Novotel Paris Les Halles

Cleaning service, room, perfect location

Location

I was disappointed to find that, even a year after my previous stay, the hotel is still undergoing renovations. And if significant renovations have already been completed, I don’t think the layout was redesigned very thoughtfully. There is almost always a queue at reception, often stretching beyond the main entrance. Because of the way the lobby is arranged, every guest entering or leaving the hotel has to make their way through a crowd of people waiting to check in or speak to reception. It makes the entrance feel constantly congested and chaotic. Another issue that was particularly inconvenient when travelling with a young child was that there was no baby-changing station in the lobby restrooms. While we were waiting in the long queue to check in, our daughter needed a diaper change, which left us with two options: wait until our room was ready, or change her on one of the sofas in the lobby, in full view of the other guests — who would presumably also get to enjoy the smell. When we approached the receptionist and tried to explain the situation and ask if the process could be expedited, her response was a rather snappy, “That’s what I’m doing,” which came across as unnecessarily unfriendly and dismissive. At that point, I genuinely felt like I should have just changed the diaper right there on the reception desk. Perhaps then the lack of a proper baby-changing facility would have been noticed. The ice machine on our floor was also not working during our stay. We also had a particularly frustrating experience with housekeeping. Our young daughter accidentally wet the duvet shortly before bedtime, so we contacted the hotel and asked for it to be replaced. We specifically delayed putting her to bed because we wanted the bedding changed beforehand rather than having staff enter the room and wake her once she was asleep. What should have been a very simple request turned into more than two hours of waiting and repeated explanations.

The location was great. Near public transportation and restaurants

Extremely helpful and friendly staff - both at the reception desk and at the restaurant. At the checkout there was a long line and the receptionist simply told me not to wait and they will charge my extra to the final bill. Breakfast was great, wifi easy to connect. I've been staying in this hotel many times, and to me it is super comfortably located next to a major metro\RER hub, making it easy to connect to the Gare de Lyon and or CDG airport.

Room was rather "tired" and I had a problem with AC - it was very loud, even working in a lowest mode. But it was impossible to switch it off, so I had to call the reception in the very late evening and ask for their help. Fortunatelly, there was someone on duty who switched the AC from outside the room and finally I could sleep. The other problem was that the bed was too soft. I understand that it depends on the customer and different people have different tastes, but to me it was on the edge of being uncomfortably soft.