Novotel Mulhouse Bâle Fribourg

We have stayed at this hotel maybe 10 times over the last decade. It used to be clean, organised, nice restaurant, bar and outdoor area. However, Novotel seems to be targeting a new clientele. Families with young noisy children. it has recently changed it's entrance area, restaurant and bar. We walked into what looked and sounded like a childrens play area. Noisy kids running around everywhere. Huge man sized teddy bear being dragged across the foyer by excited kids. The restaurant is now just buffet style. Fixed price but pretty ropey. Not enough indoor tables. Outside are is ok, but loads of wasps! Staff weren't interested in us (and unusually for most hotels, only one person spoke any 'international' English). The decor is 'unusual', a bit of a mish mash of styles and mainly featuring unfinished chip board. The bedroom was ok, clean, quiet, comfy bed, but desperately in need of a refurb. The hotel is convenient for the motorway, easy to access and has plenty of secure parking.

the hotel is fine. But the hotel room was very very hot. There was no option to turn on an airco. It was 40 degrees outside the hotel, the hotelroom was 28 at least. With 2 adults and 2 children in 1 room... it was a very hot sauna. The rooms can get a upgrade, with a good working airconditioning.

Good thing we only stayed in the room for few hours to sleep. Because the room was too small for 4 people even just with 2 small children. It was very hot in the room and for a 4 star hotel you'd expect to have a proper air conditioning system in the room or within the hotel building.

We were disappointed from the second we drove up to this dilapidated hotel with its retro (not at all in a good way) exterior and a huge heap of rubbish (looking like a bonfire in-waiting) in the carpark. We were sure, however, that it would be the usual Novotel experience inside... But were sadly mistaken. Check-in is a laptop on a table near the door and was a relatively lengthy process. The ground floor of this two-storey building is a hot, fly/mosquito/wasp-filled, chaotic mess of uncomfortable furniture, kids' sports equipment and chipboard walls, which is probably an attempt at trendiness but comes off a construction-in-progress. Heavy suitcases have to be lugged up the stairs as there is no lift. The rooms are clean but extremely dated with paint chipped off just about every possible wood surface, a lamp that flashed on and off (making an ominous buzzing noise when off), a fridge with the usual Novotel "welcome to your room and enjoy this complimentary water"-sticker on it but was empty and non-functioning, a rather lumpy bed, "centrally-controlled" air-conditioning (read: we get to say how hot you'll be tonight in the 35°C heat), plus a toilet that was so low you have to practically just drop and hope for the best. The hotel is ideally set up for families, with an outdoor pool and free-to-use badminton sets, footballs, etc. This does come with a certain noise element, however. The rooms are poorly insulated against noise and we were woken at 6:45 by a cacophony that made us think the hotel was being demolished around our room. Some staff speak languages other than French but others do not and we had a hard time as a multilingual but non-French-speaking family ordering dinner from the really lovely, friendly young chap in the restaurant. Although we had a reservation in the hotel's restaurant, not one member of staff acknowledged our presence for a good 20 minutes after we took our seats. The restaurant is very casual with few tables suitable for dining- most are low with low, loungey chairs or high with stools. There is one dingey back room with three "proper" tables but it was very hot, full of flies and decorated, weirdly, with a load of dusty cameras and yet more MDF. Staff on the whole, aside from that one young man, were inattentive, unfriendly bordering on rude. Twice during our stay, the keycard failed to work in the door: the first time, we had to wait 10 minutes at the end of the check-in queue to have it reactivated and the second time we had to actively hunt down staff, since "reception" (i.e. the table with a laptop) was unmanned. When we did eventually find someone, not a word apology was forthcoming. The card was simply reactivated and handed back in glum silence. The same happened when we were charged almost forty euro to two drinks: our challenging the bill was met with sullen indifference by the young waitress. The nerve of this virtual youth hostel to call itself a four-star hotel is bewildering. The experience has left me questioning Novotel's standards and wondering if I maybe just dreamed it all. Will never book this place again.

Decided to upgrade a stopover to stay in a decent quality hotel instead of a budget version. Could not have been more disappointed. The hotel was “tired” looking. The room was oppressively hot, with only a very noisy fan for cooling. Our request for a quieter fan was ignored. We slept with the window wide open which exposed us to the full glare of a floodlight in the car park. Staff were brusque when I went to the bar to try and order food and drink. The food, when it eventually arrived, was of a very low standard. I do but normally write poor reviews but I can make an exception for this hotel.