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Tag: Novotel

Athens – Novotel Athenes

A sleepy bear at the Novotel Athens where I spent three days and I will say in advance that this hotel surprised and delighted me. I was very pleased to discover on arrival that they had upgraded me to a room on the top floor with a balcony and a free mini-bar of soft drinks which would be refilled daily, which is hardly bad when paying under £50 a night. Richard checked in later and they had shoved him on a lower floor and not given him a balcony, but he did have a view of the Acropolis if he looked carefully in the right direction. They gave him two macarons (one of which I had) and some wine to distract him from noticing how small his room was, but I didn’t say anything.

I liked that the receptionist pro-actively told us of the potential problems the next day and it was also signed around the hotel, but more of that later.

The room and it also had a large bathroom that had a bath and shower. I’m not a design expert, but the light colours were cooling and the carpet was clean and seemed a sensible colour to me. That’s it, that’s my design opinion.

The balcony. As one of those people who likes city noise, I rather liked keeping this door open at night. I didn’t have any noise issues internally or externally, indeed, it wasn’t entirely clear how many other guests were actually staying here. There was air conditioning, but I didn’t much need it on which was handy as opening the balcony door turned it off.

The receptionist said that they refilled this daily, although the cleaning staff forgot on the second day, but I won’t hold that against them. They were probably shell-shocked when they entered Richard’s room early without knocking, although he quite rightly went to reception to complain about that situation. There’s also a kettle for those wanting hot drinks.

The view from the balcony and I will say that it’s not the best location within Athens as it’s not the most salubrious of areas and it’s about a twenty-five minute walk to the Acropolis area. The hotel was built in 1988 and received a large renovation in 2007 which has given it more of a modern feel. There are some design quirks, there are two sets of double automatic doors which the hotel doesn’t use, but which guests keep trying to use as they don’t sign they’re out of use. The layout of reception, the restaurant and breakfast room isn’t in keeping with how the designs are arranged now, but everything was easy to find.

I did also have a view of the Acropolis (it is there if my two loyal blog readers look carefully), although I accept Richard’s was clearer than mine. There’s a swimming pool on top of the hotel, although I didn’t go and investigate it, nor did I burden myself with visiting the gym.

The welcome drink and I went for a Paulaner Weissbier which I’ve never had before, it was rather good, smooth with banana notes whilst being light and fluffy. Richard had a red wine which he hated. Bonus points to the hotel bar for the chilled glass and also the free nuts.

There is an underground car park over two levels and it’s free of charge, which is unusual. I won’t go into too much detail of the little crisis that Richard had when trying to drive out of the car park up the ramp, but I was very brave in very challenging circumstances where I thought we’d be there all day. All told, I thought that this was one of the best Accor hotels that I’ve stayed in. The staff were friendly, the hotel was spotlessly clean, the room exceeded my expectations and the service was on point. All rather lovely and a credit to the Accor chain.

March 3, 2025
Sopot – Novotel Gdansk Marina

I thought that I’d come to Sopot for the day as I wanted to walk along some of the coastline here, which was a successful little afternoon outing for a couple of hours. More on that in another post.

This Novotel was relatively expensive, coming in at around £40 per night, but I haven’t been to this particular hotel before and it was handily located near Sopot.

I thought that this was a really beautiful room, clean, modern, in keeping with the sea and quite uplifting. I don’t want to sound like Alex Polizzi, but the cushions on the bed probably shouldn’t be there, as they are going to be thrown on the floor and can’t easily be cleaned. However, that’s one minor negative comment given that I had a suitably glorious room which was really very comfortable.

And the welcome gift of a mini bottle of wine. I’m not a huge connoisseur of wine, but it’s a lovely little gift.

And some juices in the fridge as well. My only complaint with the room is that the switches by the bed not only turn off the lights in the room, but also all of the plug sockets. I noticed this in the morning when my laptop was at 0% charge, which wasn’t ideal. I suspect it might be because otherwise elements such as the fridge would remain lit up, but it wasn’t what I expected.

A plan of Gdansk on the wall, to add to the local theme.

I initially wondered why there was a gin menu for children, until I realised that was the name of the hotel’s restaurant. Lots of clarity here as well, often Accor hotels don’t put menus in the room, but here the offering of pizza and fish dishes were tempting.

The highlight of my room was though the view from the window, as the reception staff had very kindly put me on the top floor (the eighth floor) in one of the handful of rooms that was fully facing the Baltic Sea (or more technically I think the Gulf of Gdansk). It was a murky day, but I wondered if it was possible to see Russia on a sunny day, as the city of Kaliningrad isn’t far along the coast.

The same view by night. They’re not easily visible on the photo (although are clearer when clicking on the image to make it larger), but there are lots of lights from the freight ships.

One of the areas near reception for children. I think it’s a useful time to say here that my Accor Platinum status proves its value in stays like this, as the upgrade to such a lovely room made it a much nicer experience than say a room at the end of the first floor corridor looking mostly towards the road. For my £45 (room stay and evening meal) I received an excellent room, a welcome gift of wine and soft drinks, a drinks voucher for a local beer, a pizza, breakfast and a room with a Nespresso coffee machine. I’m prepared to accept that was very reasonable value for money.

This is one of the best designed hotels that I’ve seen in a while. They’ve pushed the reception desk to one side and created a large public space at the front of the hotel. This bar is easily visible to one side and some thought has been put into how it looks, really quite successfully.

And more credit to the hotel here, they’ve made the effort to find some local beers, which is not a common occurrence in Accor Hotels (although Orbis do a much better job with this in Poland than the operators in the UK). It’s a dark IPA called Festiwalowe from Browar Miejski Sopot, and was a perfectly decent beer. Also, credit to the staff member who served me for not only speaking fluent English, but also being knowledgeable about the beer options.

My camera has once again distorted the size of this to make it look smaller, it was a Salami Piccante pizza with jalapenos, which all had a pleasant flavour and the dough tasted of a good quality as well. Not badly priced at just over £5, I was half tempted to order another one, but that might have been a bit greedy.

The breakfast selection was standard fare for Novotel, although they had a few things that I don’t normally see, more on which in a moment. It got busy later on, I think for a BNI event, so my friend Richard would have felt right at home. There was plenty of space for the food and drink selection, but the breakfast room did get completely full just as I was leaving. I mentioned to a couple nearby they could have my table as I was leaving, but I felt a little sorry for the family that looked quite confused and couldn’t find a table. The staff were on hand to help, which was all very attentive, but I was surprised just how busy it got and I wasn’t quite sure where that family was put.

As an aside, this is the first Accor or IHG hotel I’ve seen in over a year that requires guests to use disposable gloves. I’m really not sure that they make much difference to anything, given the amount of handling people give them to try and get them on. It did though add to the perception of cleanliness in the hotel, with staff often busy cleaning things.

My little breakfast selection, rolls, salami, gherkins, cheese and the like, alongside tea, orange juice and a heap of fruit in a bowl which wasn’t the highlight of the arrangement if I’m being honest.

I only noticed they had different doughnuts towards the end of my breakfast, but I felt it only right to try one of each. They were suitably decadent and I might have had more if I wasn’t already full from trying to eat fruit. I’m not sure I’ve seen these in an Accor hotel recently, but their appearance should be more commonplace as everyone knows doughnuts are an essential part of breakfast.

Anyway, this was a really well managed hotel and I was very pleased with my room and its view. The staff were all friendly, personable and attentive, and everything felt like it was under control in all parts of the hotel. It was really quite marvellous to hear nothing other than the sea crashing onto the beach during the night, all peaceful and calming.

February 2, 2022
Gdansk – Hotel Novotel Gdańsk Centrum

This is a new Accor hotel to me, the centrally located Novotel Gdansk, which has rooms at relatively low prices at the moment, around £25 per night. Given that Novotel is hardly the budget brand of Accor, that’s a very reasonable price. This is a view of the hotel’s gardens, although some imagination has to be used at the moment.

The large foyer with its football tables and other distractions for guests, including a number of games consoles. The check-in process was efficient, although I had to wait for a staff member to arrive as if they didn’t expect many guests, although more on that later. All very welcoming though and everything seemed clean and organised.

A functional and clean room, with a sofa and all the facilities that I would expect. There were no internal or external noise issues at all, so everything was peaceful.

The welcome gift which I’ve had numerous times before, but I’m always pleased to see it in the room as it’s a handy snack.

Woooo, a Nespresso machine. OK, I’m easily pleased.

It felt only appropriate to go for the Żywiec Porter as my welcome drink on my first night back in Poland. It tasted exactly the same as it did a few weeks ago, so all to the good….

The breakfast buffet arrangement, a very decent selection of cold meats, cheeses and the like. They also asked me if I wanted any eggs cooked and I opted for fried eggs, but I can’t recall being asked this question at an Accor hotel before other than the Sofitel in Warsaw. Which brings me to the situation that I’ve never stayed at an Accor hotel where I haven’t seen another guest, whether at check-in, in the public areas or at breakfast. That did explain the lack of noise issue in the hotel, it all felt a little odd.

The lack of other guests meant that I had the entire breakfast selection to myself for the 40 minutes that I was there. This usually sounds a lovely thought for convenience and not being annoyed by other guests, but it did feel strange. Anyway, everything was clean and comfortable, so all to the good.

The reviews aren’t quite as positive as I’d expected and this mostly seems to be down to the rooms being dated. I’m not sure that I understand that from my room, but it’s possible they’re started to renovate and update them and I had a newer decor.

On a different issue, there was this 1 out of 5 review from a seemingly livid customer:

“i delivered food to my hotel room ,two days in row,first day it was no problem,the delivery guy comes to my door,second day I order food from wolt again,and the receptionionist calls me and says my food is here,i say ok.do he deliver on my door,then she just hangs up the phone,and i think ok,they will probably come,i wait 5 minutes and still no food on my door,so i go to reception ,and there my food was , and i ask why does he not deliver on door,she say deliverer cannot deliver on room door cause he is not guest,then the whole point of food delivery is wasted.i have never had any problems with having food deliveried to my hotelroom door,and have done it many countries before.”

On a different matter I was talking to a Deliveroo driver a few weeks ago about this issue and he mentioned that there are a minority of people in hotels who are like this and demand their driver tries to navigate around a hotel through all the security precautions. He has taken to asking everyone ordering at hotels to wait at the front of the building or in reception to collect the food, which seems a very reasonable request to me. It seems very harsh to be so rude to a hotel and attempt to mark them down for trying to keep their hotel secure. But, I’ve digressed again here.

I had absolutely no complaints about this stay, especially at the low prices that they’re charging, and I’m back at the hotel a couple more times over the next week and perhaps it’ll be a little busier.

January 21, 2022
Warsaw – Novotel Warszawa Airport

I’ve never stayed in this Accor hotel which is, as the name suggests, near to the city’s airport. It’s also about a one hour walk from the city centre, or it’s easy to get a train, bus or tram into Warsaw as well. The welcome was efficient and polite, although they seemed a little under-staffed on the reception desk.

I didn’t get an upgrade for the first time in a while for a Polish Accor hotel, but that was likely my fault for choosing a themed room and the hotel probably thought that was the one I wanted. This is the surfer room, which I thought might make for slightly different photos to my normal quite dull photos of the room interior. Incidentally, I got lost going to my room which wasn’t entirely ideal, and I’m blaming the poor signage.

Certainly quite different, with that board thing on the wall. The white cupboard arrangement on the left appears to have survived from a previous room layout, that did feel quite dated and I’m not sure was part of the renovation.

Oh, and deckchairs. Probably not really entirely functional, but it added some character to the room.

This looked quite odd though, I’m not sure I liked that nailed to the wall.

My welcome gift, similar to that I’ve had recently, some very delicious chocolate coated things.

The view from my window, made the hotel feel like it had extensive grounds, although it didn’t.

The free welcome drink, once again I went for Żywiec Porter. As an irrelevant aside, the table was very shaky, but fortunately there were no drinks spills.

I had forgotten that my room rate included breakfast, so that was a pleasant surprise at reception when I checked-in. It’s quite impressive that I managed to forget this since I only booked it three days ago, but there we go…… Plenty of choice and it wasn’t particularly busy. I mostly went for the cold cuts and bread, all of which was of a suitably decent quality.

The hot food section, which was effectively a create your own hot dog arrangement. There was an egg section where I think staff make omelettes, although I don’t much like them and I didn’t see anyone try and get anything cooked when I was there. There was also a waffle making machine for those who wanted it, although again, I didn’t see anyone use it.

Desserts, which are an important part of the breakfast arrangement as far as I’m concerned. There were also cereals as well and milk was available (I mention that as my friend Nathan has announced that cereals shouldn’t have milk on them, although he’s obviously wrong).

I did wonder at first if there might be noise problems as they had a drunken group charging around the hotel and there was also some crashing about from the floor above. However, they were both one-off noise issues, so there were no internal or external noise issues, so all was well.

The hotel is reasonably well reviewed, although there are an odd amount of clearly fake negative reviews all about a staff member not giving a customer a blanket. Anyway, the room rate including breakfast was just under £40, which was funded nearly entirely from the latest Accor offer, which all seemed reasonable for me even if I was paying. I suspect that the room prices are a little muted at the moment because of the lack of passenger traffic from the nearby airport, they are likely usually higher. But, I’d happily recommend this hotel to others, although I prefer the Novotel in the city centre.

For anyone wanting to book or find out more…..

November 29, 2021
Warsaw – Novotel Warszawa Centrum (Repeat Visit)

I’ve visited the Novotel in Warsaw several times before, including last year during the period between the lockdowns. The service then, as with my previous stays, was excellent and so I was in the city for my birthday this year, I thought that I’d stay here. It later occurred to me that this might have been a mistake, as there’s nothing like previously high expectations being dashed. However, all was well, and indeed the service was as impeccable as ever.

On the morning of the booking I received an email from the hotel saying that I’d been upgraded. I’ve never had a hotel tell me this in advance and it seems a really quite clever thing to do, as the guest gets a warm glow of knowing the room will be better than paid for several hours ahead of their check-in. The check-in process itself when I arrived at the hotel was efficient and the staff member was personable and welcoming, and I appreciated the happy birthday comment.

My room was on one of the top floors and I had hoped before booking that it would overlook the Palace of Culture, as those views over the city are some of the finest from any hotel that I’ve stayed in. Richard had booked into the hotel the day before and had been upgraded to a larger room which was also rather lovely, so he was equally pleased with the whole arrangement.

I was delighted to see this view from my window and, perhaps rather sadly, I enjoy watching all of the trams, cars and buses shuttling about.

The same view at night.

And the hotel had gone far beyond what they needed to, with a slice of birthday cake (which was delicious) and some welcome gifts and a letter. It’s fair to say that this was really rather lovely and touching. As an aside, the cake seemed to have just been placed there, and I suspect that the call made by the receptionist to someone during check-in might have been them arranging for it to be brought to the room or at least checking that it was there. Either way, this is a nice thing to see when arriving.

These were absolutely delicious, suitably decadent and they went well with the provided Nespresso coffees.

The Żywiec Porter which was my welcome drink from the hotel. The member of staff in the bar was polite and helpful, bringing the drinks over to the table for us. Richard had saved his welcome drink up from his check-in the night before, and apparently was pleased with his wine option.

The room was a little expensive by Polish standards, coming in at £55 per night without breakfast, but I very much like the welcome and comfort of the hotel so I think it’s very good value for money. And as a choice for my birthday, I was very pleased with the entire process, all really rather lovely and I appreciated the e-mail on the morning of check-in telling me I had been upgraded and they were looking forwards to welcoming me back. I think I’ve been to something like 100 Accor hotels, and the Novotel Warsaw is as far as I’m concerned the best managed of any of those locations. Really quite marvellous.

And here’s a link to book and find out more.

November 26, 2021