Tag: Novotel Hotels
View All TagsKid-Friendly Hotels / Family-Friendly Hotels / Hotel Amenities / UK Hotels / Novotel Hotels / Accor Hotels / → All Tags
UK Novotels Ready For Rainy Season With Toy Chests
Where: Various Hotels , United Kingdom
If you have ever stayed in a hotel with children, you can only pray that the weather is nice enough to ensure the kids are not cooped up inside and, ultimately, annoying any and all adults in the hotel. Novotel UK comes to the rescue with special Rainy Day Toy Chests overflowing with toys to keep everyone from going stir-crazy.
All 30 Novotel properties across the UK, understand the weather can sometimes be grey and rainy ruining excursion plans. That's why they partnered with Hasbroto supply the toy chest in their family rooms with My Little Ponies and Transformers to keep the kiddies entertained during inclement weather. And just to ease the entire family's frustration, the chests also have family boardgames and active games to tire the little ones out.
Along with the toys, children stay free (breakfast included!) when accompanying parents or grandparents. If a shared room is too close for comfort, the hotels will offer a 50% discount on adjacent rooms for those under 16. This along with in-room Cartoon Network and video games and it sounds like Novotel has a winning combo for families.
[Photo: Novotel]
Hotel Packages / Seoul Hotels / Korea Hotels / Novotel Hotels / → All Tags
Novotel Seoul Goes Gangnam Style
Finally, a hotel has jumped on the bandwagon and will begin to offer hotel packages that revolve around the world's latest earworm better known as Gangnam Style. Just as we would expect, the package comes from the Novotel Seoul Ambassador, smack in the middle of the district the song is named after.
For those that may be living under a rock for the last 3 months, here's a little back story. The musical artist is named Psy (real name: Park Jae-sang) and he is a Korean rapper who produces K-Pop (Korean pop music). He posted a YouTube video for Gangnam Style and it has become the most viewed K-Pop video, not to mention the most 'liked,' on the site.
Now let's get to the hotel news. This Novotel located in the Gangnam District is offering Psy groupies the chance to stay at the heart of the area in which the singer grew up. Fans can 'cowboy' and 'horsey' all around the popular shopping and entertainment areas of Gangnam. Since the area is known to be dripping with celebrities, you may even spot some other K-pop stars.
Hotel Booking Sites / Hipmunk / Novotel Hotels / A Club / Accor Hotels / Airport Hotels / Zurich Hotels / → All Tags
How a Smiling Chipmunk Encouraged Us to Book a Hotel
Do you use Hipmunk.com? All the cool people do. And by "cool people," we mean us, because we just had a resounding success with our first hotel booking on the travel search website. Hipmunk recently began as another way to search for affordable airfare, but their creative methods of doing so caught our attention quickly. Even more recently, they've added a hotel search option to the site, where their smiling chipmunk mascot is all about finding you a hotel stay by "ecstasy," or price combined with location and ranking.
Ours was not an easy challenge. Find us a cheap hotel nearby the airport in Zurich, Switzerland. Zurich—nay, all of Switzerland—is one of the notoriously highest priced vacations you can take. 5-star hotels average $1000 per night. Crappy 3-stars hover around $250 per night, and there's a chance they won't even have WiFi or a flatscreen TV. Nonetheless, our fingers were crossed. We wanted under $150 and nice.
Snapshot / Hotel WiFi / Novotel Hotels / Paris Hotels / Train Station Hotels / → All Tags
Here's a Sign That We Wished Greeted Us at Every Hotel, Worldwide
After the buzz wore off from our stay at Le Meurice, we traveled over to the Novotel Paris Du Gare Lyon, right next to the train station, where we were due to catch an early morning train the next day.
Being a budgety Novotel, we didn't expect to be amazed by anything but we were surprised by the free WiFi throughout the hotel. It was especially heaven sent after getting thwarted at Mickey D's and having to shell out 20 Euros at Le Meurice. The network was super fast and we had no problems signing on.
We did, however, find our room utterly depressing with drab (although new and modern) decor, teeny pillows, scratchy sheets and a bathroom that looked as if it belonged in a sleeper cabin on a train.
Hotel Loyalty Programs / A Club / Accor Hotels / Sofitel Hotels / Novotel Hotels / Mercure Hotels / Ibis Hotels / All Seasons Hotels / → All Tags
What the Heck Is the A Club and How Can We Join?
Stay at the Sofitel Rio, and you can join the A Club.
When we first heard about the A Club, we wondered whether it was anything like the A-Team. We hoped it had something to do with Bradley Cooper. Alas, the two aren't related. But we couldn't be too bummed because the A Club is actually the new loyalty program for Accor Hotels, and we love hotel loyalty programs just as much as A-Team's pretty Face.
A Club gives you rewards at more than 2,000 hotels worldwide, including the Sofitel brand. For every dollar or Euro spent at a Sofitel a Pullman, a Gallery Novotel, a Suite Novotel, a Mercure and an Adagio hotel, you'll earn two points. You get awarded one point for every dollar or Euro spent at Ibis or All Seasons hotels.
Accor Hotels / Vietnam Hotels / Hotel Deals / Novotel Hotels / Mercure Hotels / → All Tags
Accor is Running a Vietnam Super Sale, But You Have To Hurry
No time to twiddle your thumbs on this one: today is the last day of the Accor sale on various hotels in gorgeous Vietnam.
Similar to the Australasia-wide sale Accor had going a few months ago, this one just runs for a few days, and the rates they're offering are up to 50% off standard.
The deals work like this: at every Novotel in Vietnam — that includes the Novotel Dalat and the Novotel Nha Trang — the rates are just $45 a night across the country. At fancier Accor properties like the Grand Mercure Phu Quocor the La Residence Hue, there's a flat rate of $75 a night in this sale. There are also $45 rates on a couple of Mercure hotels due to open soon, in Hanoi and Hue.
Vietnam hotel market is definitely heating up and Accor has another ten projects in the pipeline there, with tourism booming — so this kind of sale might have the lowest prices you see in a while. You need to book through the Vietnam Super Sale website to get these prices and remember, by the end of today it'll all be over.
Hotel Deals / Accor Hotels / Novotel Hotels / Mercure Hotels / Ibis Hotels / All Seasons Hotels / Asia Hotels / Australia Hotels / → All Tags
Accor Tempting Us With Three-Day Sale in Oz, Kiwiland and Asia
Accor Hotels in the Asia Pacific are getting ready for a three-day sale--they say there'll be a million rooms in 250 hotels up for grabs at rates discounted by more than 75%. The sale runs from February 24 to 26 and is for stays between April and July.
This region includes Australia, New Zealand and Asia, and includes a bunch of hotel chains that are all branded to Accor: Novotel, Mercure, Ibis and All Seasons are among them.
Right now at the super sale website all you can see is a tantalizing "Coming soon", but we'll be there early on February 24. We're after an Adelaide hotel room in May and we'll let you know what kind of bargain we snag.
[Photo: Wikimedia]
Hotel Animals / Novotel Hotels / Hotel Packages / Darwin Hotels / → All Tags
When Crocodiles and Hotel Rooms Get Packaged Together
If the standard hotel package that throws in free meals, some champagne or maybe a nice box of chocolates has got a bit boring for you, then perhaps you'd like to get dunked into a pool infested with crocodiles instead? That's the angle the Novotel Darwin is going for in the far north of Australia.
We'd like to say up front that we will never sign up for this package ourselves, but it's a free world so we thought we'd mention it anyway. The current Novotel Darwin deals work together with nearby Crocosaurus Cove and you can get a Cage of Death package for A$287 ($195) a night, including accommodation and one experience that they describe like this:
Guests are suspended in an acrylic transparent cage on a monorail system above the crocodile enclosures at Crocosaurus Cove and then slowly lowered into one of the four chosen enclosures for an "experience of a lifetime."
We just hope it's not the last experience of your lifetime.
If you just prefer to watch others risk getting eaten, then there are cheaper packages which just include entry to the croc park going for A$197 ($130) a night. We're probably even going to give that one a miss.
[Photo: Rantz]
Melbourne Hotels / Melbourne Hotel Guide / Novotel Hotels / Hotel Renovations / → All Tags
Melbourne Hotel Scene :: Novotel St Kilda Is Our Next Choice
AmandaK has left her perch in Perth, Australia and spent some time in Melbourne. This week she'll be giving us the lowdown on the hotels there. If you have a question or suggestion, send it our way and we'll get right on it.
If we're back in Melbourne during the summer season (rather than the windy, rainy winter they're having now) then our next hotel of choice will be the Novotel St Kilda. Along the Esplanade in trendy beachside St Kilda, this Novotel looks really attractive--all those palm trees evoking some kind of island stay--but is still just a short tram ride into the city center.
Some of the recent guests have had mixed opinions about the Novotel St Kilda, but what we really like is that management gets involved with the feedback of guests on TripAdvisor--that always makes us feel like they actually do care.
Renovations are still in progress to renew some of the rooms and they should be done in September--but since we're thinking this hotel is a summertime destination anyway (remember, that starts in December down under), this won't cause a problem.
Current room rates for standard rooms are averaging out at A$225 (about US$215). Just remember, make sure you get a newly renovated room as they're a whole lot nicer than the old ones.
Anti-View / Airport Hotels / Novotel Hotels / Moscow Hotels / → All Tags
Room with an Anti-View: Novotel Moscow Airport is 'Forgettable'
You know the scene. You open the door to your brand new hotel room, run over to the window, open the blinds and bam, you are hit with the anti-view. Maybe you are looking down a dirty alley, witnessing a drug deal, staring at an air shaft in the face, or seeing a brick wall. Whatever you are viewing it is not extremely pleasurable. Help out your fellow hotel mavens by uploading your anti-views to the HotelChatter/Flickr photo pool, or by sending the photo along to us. Remember to tell us the name of the hotel and the room number with the not-so-easy-on-the-eyes view.
This view here comes from Janiscula who called the Novotel Moscow Airport Hotel an "experience to forget." And we totally understand why. But that's usually what you get from an airport hotel.
New Years Eve Hotels / Sydney Hotels / Novotel Hotels / New-Years-Eve-Hotels / → All Tags
New Years Eve Hotels: The Novotel Darling Harbour in Sydney
This week, we're looking at some of the best places around the world to spend New Year's Eve. Got a suggestion for ringing in 2008, let us know.
If you're considering the Jaunted suggestion of spending New Year's Eve in Sydney--especially because the time difference means you get to celebrate sooner--then we have a hotel package that might suit.
The Novotel Darling Harbour is well-located with fantastic harbour views (that means fireworks views, check-out this daytime view above.) and they've got a few special things happening on New Year's Eve.
The most delicious-sounding part is their massive Seafood Buffet meal. Starting from 8.00pm on New Year's Eve, you can get a buffet dinner including King prawns, Sydney rock oysters, lemon coriander black mussels, chilli lime baby octopus and blue swimmer crabs, and the list just goes on and on.
Local beers, house wines and soft drinks are included, although we reckon you'd need to eat and drink quite a lot to get A$199 (US$175) value from it--but of course you're also paying for the location, and it is New Year's Eve.
Accommodation and dinner packages aren't available--you'll have to book into the hotel separately--but be aware that during this peak season (it's summer in Australia, as well as the holiday season) there is a minimum booking requirement of three nights. Rooms start at A$229 (US$200) including breakfast, but you'll have to pay more if you want your room to have a harbor view.
[Photo: Colin-Leeds]
Related Stories:
· A Darling Place for a Honeymoon [HotelChatter]
· Party (Not Too Hard) Above Sydney on NYE [Jaunted]
· Hotels in Sydney [HotelChatter]
Hotel News / Novotel Hotels / Australia Hotels / Green Hotels / → All Tags
Novotel Melbourne Wants You To Cut Showers To Three Minutes
Those signs explaining how you can help the environment by not having your towels washed every day have become a pretty standard way that hotels try to help the environment now, but the Novotel chain are taking things a whole lot further.
Australia's having some water shortage problems, and the Novotel Melbourne on Collins has an interesting solution:
Guests checking in at the Novotel will receive a complimentary three-minute shower timer to ensure those would be singing starlets stick to a short tune rather than an operetta! With guests across 324 rooms taking three-minute showers, that's a lot of water being saved.
While we heartily applaud these environmentally sound efforts, we're not quite sure that we want to give up our luxurious lengthy shower, especially when we're staying at a nice hotel. Fortunately, if we let our three minutes slip over to four, Novotel is still doing other things to save water, like using water-reducing shower heads and installing water restrictor pipes to all rooms.
Internationally, Novotel's owner, Accor, is emphasising other green activities in their hotels, including rejuvenating plants and trees in North America and focusing on reducing carbon emissions in Europe. For Accor and Novotel, 22 April is Earth Guest Day: so at least on that day, make your shower a three minute one.
[Photo: Krispy123]
Related Stories:
· Novotel Melbourne on Collins reviews [TripAdvisor]
· Four Season Philadelphia Gets Greener [HotelChatter]
