Co-Author: Kankana Debnath
Since travelling out of city is slightly difficult these days, we decided to try out the concept of staycation. When we were planning for a staycation in Mid-November, 2020, we chose to stay at Novotel Bangalore and one of the main reasons for choosing this hotel is that, it is part of the Accor Hotels and we had pretty good experience in Grand Mercure Hotel in Mysore which is a part of the same hotel group. You can read the review of Grand Mercure Hotel in the link: https://styletravelandmore.com/hotel-grand-mercure-mysore/
The experience of staying in Novotel Bangalore was far from positive. However, we will list down some the positive things about this hotel first and then we will tell you why the overall experience had not been so good.
They sanitised the luggage before entering the hotel, which is essential due to the current situations.
The check in process was quick and they provide a welcome kit comprising of Masks, Wet wipes and Sanitiser sachet.
For a business hotel, the location is pretty good, right in the IT Corridor of the Outer Ring Road.
The property is nice, on a huge campus. The rooms are decent as well and the washroom looked well maintained.
Now, we will talk about why our experience turned sour and it began from the moment we entered the hotel. We were told to park our car in the basement parking and the lift to the hotel was not working which meant we needed to carry our luggage all the way to the hotel lobby which wasn’t too close. We were travelling light, however, the security should have informed us about this when we entered. Later that night they showed us a parking place which is in an open area closer to the lobby. These are small things and add up to the overall experience.
As we normally do when we visit hotels, we were taking photographs and videos of the place for our blog. We were asked not to take videos of the place and when we asked the reason, they asked us to connect to the Marketing Team. The Marketing Team said, they don’t allow videos and asked us not to take videos of sanitisation etc. When the Marketing Team implies that they are not comfortable sharing their sanitisation steps, that is not at all re-assuring for the guests during these pandemic times.
When it comes to WiFi, it was not working initially, only when we complained about it in the evening, it was resolved.
The staff in the hotel is obviously untrained and that showed up everywhere. When we went for the breakfast they seemed to be confused of the offerings. Later they told that a-la-carte options were available. For poached eggs option, they provided 1 single egg with 1 bread and 2 malnourished sausages 😉, pathetic to say the least.
Also, the cooling quality wasn’t great, as the room got hot and cold at intervals, probably they were switching off the Central Cooling at night to reduce the cost. The temperature controlling device inside the room was not working.
Well, Novotel provided us with a lot of first-time experience. Since we wanted to catch up some sleep in the afternoon (Thanks to the intelligent cooling 😉), we had put in “Do not Disturb” sign and after an hour or so, they called up to check if we needed housekeeping as we had put in “Do not Disturb” sign. Where in the world would you find such ‘proactive staff’ who disturbs you to check if you really don’t want to be disturbed. 😉
These are difficult times for business hotels like Novotel and it would need real smart moves to survive this, mere Cost Cutting is certainly not one of them.
Hope Accor Hotels will realize that the management of this hotel needs to be changed and staff need to the trained. Till that time, well, there are plenty of other hotels to stay in Bangalore.
