Novotel Rio de Janeiro Leme — Hotel in Região Geográfica Imediata do Rio de Janeiro

Hotel Review: Novotel Leme (or as I call it, "Novohell")

The Good Points Location: The hotel is situated in the quieter Leme district of Copacabana, away from the busier middle and upper sections of the beach. There are excellent restaurants nearby, and the beach itself is stunning—though the hotel can't take credit for Rio's natural beauty!

Rooftop Pool & Bar: The rooftop area is genuinely lovely with good service. However, be aware that the pool is extremely small—more of a plunge pool than somewhere you can actually swim.

Breakfast Staff: Special mention goes to the petite lady who manages the breakfast area (she has a sun tattoo on her arm). She's an absolute hospitality legend! Watching her orchestrate the breakfast chaos is remarkable, especially considering the dining room only seats about 130 people for a hotel that accommodates over 550 guests.

The Problems (Grab a Coffee—This is Lengthy) My 18-year-old daughter and I were booked for a ten-night stay. I had reserved two rooms from the day before our arrival to ensure we could check in immediately when we landed at 7am.

Check-in Issues Despite pre-checking in online and having no queue ahead of us, the check-in process was painfully slow. We were eventually given adjacent rooms, which I appreciated.

Room Problems After unpacking, I returned to reception to speak with Gabriel (our check-in agent) about several issues with both rooms: Located directly by the elevators with constant noise from the ping-pong of the lifts and guests waiting (and you do wait—a lot—for these elevators) Missing wardrobe door in my room Moldy grout in the bathroom Evidence of a previous leak with a poor repair attempt

I explained that while these issues might be tolerable for a 3-4 night stay, they were unacceptable for ten nights. I asked what could be done. Gabriel said he would speak with his manager and I awaited on a WhatsApp message or email with a solution.

The Runaround 24 hours later: No communication whatsoever. I found Gabriel at reception after my morning jog and asked about speaking with his manager. Cue the blank stare as he couldn't recall our conversation at all.

At this point, I decided to stay another two more days as we had things planned and then move hotels. Thales, another "super helpful" receptionist, immediately told me "you'll have to wait 30 days for a refund"—not "how can we resolve this for you?"

The Final Days We endured three more days of: Waiting at least 20 minutes daily just for elevator access The breakfast chaos (brilliantly managed, but chaotic nonetheless) Living with the broken wardrobe door, moldy bathroom, and constant noise

Checkout Disaster On checkout day, Thales was working but completely ignored me. Another staff member served us and looked genuinely shocked we were leaving. It became clear that Gabriel and Thales hadn't even properly processed our cancellation request—they had failed at every level.

I should mention that the Reception Manager Giselle tried to help resolve things after we cancelled, but by then it was far too late.

The Aftermath Here I am, 72 hours after leaving "Novohell," writing this review from another Rio hotel. I'm still waiting for my refund, but I now have: No elevator waits Always available breakfast seating TWO functional wardrobe doors!

Final Verdict If you value your sanity and vacation time, avoid Novotel Leme at all costs.

PS I should also add the I am an...

The Good Points|Location: The hotel is situated in the quieter Leme district of Copacabana, away from the busier middle and upper sections of the beach. There are excellent restaurants nearby, and the beach itself is stunning—though the hotel can't take credit for Rio's natural beauty!||Rooftop Pool & Bar: The rooftop area is genuinely lovely with good service. However, be aware that the pool is extremely small—more of a plunge pool than somewhere you can actually swim.||Breakfast Staff: Special mention goes to the petite lady who manages the breakfast area (she has a sun tattoo on her arm). She's an absolute hospitality legend! Watching her orchestrate the breakfast chaos is remarkable, especially considering the dining room only seats about 130 people for a hotel that accommodates over 550 guests.||The Problems (Grab a Coffee—This is Lengthy)|My 18-year-old daughter and I were booked for a ten-night stay. I had reserved our rooms from the day before our arrival to ensure we could check in immediately when we landed at 7am.||Check-in Issues|Despite pre-checking in online and having no queue ahead of us, the check-in process was painfully slow. We were eventually given adjacent rooms, which I appreciated.||Room Problems|After unpacking, I returned to reception to speak with Gabriel (our check-in agent) about several issues with both rooms:|Located directly by the elevators with constant noise from the ping-pong area and guests waiting (and you do wait—a lot—for these elevators)|Missing wardrobe door in my room|Moldy grout in the bathroom|Evidence of a previous leak with a poor repair attempt||I explained that while these issues might be tolerable for a 3-4 night stay, they were unacceptable for ten nights. I asked what could be done. Gabriel said he would speak with his manager and contact me via WhatsApp or email with a solution.||The Runaround|24 hours later: No communication whatsoever.|I found Gabriel at reception after my morning jog and asked about speaking with his manager. Cue the blank stare—he claimed he couldn't recall our conversation at all.|At this point, I decided to cancel our remaining seven nights. Thales, another receptionist, immediately told me "you'll have to wait 30 days for a refund"—not "how can we resolve this for you?"||The Final Days|We endured three more days of:|Waiting at least 20 minutes daily just for elevator access|The breakfast chaos (brilliantly managed, but chaotic nonetheless)|Living with the broken wardrobe door, moldy bathroom, and constant noise||Checkout Disaster|On checkout day, Thales was working but completely ignored me. Another staff member served us and looked genuinely shocked we were leaving. It became clear that Gabriel and Thales hadn't even properly processed our cancellation request—they had failed at every level.|I should mention that Giselle tried to help resolve things after we cancelled, but by then it was far too late.||The Aftermath|Here I am, 72 hours after leaving "Novohell," writing this review from another Rio hotel. I'm still waiting for my refund, but I now have:|No elevator waits|Always available breakfast seating|TWO functional wardrobe doors!||Final Verdict|If you value your sanity and vacation time, avoid Novotel Leme at all costs.||Oh and a PS I am an ALL Accor account...

I experienced a very dissatisfying experience in Novotel Leme where the general management does not do his/her job well. This was formerly a Golden Tulip hotel and bought by the Accor group and reopened one year ago. It is supposed to be a 4* hotel. It started with handing out two times a wrong room with double beds where I had requested a king-size room. After waiting for half an hour, the third attempt succeeded.

However, the most disturbing was that the ceilings in the hallway of all floors are 200 cm (yes you read it well) and that all safety equipment like camera’s, smoke alarm and water sprinkler installations are sticking out of the ceiling. End result is that the camera was hanging at 195cm. This meant that when you walk down the corridor you have to walk bent as if you are walking in a tunnel. With a height of 198 cm you can guess what happened, I bumped my head against it and damaged my head with an open bleeding wound. After explaining the incident to the reception, my request to speak with somebody of management resulted in repeating this request three times before after two days I finally could speak to the reception manager. After apologies the issue would be discussed with the general manager. The hotel offered me some snacks and a voucher for a dinner in the roof top bar. Wow! And the duty manager wanted to speak to me also. This F&B manager apologized also and mentioned that two of my seven nights would be reimbursed. The general manager did not show his/her face in any of the seven days. Mmh, very interested in your clients. Other disturbing things are that the safe in the room is not anchored to a wall or the closet. Basically, it doesn’t have any function because you can easily take it with you under your arm. Furthermore, the furniture in the room is of poor and cheap choice as the photo’s prove. That’s not worthy for a 4* hotel.

And the best part was when I came home, I found a nice standard email from Mr. Luis Rossi, the general manager of the hotel, thanking me for my visit and hope to welcome me again. Mr. Rossi, no f..king way. You don’t understand what hospitality is, you operate an unsafe hotel and it is unbelievable that Novotel received the operating license to open this hotel. Ceilings in the hallways need to have a...