TripAdvisor Travelers' Choice Award - 4 in a row!!

Wow, 4 in a row! We blogged about our 1^st Trip Advisor Travelers’ Choice Award in 2011, and blogged about the 2nd award in 2012 and blogged about the 3^rd last year too. 

This year when the Travelers’ Choice Awards came out, our much beloved category was not there….gone.  We have recently learnt from an official Trip Advisor press release in Japan that; “Until last year the award had been announced as a part of "Travelers' Choice ™ Hotel Awards", but in order to provide accolades of greater clarity to accommodation providers who present “hospitality” to a level such that it remains in the hearts of guests, this year it was decided to announce the service category individually. (taken from a Trip Advisor press release dated 15 April 2014 and translated by Jeff)

We are once again super duper proud to say we’ve done it again.  Yes, Best Service awards 4 years in a row. 

This year we are No. 7 on the list of Top 25 Hotels with Exceptional Service in New Zealand and No. 10 on the list of Top 25 Hotels with Exceptional Service in the South Pacific.  This follows a top 10 finish in 2011, another award in 2012 and No.8 in NZ and No.15 in the South Pacific in 2013.

This is the 12^th year of the awards and the second year that NZ has had its own category. The first 2 awards we received were in the South Pacific Category, and last year we were No. 8 in NZ.  This year we have gone up one ranking and have scored in the top ten in the South Pacific category which includes all of Australia as well.

It’s great to see Trip Advisor Awards are continuing to develop because they reward hard work judged by untold numbers of real guests!

So, if you are looking for great service in Christchurch, stay at a great motel which has been judged by the guests themselves.  Stay at a motel that has won in the Best Service category 4 years in a row. Stay at CentrePoint on Colombo Motel!

We’re once again elated and humbled but before we give ourselves a well deserved pat on the back, we’ll say thanks to all our guests who took the time to review us on Trip Advisor! 

As for our pat on the back, it might just be a nice bottle of wine with dinner this evening while continuing to provide more great service to our wonderful guests!

Sewer repair reveals historic Colombo Street

Colombo Street in front of the motel is one of the oldest parts of Christchurch.   Over the past 2 months it has had its sewer repaired as part of the ongoing quake recovery programme and this has revealed to us some of the history of the street and the area.  When the city was first laid out around 1850, the block between Salisbury St. and Bealey Ave. was to be reserve land for use later on but it was in fact sold off earlier than planned, later in the 1950s, to provide funds for the city.  The sewer lines were laid in the 1880s and were followed by tram lines around 1910. Wharetiki, the large Edwardian timber dwelling across the road that was photographed by many people who walked past until it was demolished after being damaged in the quakes, was built in 1904. 

The series of quakes that rattled the region beginning in September 2010 caused as much damage below ground as it did above.    Sewer pipes, storm water pipes, water pipes and power cables have been ripped apart to varying degrees across the city.  The race is now on the repair the damage before it causes more problems.

 The engineer in charge of the repairs told us that while the sewer pipes in this area did not collapse in the quakes - we could still use our toilet – they were badly cracked and this has resulted in ground water flooding into the sewer pipes. This causes problems at the waste treatment station which now has to run overtime to treat the sewage and groundwater mix.  The race is on to repair the sewer pipes before the treatment station wears out from overuse!

As the road works crept along the street we were actually able to see the city’s history right in front of us as the tram tracks buried under the road became visible.  It was great to see a bit of yesteryear seeing the light of day again and reminded us of Christchurch’s past.  It’s been 60 year’s since trams ran over these lines and it leaves us wondering if one day in the future there will once again be trams carrying passengers up and down Colombo Street!




Photo of a tram on Colombo street from 1920s. --->>> http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/22514/electric-tram

Repairing our Sewer – the Christchurch rebuild

All of our guests use these pipes every day.  Have a shower, brush your teeth, rinse a coffee cup, or just plain flush that toilet – just about whatever you do here at the motel creates a micro flood that needs somewhere to go.  It goes out the gate, down the lateral (the pipes that take wastewater from houses to the main in the street) and into the sewer main!

However, the sewer main, and the laterals for that matter, are pretty much buggered after the quakes and so it’s time for a replacement.  Over the next year just about every sewer pipe in the city centre is due to be replaced and starting today it’s our turn!

Over the next 2 months the sewer pipes from Salisbury St. to 1/2 way to Bealey Ave are going to be replaced.  It will be a slow moving sewer procession of dig up, remove, replace and cover up.    This and the extra road works that are ramping up will provide plenty of challenges over the next few months but we hope our guests are able to see the good side of it all.

All day today a long procession of trucks delivered gazoodles of stuff for the repairs!  The truck can sit there for a long time cos the road is already blocked off on our side for cars but ok for pedestrians.

Back a week or so ago, the original explanation was that Colombo St. traffic would be one lane, north to south.  We were sending out emails telling future guests of the change when the phone rang and Fletcher said they’d be round with some more info.  As it turns out, there is a water pipe in the way on the other side so now Colombo St. will be one way, south to north.  80% of our guests arrive from the north so having that entrance option blocked off is one of the most inconvenient things that could happen.  But we roll with the punches and so remade the detour map and started sending it out again. 

How to get to the motel over the next 2 months.

It will be an interesting 2 months.  We are once again in a cul-de-sac, amongst a myriad of road works.  We’ll give up on any chance of a drive in (will tell you all if we get one!) and just hope our booked in guests do manage to get to us without too much stress.

Getting ready to dig up the road, an underground check revealed we have all our basic services right at the motel entrance! We have; pwr – 11kv of electricity, Enable – fibre optic cables, T/com – phones, H20 – water and GAS! How colourful!!

Over the next 2 months we’ll provide vivid updates as the sewer procession proceeds.  Hopefully we’ll be able to provide some interesting info about sewer, and lateral repairs, some funny stories about just what is happening and a few extras along the way!!