Novotel London Canary Wharf 4 stars

I had a one night stay at Novotel London Canary Wharf last week, and it was off to such a lovely start. The location is great, and the receptionist on duty on Thursday evening was lively, service-minded and attentive (I wish I had gotten her name). As a Platinum member of Accor, I had been upgraded to an executive room on a high floor with a great view, and she happily answered all my questions. She also tried to sell in their breakfast (in a non-pushy manner), and she made it sound great, so I was tempted - but my plan was to finally get some sleep after a long week, so I declined and said I had a small hope to sleep long and have a late check-out the day after. She said she believed that would be possible to arrange but that I would have to confirm with her colleagues on duty in the morning. The room was not large but planned in a smart way and had everything I could wish for for a short stay. A very nice welcome message was also waiting in the room, and I felt this was one of the better Novotel hotels I have stayed at. A friend came over for us to check out their bar on the 38th floor, and the very positive experience continued there. Excellent atmosphere, great mixing of cocktails and attentive service. And of course - the view! I already decided I had to come back the day after to check it out during daylight. I slept very well, and woke up to an awesome view of London. On my way to kick off the day with a visit to the hotel gym, I dropped by the reception to try to confirm the late check-out. However, the receptionist on duty did not exactly show the same enthusiasm as the one working the night before. She did not get off the chair she was sitting on, hardly looked at me when I approached - and had no interest in knowing my room number or anything else - she just declared that the hotel was fully booked that day so noone could have a late check-out. I worked ten years in hospitality and am of course aware that noone can expect or demand a late check-out. I do however also know that even when the hotel is full, one can allow a very few late check-outs (sometimes against a fee to reduce demand - and I would have been happy to pay a bit). Here, there just seemed to be no interest in anything that caused extra work. This might be unfair but my impression was that her only wish was for the shift to end so that she could kick off the weekend. I did not want to be an annoying guest bringing up my status with Accor but briefly mentioned the promising signals from the evening before - however, that caused an even firmer no. One could almost get the impression they were severely over-booked. And there was no «Sorry, we are full» - just a «We are fully booked, so that’s not possible». So I went to do a quick gym session. The gym is rather small, but well equipped - and allowed for a solid work-out. The only downside was an obvious need for cleaning of the floor/mat in the weight corner. Out of curiosity, I went online from the gym to see if it was still possible to book a room for the evening, and indeed, four different room categories were available for booking on Friday, including mine. Again, there could be good reasons for not allowing a late check-out on my floor, for example - but then she should at least have checked in the system. I would have loved to also take advantage of the pool and sauna (both looked lovely), but time did obviously not allow for that. So I packed, checked out, left my luggage and went for lunch outside - before returning to check out the bar in the early afternoon. It was as great during daytime as during the night, and I have recommended the bar/facilities to all my friends in London - but also had to be honest about the lack of consistency in the hotel reception. So all in all - location and facilities tick all the boxes - service levels vary from absolutely great to absolutely non-attentive. I had an ambition and a plan to climb back to Diamond status with Accor this year, and am still on track for that. But episodes like these make me wonder if the IHG group is a better option for my upcoming adventures in Europe.

I am an Accor member. I confirmed my reservation. I produced my Accor membership card. I was subsequently asked for photo to confirm my identity. Prior to this other guests not required to produce photographic evidence of my identity. Novotel have never ever requested this form of identification. A fact I conveyed to your colleague to which the response was, ' These are our procedures.' The abrasive, charmless way this was handled caused me acute embarrassment in front of a queue of guests. Your colleague's gesture - a free upgrade was appreciated - but does not mitigate the appalling customer service I received.

We had an amazing time and the staff were stellar! Thank you

From the moment we stepped into the hotel we were greeted warmly and well looked after. The room was clean and tidy and the view was great - we didn’t eat at the hotel but it was convenient for what we wanted.

Checked in on Thursday 21st, checked in by Eriks and Marina. Both of which were extremely rude and made us feel very unwelcome. Eriks firstly asked for our ID's to which he basically grabbed our ID out our hands followed by throwing them back at us. Same again with the credit card authentication. Whilst checking in the both continued to go back forth between each other muttering comments under their breath (clearly about ourselves). Very little information was giving on the hotel, we didn't know where anything was and had to ask other staff (who were more than helpful). Overall, they were both outright rude and unprofessional. The room was standard, the bathroom was absolutely disgusting. Shower head was foul (pics to prove), mirror was also really dirty (although this was inside the mirror it still looked awful). The carpet had multiple stains throughout the room and the carpet looked like it hadn't seen a hoover in years. This was our first time staying at one of the Novotel Hotels and will absolutely be our last. The only thing bearable about this hotel was the lovely view of the city. Overall, a terrible, unwelcoming experience and will be recommending NOT to stay here.