Novotel Bristol Centre

GOOD STUFF: Complimentary parking (beats the £15 NCP hourly charge), the food (particularly the fillet steak) was fantastic, bathroom was stunning, playstation in reception is a great idea, satellite television and brochure about Bristol in the room was a nice touch, a safe in the room is handy.

BAD STUFF: Reception calling the room at 12:05pm to say check out was at noon, face cloths would have been useful, bath towels are a bit on the small side (although wouldn't matter if I wasn't such a voluptuous girl!), more than one packet of two biscuits for a double room would have been more generous, air conditioning was ineffective, mini bar was extortionate (£2.50 for a KitKat!).

ODD: The restaurant menu and the room service menus are different, although you can order from either in the restaurant - not sure why they just don't have the one menu for simplicity. Felt like I was living in an Ikea catalogue :-)

A good hotel and great value for money. Fantastic breakfast and location.

I have stayed at the Novotel recently several times on business. For me, it simply gave me what I needed - a comfortable place to spend the night.

The rooms come in at least 3 designs, depending on the bathroom layout (bath only/bath and shower/shower only). With a bath and shower, the rest of the room is a bit cramped for my liking, but the bath only rooms, which I had most of the time, are reasonably spacious for a hotel at this price point. I found the room decor to be fresh and modern, and the air conditioning is pretty effective too.

A downside is that one side of the hotel is on a main road. The road's not too busy at night, but there is an ambulance station nearby, so expect to be woken occasionally if you're on the road side. Another thing I noticed is that the water pressure on the higher floors is rather low.

I can't comment on the food (apart from breakfast, which is fine if a bit uninspiring). I tended to go into town to eat, but be aware that the Novotel is about 10 minutes walk from the middle of Bristol.

In the end, I was quite happy with the Novotel. It wasn't the best hotel I stayed in in Bristol, but it wasn't the worst either. It was clean and comfortable, and I would quite happily stay again.

We stayed at this hotel in February 2004 in the last few weeks of it being owned by Holiday Inn when it could be described as being OK but very traditional and somewhat outdated.

However, upon returning in July 2005 the change to Novotel was dramatic. Everything is modern and fresh, even verging on the minimalist perhaps. There has been a complete internal/external rebranding and refurbishment with new decor throughout, carpets, bathrooms, wallcovering and furniture. It was a breath of fresh air. The rooms were wonderful: An extremely comfortable king size bed, stylish lighting, plenty of storage and table space, electronic safe, coffe/tea facilities and an ultra modern bright bathroom with great walk in shower (only negative was the low water pressure of the shower but maybe it was just our room?) I am prepared to give the benefit of the doubt.

The hotel is superbly located for Bristol Temple Meads train station which is also the drop off point for the airport coach shuttle or 'flyer' as it is known. All the main leisure and shopping attractions are also within walking distance. Hotel bar open til 2am weekends and 1am weekdays.

Friendly staff and efficient check in/out made this a pleasant stay. Would stay here again without question if we got the same Internet rate again.

Ny wife and I stayed at this hotel for one night in order to attend a colleague's retirement function. We booked a superior and was not over impressed with it. I would rate it on par with a Holiday Inn standard room. The room itself was very clean as was the hotel. The staff on the reception desk did not speak/understand English very well, which made communication difficult, especially when we had promblems trying to gain access to our room. I thought £12.00 per person for breakfast was too expensive. One other thing to be wary of. on checking out we were charged £24.00 for breakfasts we did not have. It was probably an oversight, but it's worth checking your final bill before signing the credit card bill.

Although I might sound a bit negative, we thought it was a very nice hotel, near to the city centre. Big plus, free underground parking. Most other city centre hotels do not have parking facilities. I would use the hotel again if I have to return to Bristol again for an overnight stop.

We stayed for two nights at the Novotel and thought the room was very good value for money. I got an internet rate of about £50 per room per night.

The room was newly decorated in what I thought was a very modern style and set it apart from the usual style of room you get in a travelodge/ibis hotel. The room was also very clean.



The location was very good, being just a 5-10 min walk from the main train station in Bristol (temple meads). It was also about a 10-15 minute walk from the city centre although I don't think I'd feel too safe walking that route alone at night.

The breakfasts were very expensive, we only ate there because we got a half price discount at reception. However, the food was of good quality. We didn't eat in the hotel at night.

I need to spend a night in Bristol again in September and will probably stay at the Novotel again.

I stayed at the 'newly' refurbished Novotel in Bristol for one night in March. The decor in the room was neutral but badly finished. All of the furnishings were of poor quality and looked cheap, the bathroom was tiny with minimal toiletries which were inadequate and hard toilet roll! The worst thing of all was the bed - it was so hard and the sheets so starched that I only managed an hour's sleep. Ignore the 4* rating on this hotel, it's awful, it's more like a Travel Inn or Express by Holiday Inn, avoid this hotel if you can - stay at one of the Bristol Marriotts or The Brigstow.

Stayed at this central (expensive) hotel with a small group of work colleagues. Having booked twin rooms, as we usually do for work trips, we were shocked to discover, on arrival in Bristol (after a 4 hour car journey) that the "twin" rooms were in fact made up of a double bed and a sofabed. This is the Novotel standard throughout Europe, but, as we pointed out, they failed to point that out. How do you decide which of the two of you sleep on the sofa bed with the wafer thin mattress?? In my case it caused real upset and caused my roomie to storm out of the hotel! I'd thought we should flip a coin for the decent bed!! The hotel is undergoing major refurbishment, (lobby was a building site when we got there) but the rooms look lovely, contemporary, clean, neutral colours etc.. shame about the sofabed. Staff were struggling with their English on reception which made the situation all the more frustrating. We were compensated with a drinks voucher each. Good location, nice bar.

Great base for exploring Bristol - about 5/10 minutes walk to the Galleries, 10 minutes brisk walk to the Hippodrome. Own free car park underneath the hotel with plenty of free spaces, friendly staff, clean room, serviced daily. Didn't use the facilities of bar/restaurant so cannot comment on these, but with breakfast at £11 pp, it had better be good!!! We're returning to Bristol again in May and will be staying at the same hotel - got a great rate of £50 per room per night, booked with active hotels, altho this has now gone up to £65 per room, but inc breakfast (making breakfast £7.50 pp...a little cheaper!!!!)

Don't get me wrong, I'm not a complainer.

A group of fourteen of us went to Bristol for the weekend en route to a race meet at Cheltenham.

One of the reasons we chose the Novotel was for its proximity to the train station. The other was because we were promised an all-night resident's bar should we want it.

The bar shut at 2am on both nights and you simply couldn't get a drink after this time, room key or no room key.

My problem isn't that the bar shut, but more that we were told it wouldn't shut.

A few other minor problems consisted of staff who had trouble understanding English and also that they mixed up all the room keys - some worked, some didn't, some went to the wrong rooms.

By and large it's a nice hotel. Big, bright, spacious, airy and close to just about everything without being in the hub of anything. Breakfast was absolutely top-drawer as well.

But they should remember that they are in the service industry and serious improvements with customer care could be undertaken.