When Auckland mayor Len Brown attempted to explain his frequent stays in local hotels, he said: "My reason for staying in the central city is that I often work until late in the evening - attending meetings, functions or civic events - and I start work early the next morning, often for media interviews or breakfast events."
The explanation may have been too long to fit on a Tui billboard but it had some of the hallmarks of one of those Little Britain sketches - in which Sir Norman Fry, a frequently disgraced politician, attempts to justify unseemly behaviour. With a straight face, this character would explain that his clothes had accidentally fallen off or that he had accompanied others into a toilet cubicle simply to discuss foreign policy.
While a busy schedule can sometimes be blamed for deciding to spend the night in a hotel in the city in which you live, all too often the reasons are less wholesome than that. In the last 20 years I've stayed in an Auckland city hotel three times. None of those occasions could be described as a positive, uplifting experience.
Twice I stormed out of the house at night following a robust discussion with my other half. Once I stayed at the Stamford Plaza and once at the (then) Carlton. Such dramatic gestures were designed to underscore exactly how annoyed I was. It's been around 15 years since I last made such a move. Perhaps we're arguing less intensely now or else I've mellowed a lot. Either way, we are saving on hotel bills.
The third time I stayed in downtown Auckland at short notice was about ten years ago when our daughter was a baby. After much deliberation, we'd given a local authority permission to perform some drainage work underneath our front lawn. A gas-pipe was inadvertently cut in the process. Without heating, stovetop cooking facilities or hot water, our home no longer met developed world standards so we all relocated to a Quay West apartment until the gas was reconnected and the appliances could be restarted.
