Novotel Surfers Paradise — Hotel in Gold Coast City

The most disappointing and upsetting experience I’ve had at a hotel by far. Firstly, the hotel’s “promised parking” is actually a very small woolworths parking lot underground that can barely fit a medium sized car with sparse parking spaces so you drive around for 30 minutes looking. Additionally, the smell in the parking lot is putrid and we had to hold our breaths until we got upstairs to the hotel. When we got to the hotel lobby our receptionist wasn’t welcoming at all. We were told parking was $25 per night despite the already dreadful parking experience. I had booked a superior room with my partner for our anniversary purely because our room promised a spa bath. However, when we entered there was no bath in sight. Confused, we called reception and asked if they had given us the wrong room but the same receptionist from before answered and told us it was the correct room despite us saying multiple times we booked the Superior Spa Bath Room. Upon further insistence the receptionist finally put us on hold to ask a manager and when he returned he said that we were told our prior booking was unavailable due to maintenance issues on the room and we were given an executive room with an ocean view and free breakfast as compensation. We were never told about these changes or any issues with our room so I was passed on to the manager who immediately said we had been informed by their other manager and he had offered us free breakfast for our entire stay and an upgraded room. I told her we had not heard about any of this and she just apologised but did not offer an alternative despite us never agreeing to this offer. She said if a room with a Spa Bath became available she would contact us but there was “nothing she could do” at the time. We never received the correct room. Otherwise, rooms were very small but standard for the price. Bed sheets fell apart easily. Microwave will cost $10 per night for use which staff have to bring up to your room — But the microwave is cheap and doesn’t heat food properly. Elevators in the hotel were shocking and took over 10 mins to arrive and it seemed only one or two were working through this trip so we were squished like sardines the whole time if we even managed to get an elevator. Pool was green and facilities were dirty in general. Breakfast (Which we had free) usually costs around $30 but had extremely limited options that were mainly eggs and cereal and small selections of pastries or fruits. Just not worth the money when you could get a better meal from a local cafe you’d enjoy more. Wifi included in booking but was so slow I used data most of the time unless wanting to watch netflix. TV only offers chromecast from your phone but with the slow wifi speed we waited forever to connect and then had to watch with extremely low quality due to network buffering all night. Room does not have USB ports which was fine but inconvenient and unexpected for a hotel.

Overall, my experience was poor and I did not appreciate the hotel’s conflict resolution and their lack of communication. Only booked for the spa bath but were not even given that. If I had the option I would have refunded the whole trip if I was told about the “maintenance issues” ahead of time instead of after entering my room with no notice of the situation. I do not recommend you go to this hotel at all. Just pay the higher price for something more quality that doesn’t stink...

We stayed here for four days and while our vacation was phenomenal, the hotel experience was not up to par with what was expected for the price.

We requested early check-in as soon as it became available, and when we hadn't heard back two days before our stay was to start, we called up to ask. We were told over the phone that our request had been approved, and double-checked that this meant it was safe to book transport to the hotel. The following afternoon, after having booked everything in, we received an email saying that our early check-in request had been denied. I called up again and explained the situation and that they assured us we would not be stuck at the airport for six hours as we had early check-in, and they left an internal note to re-approve our early check-in - already a stressful start to our stay before it even began.

The renovated room was lovely, however there were a number of issues with the wifi. The TV was not connected by the internet by default, although a quick phone call got a friendly representative to come fix that real quick. The wifi continued to have issues however, and tended to buffer or disconnect about once every 15-20 minutes.

Despite promising daily room service every afternoon, on the second day we left the sign on the door to indicate we were out and our room was free to be serviced. As the floor was particularly sandy, we phoned up to double-check the times at which rooms are serviced and to ensure our room would be cleaned while we were out. Over the phone we were assured that as long as the sign was out that our room would be cleaned, however we came back that evening despite being out for the whole interval and leaving the sign out as instructed to find our room had not been touched. Our room was only serviced the following morning by a very polite and apologetic housekeeper who seemed horrified by the mismanagement after we explained the situation.

The last straw was after we had requested late check out at 5pm. While it had been approved and paid for, a housekeeper barged in without even knocking while the room was occupied. I called to ask about the situation, and we were blamed for not having a sign on the door, despite the door being difficult to close with the sign on. I understand that in hotels it is up to management to ensure that housekeepers know who has late checkout, so blaming us is in poor taste.

I wouldn't recommend Novotel Surfers Paradise to anyone, save up for something better. Would hope to get a partial refund for all this unacceptable mismanagement...

Before I crack into this, a quick shout out to Michael, the concierge. Absolutely fantastic service, very friendly and just genuinely seemed like he was there to help. You were a highlight, thanks mate!

Had two reservations. Both for two nights in an Executive Spa Ocean View room.

Had no problems until after we had checked in and gone up to our room to find that we had been put into a Deluxe (standard) room. Went down to reception and enquired and they had no idea what happened. Spoke to the reservation manager who said that our ‘room wasn’t ready yet’ and then offered to refund the difference between the price of the rooms…. But wouldn’t actually put us in our booked room. No offer for a free night, room service credit or anything along those lines, just the price difference between the rooms. Why did I even go through the effort of reserving a room (and paying for it at the time of booking) if they’re not going to put us in that room?

The room itself was fine, really no complaints apart from no coffee machine or bathrobes, but eh, not a big deal. I’m sure both could be requested from reception.

Ended up getting the correct room for our second reservation which was much nicer than a Deluxe room.

Room service is pretty decent, however don’t order off the ‘overnight menu’. After waiting an hour for a pizza and a toasted ham and cheese sandwich, called reception to enquire who seemed clueless. Got a call ~5 minutes later saying the sandwich cannot be toasted and the pizza was being ‘warmed up’. We came to the conclusion that the pizza had been bought down the street and was maybe 1/3rd the size of the usual room service pizza. Pretty wasteful spending of $40. ($28 for the palm sized pizza lol).

The chromecasts in the room are a welcome addition to the last time I had stayed, however they don’t enjoy actually staying connected to your casting device, and depending on the quality of wifi on your floor, mightn’t work entirely. At this point, just upgrade the TVs to something newer and ditch the chromecasts. I also found the sound from street level will come straight into your room no matter what floor, depending when you stay, it might be fine, might not be.

Overall, check other places first before you book here. Novotel is in a bloody good spot, but so is literally every other...