Novotel Strasbourg Centre Halles — Hotel in Strasbourg

Overall: Price-performance ok. But 4 stars for 2 people, two nights and over 400€ (without breakfast and parking)? Hm. More in the following:

// Parking // ++ There is a parking place right near the hotel. Partly a bit tight and pretty bad air in there, but enough space. You can not reserve anything, so you have to check on the spot if something is still free. Costs for 24h are about 20€. A bit expensive. From the parking place you can walk underground to the hotel. Unfortunately, not enough signposted. You walk through the parking area, several floors and ways that are not always clearly marked with the logo of the hotel. One of floors looks like a hospital corridor and smells like one. There is an elevator up to the inside of the hotel but still you have to find your way around.

// Service // ++++ Good and courteous service. From reception to room maid.

// Rooms // +++ Positives: Pleasant size and visually as it appears in the pictures (booked via booking.com). Air conditioning is available and ventilates well. Very quiet, so does not disturb at all when sleeping (if you have a light sleep). Every now and then you hear a little bit from the room neighbors or from outside, but keeps within limits (room on the 6th floor Toilet and bathroom are separate Bed is comfortable overall, rather hard (which I like very much).

Negatives: Unfortunately there are no door locks for bathroom and toilet. There is ventilation for both areas. However, you cannot control this individually. Can be uncomfortable if you were in the bathroom before. Bed is a bit narrow. For two people who do not turn much in sleep possibly Ok. Also, only one mattress. Unfortunately, there was only one blanket, but relatively large. We didn't care, but would have gotten a second one for sure (although with two big blankets it would have been too much for the small bed). no toilet brush roof from toilet room loose

//Interior// +++ Positives: -ground floor/entrance area- overall quite chic furnished, but could be a bit visually quieter. -Reading or working areas available. There are even books in which you can browse (mainly French, but also English). Room completely carpeted (depends what you prefer more)

Negatives: Many different elements and corners that are supposed to make it homey, but if you don't know your way around it can be confusing. Reception we did not even find at the beginning because it was not immediately clear from the room layout.

// Breakfast // +++ Positive: Good selection of food (vegetarian and normal): Fruit, cheese, sausage, bakery products, baguette, jams, Nutella, various teas, automatic coffee machine, sausages, bacon, eggs, taste quite okay you can cook your own eggs or fry them as fried eggs (small pans, but only with olive oil) alternative milk (soy and almond milk). You can get it from the refrigerator around the corner (whole package)

Negatives: Costs 17€ per person extra Scrambled eggs out of the package. At 4 stars, this does not work at all for me personally. In addition, it was cold. The buffet layout is awkward in my opinion. The people run crosswise to get everything they want. They often run through the tables. No decaf coffee Rows of tables by the window uncomfortable. Table leg totally stupid because you can't really tuck the legs away very well. Also, the tables are so close together that you have the person next to you right in your back.

// Location // ++++ Positives: Very close to the center Everything within walking distance Streetcar in the immediate vicinity Surroundings seem well maintained and safe

Negatives: Directly next to/in a shopping center. At breakfast you can see over to the C&A. I personally don’t like it,because they can also look inside from the hall. also, not only hotel guests can enter the breakfast area but others e.g., the shopping...

I've been there after visiting 3 Novotel and 1 Ibis in France, and 1 Mercure in Amsterdam. I was not sure whether to book Novotel Strasbourg Centre Halles or Mercure Strasbourg Centre Gare, which for the day had the same price. I decided for Novotel because it was slightly closer to the city center, and that was the only positive of the stay.|If you arrive by car, you need to know in advance where is the enter of the parking for the hotel, because there is no option to park in front of the hotel to reach the reception, without putting you in the position to get a fine from the police.|The experience happened to me and another guest at the same time, we parked illegally at the bus stop, we went into the Shopping Mall where the hotel is located (yes, it is in a shopping mall) and we looked for the reception that we found asking around, and we have been told that to park in the Shopping Mall parking which we have seen on the way to the hotel, with no special indication on how to reach it. We thought "ok we go around the building", the problem was there was no road open to the traffic which goes around the building, we were in a one-way road with no turning back which forced us to do a nice trip in the restricted-traffic area of the old town. Now I don't know how this works in Strasbourg, but in other places normally you get a fat ticket in the mail, I hope that won't happen.|The problem is, why are guests not informed before reaching the hotel about this parking/oneWay/restrictedTraffic/roadClosed issues. I've got email from Accor hotels notifying me of very minor issues in the same holiday, not sure why at this Novotel they think there is no issue.|Besides that, the room is the usual Novotel France room, but everything looked just a bit old especially in the bathroom area. Where the toilet is, everytime you close the door the air movement will make the ceiling panels lift and fall with a good amount of noise which is not the best if you use it during the night and kids are sleeping.|The quality of the breakfast was as good as the usual Novotel level, but there are a lot of tables for the available space and it's not easy to move around or to be sit comfortably enough.|Actually space is also an issue with elevators, you have family of four with luggage you fill it up without being...

The hotel is conveniently located for exploring the old city of Strasbourg on foot. Unfortunately, the quality of the hotel was not up to par for a Novotel on our stay. The rooms are quite run down. The matresses have certainly seen better days, a paint brush would not go amis. While we had booked a double room with a sofa, we were given a twin room with the beds just pushed together and no sofa. Alas, the bedside tables and lamps are fixed to the wall and where now so far away from the bed, that you have to get out of bed to reach the light switch. This was - even though the staff insisted we had been "upgraded", not a suitable alternative to what we had booked. Furthermore, the hotel is supposed to have restaurant/room service and air conditioning. For half of our stay the restaurant was closed for dinner and room service not available. Without that I may as well book a cheaper hotel. The reception tried to recommend other restaurants in the area, but I had payed extra to have this amenity in case of eg bad weather to not have to go outside. Which is exactly what happened. Oh, btw, we still had to make a full deposit for extras for the days where half the payable services were non-existant! The air condition was deactivted and the staff refused to switch it on. One said they never have aircondining before the 15th May, the other reason given was it would get colder again tomorrow anyway and we should just open the window (which is latched and can thus only be opened a tiny bit). But once again, I had deliberately chosen and paid for a hotel with air conditioning, then it is also my choice if I feel it is too hot, which I felt it was. Also don't expect to be able to drink a coffee from a proper cup in your room - at this hotel you only get a paper cup, which is what I may have expected from an Ibis. I frequently stay at Novotels as they mostly offer a sensible level of comfort at a reasonable price, but here I wished I had opted for one of the other hotels in the area, that were...