Novotel Canberra 4,5 estrelas

We stayed at the Novotel in Canberra for 3 nights in early May and couldn't believe the state of the room we were in! There was frayed carpet where the carpet met the tiles, large stains on the carpet in the room & in the lift foyer, the bedside lampshade was filthy, there were holes in the sheer curtaining and the matching leatherette chair & ottoman were also both filthy. As if that wasn't bad enough, the bathroom on Novotel's website for a standard King room with balcony showed a bath, separate shower, toilet & large vanity where in reality the bathroom in our room had a toilet in a nook behind the bathroom door, a shower & NO vanity! The toilet nook was so small that there was approximately 3cm between the side of the toilet & the wall which meant that when you sat on the toilet, the toilet roll rested on your thigh & we are not big people. The so called "vanity" was outside the bathroom, doubled as a sink to rinse cups, was the only place to plug the kettle in and was so small, you had to choose to put either the kettle there or your toilet bags because you couldn't do both. Since returning home to Perth both my husband & myself have had several lengthy discussions with the front office Manager at the Novotel in Canberra, I eventually filled out a survey sent by Novotel and then emailed the CEO of Accor Hotels (who own Novotel Hotels) explaining our disbelief at the state of our room and asked for her opinion on the matter. We received a reply from Customer Care Pacific team stating that the General Manager at Novotel Canberra would contact s shortly to discuss the matter, we had to chase that up and eventually got a call from the front office Manager not the stated General Manager!

Rooms are very pokey, everything seems a tight fit. Desk in corner with chair that didn’t fit. Couldn’t get around side of bed easily. Vanity basin is in the living room ? No vanity in bathroom. Shower over bath. No power points in bathroom. lol Bar fridge didn’t work Great location, staff good.

Nice Hotel with friendly staff and comfortable rooms in the centre of town close to transport and cafes, but let down by its restaurant. 2 days in a row waited 10 mins to get in then no eggs or bacon left, no decaf coffee except instant. Ordered a ribeye steak but it was cut thinly and overcooked. Certainly not worth the premium price of $50. Much better steak for less at the Irish pub around the corner

Honestly this has to be the most awful hotel I have stayed in a long time. Accor, you need to seriously upgrade, it’s 2 star at best. The restaurant was marginally better than the state of the accomodation. It was very busy, so clearly they’re making good margin on the hotel. The room as dirty, very old, smelly and just not acceptable. Very disappointing as a loyal Accor member, there was very limited choice in Canberra.

The staff here are great and friendly. The location is also good if you want to be in Civic - where not much happens at weekends but plenty during the week. It's close to the Melbourne and Sydney buildings which are packed with restaurants, and there is reasonably priced parking not too far away. The rooms are getting tired and dated though - need a refresh but still acceptable/tolerable for a good rate. However - this hotel betrays its attitude to customers with one small sign in the bathroom warning customers that if they run the shower with the bathroom door open, the smoke alarm is likely to go off, the fire service will come and the customer will be forced to pay a fine. Any hotel that demands I pay a fine for behaving perfectly normally and in doing so accidentally failing to mitigate its poor design/maintenance and does so in such a threatening manner isn't going to see my business again.