Novotel Madrid City Las Ventas — Hotel in Madrid

Despite making our booking for two rooms last February and arriving at the end of August after the stated check in time, neither of the rooms offered were ready for occupancy. Initially, we were offered two rooms on the 8th floor and supplied with room keys. Before we had reached the lifts, we were called back to reception and told the rooms were not ready and offered two rooms on the 7th floor - Rooms 716 and 717. We were informed that as a Gold member, these were upgraded rooms.

In room 716, having unpacked our case, we discovered that the safe was not working and despite being told that this was an upgraded room, there was no nespresso coffee machine or welcome drink/chocolate. When we reported these to reception, we were told that the welcome pack would be delivered (which it was) and that the safe would be reported to "maintenance". It was subsequently fixed later in the evening.

In room 717, the air conditioning did not work, there was hole where the safe should be and the plug in the sink did not work. Again, there was no welcome pack although this was supplied later in the day. The faulty air conditioning was reported to "maintenance" and our friends were informed it would be fixed that day. A receptionist later brought a new safe and the faulty plug was fixed the next day. However, the air conditioning did not get fixed and a move to a new room was offered. Indeed, during our friends' stay, the air conditioning was never fixed. Given the choice of staying in the room or moving, they chose to stay as they had unpacked all of their belongings.

Although we specifically asked and were informed that the Gold member VIP welcome drink would be available to both occupants of each room, when we went to the bar to request these drinks, we were informed that the drink was for one person only as there had been a recent change of policy. We do not think that this is particularly welcoming. It appears that the hotel is happy to welcome one of the room occupants but not the other! After making our point to one of the duty managers, she agreed, on this occasion, to let us both have a welcome glass of wine. We have to say that, as a welcome drink, the amount of drink served was minimal - hardly a VIP welcome!

It is obvious from our experience that the rooms in this hotel are NOT checked before being allocated to clients. Further, some of the upgraded room facilities and Gold member privileges that should have been available were only produced when...

"Traumatic experience and blatant lack of support from hotel staff"

I must share my catastrophic experience at the Novotel Ibis Styles Madrid City Las Ventas hotel. This establishment, despite claiming to offer high standards of comfort and safety, has deeply disappointed me, turning what was supposed to be a pleasant stopover on the way to our vacation into a real nightmare.

On June 25, 2023, my wife, daughter and I were the victims of a violent robbery in the hotel parking lot, a supposedly secure area. A suspicious individual, unperturbed by the staff despite his strange presence, followed and assaulted my family, stealing valuable possessions. More than the material damage, it was the trauma of the attack that turned our lives upside down.

Equally, if not more disappointing, was the reaction of the hotel staff. Despite the cries of my wife and daughter, no member of staff intervened. The help offered was minimal - a simple phone call to the police. No further assistance was provided, either during the incident or in the hours and days that followed.

I sent a detailed letter to the hotel management, hoping that our case would be dealt with appropriately. To my great disappointment, no positive action was taken. The lack of empathy and assistance is flagrant and shocking for an establishment of this stature.

As a result of this incident, we had to cancel our vacation. My professional activity has also been seriously disrupted by the theft of my computers. To this day, my wife and children are still traumatized.

I strongly discourage this hotel to anyone who values security and integrity. An establishment that is so negligent about security and so indifferent to the well-being of its guests does not deserve your trust or your money. For our part, we will never return to the Novotel Ibis Styles Madrid City Las Ventas hotel, and will advise all our contacts to...

The Hotel rejected any refund after we had to cancel due to a positive covid test.

A short summary what happened: Precautionary, we decided to do a self-test on the day of travel. Unfortunately, one of the self-tests was positive and to avoid a cancellation for a potential false-positive result we decided to do a PCR test. We also immediately informed the hotel about the positive self-test and they agreed on changing the booking for the following day.

On the next day, we unfortunately received the message that the PCR test was also positive and therefore we had to cancel the booking. To our surprise the hotel suddenly did not feel responsible anymore for this matter and told us to call booking.com instead.

While being on the phone with the booking.com customer support we were told that the hotel manager was out of office and that we should expect feedback on our cancellation the following day. To our surprise, about 10 minutes after our call with the customer support we already received the rejection via booking.com that we won’t receive any refund.

In terms of covid I understand that hotels are suffering and I did not expect to receive a full refund. Since we did not use any of the hotel service nor did we cause any work for them, I would have at least expected a partial refund especially since we went the extra mile and did self-tests and even a PCR test before travelling to make sure we are not a...