolates. That was nice - we now had Peranakan sweets and chocolate to start off our weekend aside from the usual fruit!

Oh, and the first round of drinks in the mini bar were all complimentary which was another point in the hotel's favor.

The next thing we noticed was that the room smelled musty. There was a small machine on the floor and when we asked about it, the housekeeping staff explained that was an electric air freshener. We turned it off soon after as we didn't think it was working.

The room was clean in the obvious places, but I noticed that there was a lot of dust in other areas. I always bring Lysol and alcohol with me to disinfect all the surfaces that we will be using (i.e. door knobs, telephones, faucets, etc.), and found quite a bit of dust in the gaps of the light switches. I don't remember seeing that in other hotels we've been to which is why I was surprised. But the clincher were the dust clumps hanging from the ceiling above the bathtub.

The view from our room was nice, and the service wasn't bad, but Earl was not too comfortable. The next day, he was already very vocal about going home as soon as possible. I think that the bed was not soft enough for him was a factor aside from the initial smell (which disappeared after I sanitized the place). He told me that it doesn't compare to our stay at the Parkroyal and I definitely agree with him since I loved the bed there.

Would we come back? Maybe once we have children and they have a similar promo as it's a pretty good deal especially if you have kids.