Novotel London Greenwich — Hotel in London

Less than impressed. We arrived around 12 and asked to drop our bags off to be held until we checked in, as I received an email before check in suggesting we do so. When we asked to drop off our bags, we were met with hesitation and mild annoyance from the front desk. Little did I know, this was a sign of what was to come.

Later on when we checked in, we immediately noticed a few things wrong with our room (a structural post under the bed was broken and on the floor, and the sprayer in the bath had a leak which led to water spraying every which way out of the hose). The maintenance man was very helpful and quick to correct, but we felt like we were bothering the front staff by pointing these things out. We also noticed that there was hair in the tub….a lot of little black hairs everywhere (this is what led to discovering the tub nozzle leaked, as I was trying to rinse them away). The coffee area also had water all around and no fresh pods. We also had no hand soap in the room. When I went to the front desk to mention these things and to ask for more frequent room cleaning (they initially suggested that we only have our room cleaned once or twice in our 8 day stay), the front desk attendant did not acknowledge that I was pointing out the hair or lack of coffee, and didn’t apologize.

Later on the day of check in, we noticed a larger grocery bag filled with snacks that had been left behind by a previous guest that was tucked away between the desk and the wall. This, in addition to all the other issues, lead me to believe that our room was not cleaned before check in. It appears that they possibly did a minimal cleaning, such as they would do during a guest’s stay, but they certainly did not do a thorough job or double check anything before allowing us to check in. The hair in the tub, the missing coffee pods, no soap, the broken shower nozzle, AND the bag of groceries from the previous guest.

We brought this to the front desks attention and FINALLY our disappointment was acknowledged (it only took about 5 trips down there for them to actually apologize for all of this!). They offered us a new room, but at this point I had fully unpacked for an 8 day stay and had no guarantee that a new room would be any better. They assured us that our room being cleaned would be top priority the next day, as there was no cleaning staff on site at this point.

The next day, we left the hotel between 8 and 330. Upon returning, I expected my room to have been done….but nope! We had to AGAIN ask the front desk, and then had to sit in the lobby waiting for them to be done. I asked that one of the supervisors checked it over before we returned to our room, and she claimed she did when she told us we could go back up. We went in to our room to discover the coffee area was still not cleaned and again we had no hand soap (they kept taking the whole container out of the room….so strange!)

Overall, this all left a sour taste in my mouth- and all these issues were within the first day of checking in for a week long holiday.

I don’t plan to EVER stay in a Novotel ever again.

Honestly, I wish I would have saved some money and booked a TravelLodge or Premier...

A not so pleasant experience, but location is perfect! We stayed for four nights in 2 superior rooms in 2nd floor, train station side. The rooms were clean but the (metallic!) ceiling at the toilet was too noisy when opening/closing the door. Apparently, ALL rooms are like that (our friends had the same issue). In the bathroom the amenities were 'poor' (soap, shampoo, shower gel, paper tissues - why not refills?). Very strange the fact that there was no hotel brochure and info. One of our rooms had a problem with the magnetic card. They said it was fixed the first day but still we had to change cards almost every day. Cleaning ladies were very polite, rest of staff also. We were not really disturbed by the trains. Breakfast was average, same things every day. Staff was running all the time but probably needs reinforcement. One day (28/12 at 8:15) half of the buffet was empty for more than 15'. At the bar the situation was not very clear. I stayed at the table, nobody arrived for an order. I had to go to the bar myself to get the drinks. The gym was quite nice, renovated (soon a sauna) but maybe too many machines for the available space. Regarding the green practices of the hotel, I didn't see recycling bins in common areas or read anywhere about their actions. The location is excellent! It's next to the train station with many possibilities to go anywhere in London city and direct line to St. Pancras. It's close to Greenwich centre with many restaurants, the market, Cutty Sark, Royal Observatory, etc. Pharmacy and super market very close. Concerning our reservation, we had booked 3,5 months in advance and requested for interconnecting rooms and to be close to our friends staying there at the same time. Nobody replied to our message, nobody took care of any of our requests. At check-in, they were explaining that requests are fulfilled according to availability. Well, it was the first time for us that a Novotel couldn't fulfil our request (send so much in advance). We're Accor customers for many years and have been in many Novotel hotels. We were always receiving link for the survey/review after check-out but not this time. Was it because (for the first time) I made some remarks concerning our stay before leaving? So, I send a message asking for it and, guess what, no link for the survey was sent due to 'an error of the system'. Now the rumours (for sending the survey only to happy customers)...

I had notified the hotel that my wife was Coeliac before our visit and that she required Gluten free food to which the response was that this would not be a problem. First breakfast my wife explained her condition and a member of staff pointed in the direction of the Gluten free cereal area but when asked which hot foods were gluten free the other staff member just said "Oh it's all right, all of our food is gluten free" By this response my wife was not convinced that the member of staff actually knew this to be the case and this put her off eating anything apart from scrambled eggs, which is gluten free, every morning not wanting to take any chance with rusk in the sausages or wheat in the hash browns ! Overall a simple single breakfast for 4 days !

With regard to housekeeping, we left for the day on day 1 and came back to find that housekeeping had not made up the bed, but had just pushed the cover and sheets back on the bed in place, no glasses were washed, apart from 2 coffee cups, with no replacements of the coffee sachets used, and the bin was not emptied. This happened each of the 4 days we were there, and my wife also went and complained to your receptionist after talking to the cleaners when we arrived back at 5:00pm on day 3 asking if our room was still to be cleaned, as it had not already been cleaned at this late hour, when we entered it, to be told it was not on their list ! In all 4 days that we were there the bed covers and sheets had not been changed once ! The dirty glasses from the bar which we took to our rooms were still unwashed and in the room, the room glasses I had to wash each evening to get a drink of water and the bins were emptied three times not four, although we did get clean towels every day.

On a hygiene note, Room 417 has a separate toilet from the main bathroom and sink area which means that after doing the toilet you need to use your hands to open the door of the toilet room, walk to the shower/bathroom, open the door and operate the tap to wash hands that have been used to do the toilet !! Not very hygienic.

Overall a very dissatisfying experience with certainly no recommendations being made to stay at this hotel to anyone who asks or enquires about our stay at the Accor Hotel...