Novotel Balikpapan Hotel 5 stars

quite good

Hello, a good day for you Last week, I was visiting Novotel Balikpapan for a business trip. My company book this hotel via "Maxima" due to keeping us zero contact with other people during our trip in order to reduce potential infection by Covid-19 because we have to visit our site every day. so we are going to this hotel via Maxima is not for self-isolation but only to reduce the probability to get infected. This is my first time visiting Novotel Balikpapan. I am so happy because they give me an ocean view room which is good. All the food and room amenities are good. Previously I ever visited Novotel in Semarang for a holiday which also gives good hospitality also. Unfortunately, we feel a little bit inconvenience with hotel hospitality. Every day in the afternoon after we visit our company site when we back to the hotel we have to wait outside of the lobby event shouting from the outside to notify the receptions to get in because the door was locked by a "tie" and no one standby to open the door for us because we going there not for "self-isolation" but to take a safe trip. I thought we already tell the officer about the concept of our trip however we have to meet this inconvenience every day and even they asked us if we are new guest want to check-in. on the last day when we want to check out, we have to wait in a separate place with the regular guest. I totally understand maybe because it is covid preventive regulation but the place we got is not quite proper and not comfortable. we got a regular chair with the floor covered with plastic and it's not well placed. like we sit in the public area waiting room. even we already tell the officer we are vaccinated twice and negative in PCR test on 29 September 2021 but we feel like an infected person at that moment. So, hopefully, there will be a better concept of hospitality which separate guests who like us (negative) and need a place to stay in safe and the guest who are truly infected that need self-isolation. Thank you in advance Warm regards, Fandy

This was my first experience staying at Novotel brand and I kinda expected it to be a smooth and satisfying experience, but it was not. The check in process was not immediate, had to wait around five minutes to be served (didn’t mind though, there was only one receptionist at the time and they were busy) but I was really glad my request for late checkout was granted even only for 3 PM due to the availability (even though I was pretty sure the hotel was quite vacant the next day). The room was nice, considering the hotel was almost 20 years old and had a renovation few years ago. The bed was fluffy and provided a good sleep. The TV? Really need to be discarded I could barely watch anything. The water jug should be replaced with a newer one, it looked old with the plastic tearing here and there. Bathroom was okay, all functioning properly. No bath mat available and I had to request it 3 times until it was delivered to my room. The breakfast was really standard. I stayed at ibis the day earlier and the breakfast here and there was only slightly different in terms of quality. Was it delicious? Yes. Was it memorable? No. The fact that the most memorable thing about my breakfast was my orange should be concerning. I kinda expected to have a great breakfast but sadly I didn’t get it but honestly with the pandemic hitting this industry, it was understandable that some things need to be adjusted in order to survive. Well, will I come back to this hotel for future stay? Probably. But this hotel won’t come on the top of my head when it comes to picking hotel for stay in Balikpapan.

The Hotel basically so-so, do not have any amaze service. There are some lacks of services actually, such; 1- Room still not ready even has Check-in at 13:00 2- The restaurant really long to serve the food and the staff is not familiar with Accor Plus transactions 3- Taxi is not available at the hotel, we must wait 20 minutes. It could be issue if guest needs rush time to Airport. The motivate I choose the hotel due to listed as Accor member, otherwise I prefer to choose Jatra Hotel.

During stay there experience good services from related staff, past respond and warm regard from the hotel's manager