comfortable
by TripAdvisor Member Mike05
Not particularly a Novotel fan but this hotel is OK.
Good location right in the middle of Broad Street. The re-furbished rooms are done in "neutral" colours that I found a bit drab, and I found the seperate toilet and bathroom a bit inconvenient but thats only a personal preference. The weak link is the decor of the small seperate toilet that is emulsioned woodchip and is a bit "pub toilet".
That said, the room was clean, quiet and comfortable. Good flat screen TV but very poor lighting. I had to move the lamp into the middle of the desk to get enough light to read. I Stayed on the coldest night of the year and the room was warm all night. The bed was very comfortable.
Extremely efficient and freindly staff at breakfast. The buffet was significantly better than average and served in contemporary surroundings with tables at different levels and even a few counter style tables with TV's equipped with headphones for the die hard breakfast TV addicts !!
Overall, a good experience - left feeling relaxed. Will certainly use again.
Great Location
by TripAdvisor Member Louisanaw
The hotel is located in Broad Street, so you have lots of bars and restaurants within walking distance. I stayed here for one night as I was going to a concert. The loacation was fantastic, only 5 minutes walk from NIA,
Car park is under the hotel and rates are reasonable. The reception of the hotel is nice and the staff are really friendly. Our bedroom was basic but clean and comfortable. There was a flat screen tv with a good choice of channels. There was also a hairdryer, iron and kettle in the room.
Breakfast was great and better than I had expected. If you want a lazy morning, its ideal beacause breakfast was served until 1130am.
If I was staying in Birmingham for just one night again, I would use this hotel.
Standard Novotel hotel
by TripAdvisor Member Chip0408
We stayed there two nights for a conference in ICC. Good location as it is close to most of the places. The hotel has good shower, in room internet services and good breakfast. However, the bed sheets are a bit rough so had to put on pjs! Other hotels like Hyatt and SAS Radisson looks a lot more impressive though.
The Good, The Bad and.....
by TripAdvisor Member Fab10
We stayed here for one Sunday night in a superior room. First the good things.
The room was a good size with a good bathroom with bath and separate shower compartment. The toilet was in a separate room. There were nice toiletries, and a very modern handbasin, and good big towels.
There was a fridge and a safe, and the sofa was opposite the TV so you could sit and watch in comfort. The room was clean and bright, and there was no noise from inside the hotel, but maybe it would be different if the hotel was busy.
The bad - the sofa had a hole in one cushion which had been badly mended. There was no air conditioning - only temperature control, and the room was hot and stuffy. We had to get the housekeeper to open the windows as they are locked with a key, and there is only one key in the hotel! We had to keep the windows open all night, and there was a lot of noise from outside from drunken revellers, and also noisy traffic, which made it difficult to sleep.
Reception - well, the hotel is owned by a French chain, and one of the reception staff was evidently Paris trained - be as unhelpful as you can.... We arrived at 12.30 to be told we could not check in until 2.p.m. No apologies or attempts to help, just a bald statement. We parked the car - good, safe, car park - and were in the entrance hall wondering what to do, when we saw people checking in! How come they could when we couldn't? On asking, we were told Oh Yes, your room is ready now. How come she didn't check her screen or phone when we arrived earlier?
The lift is room key operated, and like all these systems, you have to creep up on the keypad with guile and cunning - or brute force. It does work eventually, but watch the lift doors - they caught my arms and it was very painful. To get to and from the car park you have to use the stairs, or get one of the staff to open the goods lift, because the passenger lift doesn't go down to that floor.
We didn't have the breakfast (extra) but did some shopping at the Sainsbury shop next door, which is open 7 days a week, and they have super pain au chocolat! Highly recommended...
I gather Novotel don't own the building, just rent it, which explains the parking and air conditioning problems. It is a pity, because apart from that, this is a really good hotel.
Second city first choice
by TripAdvisor Member PeripateticPoleaxe
Like all Novotels it seems, great service and comfortable rooms marred only by a foolish lack of parking (it was evidently purpose-built, but ill-designed in that particular) and slow check-in. But a safe choice for the city centre.
Expensive Travel Inn!!!
by TripAdvisor Member lee247
We stayed in a Superior room which was smaller than the average travel inn standard room. We had a nice queen-size bed and a sofa bed with one pillow and 2 scatter cushions to share between the three of us! They did send 2 more up after a bit of hassling though. The bathrooms are cheap and tacky which fell apart when trying to use the bath. The hotel offers many services all at hideous rates. For example £3 for 1hr use on their internet. When checking in we were told the car park was free its not! £12 a night if you’re lucky enough to get one of 30 spaces. Once their spaces are full it’s up to you to find somewhere to park the closest being 500m away at the cost of £14 a night.
The night sleep was relatively comfortable, apart from the noise levels. Even though we were on the 3rd floor and at the back of the building we had a disrupted night until about 3am when all the drunks had gone home and the police had stopped screaming past with sirens wailing!
After a couple hrs sleep I just wanted to get out of there but the hotel had a couple more scams of robbing more money from me and accuse me of taking a can of sprite at the cost of £4.50! After arguing this with two foreign “customer service” attendants, they broke the news to me that they lied about the free parking and I had to pay.
The hotel offers breakfast at the cost of £12 each when there is a great variety of nice cafes and restaurants where you can get a cooked breakfast for £5 each
Overall the hotel is well overrated and constantly trying to charge you for anything extra they can it is no better than a travel inn and wish I had just booked there for half the price but twice the service.
Not bad, not great either
by TripAdvisor Member ribm7727
We stayed over the night of 4th August 2007.
The hotel is in an excellent location on Broad Street, which is the heart of the entertainment (ie bars!) district in Birmingham city centre.
A good thing about this hotel is the secure car parking, albeit they charge you around £12 per day for the privelage.
The hotel room was good and seemed as if it had been recently renovated.
The bathroom was small but clean and had a good shower.
We didn't stay for breakfast as it was £12 each, and you can go to Weatherspoons (directly opposite the hotel) and have a massive breakfast for £2.99.
Likewise, don't get ripped off by the mini bar, there is a Sainsburys local next to the hotel which sells near on everything.
Do consider other hotels nearby which may be more cost effective, if you search for hotels in birmingham city centre near to Broad St or Brindley Place.
Sign in with Facebook
