Novotel Cardiff Centre Hotel

This is a sterile hotel with well appointed rooms and services. The location is somewhat out of the way and is a trek to Cardiff center. The restaurant has excellent food but a limited menu. The service staff in the restaurant and bar are excellent and friendly. The front desk staff service was spotty-- some representatives were excellent and others almost surly. We were overcharged at booking time exhorbitant rates in anticipation of a sporting event that did not occur and initially the hotel refused to refund our money or lower the rates but after several international phone calls, the manager agreed to lower the rates when the sporting event failed to materialize. He met us on arrival and was very friendly but the booking policies left a very sour taste in our mouth. The AC in the rooms did not work well and after repeated attempts by maintenance and housekeeping to fix it, a manager finally admitted it was unfixable and was caused by the thermatstat being placed on the outside of the building. In fairness, they offered to move us to a different wing where the AC worked but we didn't feel like packing and unpacking again. We felt they should have been honest at the beginning. I have mixed feelings about the hotel. I feel it is over-priced for the location and services but it was clean and had a good restaurant and bar.

I'd stayed at this hotel previously when it was the Hanover International and, although it was good value at the time, it had seen better days. So I was interested in what Novotel had achieved. Well, on the basis of my visit, they've done really well. My room was modern, spacious and had a good quality tv with movies on demand, internet and music, etc. It was mostly very clean, with just the bathroom showing a few tell-tale signs of age. The in-room fridge, stocked with a few basics, was a nice touch I thought. The bar and restaurant had been transformed from the old warehouse effect to a swish, modern and comfortable and I think they've done a remarkably good job. The location is not quite the city centre, but with all the developments moving towards this area, this might be the place to be in a year or two. But having said that it's still not a long walk to town and the Bay is close, too. As I said, I had my doubts about this hotel previously (and had avoided it for a while) but now it'll be one of my first choices in Cardiff.

This is a modern hotel with fairly deferential staff - which is great if you like that sort of thing. If, like me, you don't, then it can be a bit irritating. It is clean and the rooms are a good size but probably no bigger than the cheaper Premier Travel Inn motel chain. However, it does have a swimming pool and a small and rather airless gym. I used the latter and appreciated it. The restaurant was deservedly quiet. It was one of those meals which was delicious, small and over priced. I felt like asking for a microscope to find the food on my plate - and I did ask for more custard with my pudding. I know some people like prettily presented dinner so, if you do, this is the restaurant for you. If, on the other hand, you want to feel full at the end of it, then I suggest going somewhere else to eat. This hotel is expensive for what it offers - great if the company is paying, maybe - but I certainly wouldn't stay with the family.

This is the second time I have stayed at this hotel and all I can say is that it was better than the first. The hotel has now been refurbished and the room now has flat screen tv and internet access if required. The beds are comfortable and room had a light and modern feel to it. The best thing is that you don;t need to check out until 12noon so at least you could have a lie in. Would definately stay here again,

Stayed before when was going through a refurb. Now finished and is smarter than a traditional Novotel. Part appears as a old mill. Smart bar area and good sized car park. I had an executive room which was very spacious. Quiet and well fitted out. Bathroom had seperate shower and bath. Shower unfortunately didn't live up to the expectation with poor water levels and fluctuating temperature. Check out was tediously slow.

The hotel occupies a converted building and retains some of the original architecture, the highlight being the impressive glass frontage and lobby/bar area. Until hotels add automated check-in systems the check-in process was the usual form filling and card swiping exercise. Unfortunately I got to the 4th floor with bags to find my room key failed to work - so back to reception, who helpfully re-swiped my room key and provided a spare just in case (which was a good job since the first one turned out to be duff!). Finally in the room I was please to find a mini-bar (so often missing these days from UK hotel rooms) and a clean, modern and spacious room. My colleague had the slight problem of no towels in the room but that was quickly remedied after a visit to reception on our way out. The bar is modern and light, despite the chairs/sofas being more for design than comfort! Breakfast was average to good, with a small (and sometimes crowded) buffet area and tentative staff on-hand. I did not try the restaurant or bar menu, preferring to eat out, but staff were very helpful and drinks were served quickly and efficiently. I would have liked them to come out from the bar and ask us for refills though rather than just collect empty glasses (after all it increases their takings). My only quibble was that the hotel entrance was located by the car park at the back of the building, meaning you had to walk all the way round to get to the main road - necessary if you want to take the 10-15mins walk to the city centre (the bay area is about 25mins walk). They had even erected a large banner at the front to advise visitors of this fact as the floor to ceiling glass frontage it a little misleading masquerading as an entrance. Overall an impressive and well presented hotel and would certainly stay again.

I recently stayed at the Novotel with my 2 teenagers. It took us over a hour to find the hotel and this was with the hotel on the phone trying to help us. They couldn't make up their minds where they where never mind help us. We paid £135 a night for the hotel and it was very overpriced. We could have stayed at the holiday Inn or the Angel for less and they are right in the centre of town. It is a good 10 minutes walk into town across 2 main roads and not a very pleasant walk late at night. The reception areas are very pleasant but the room (superior room apparantly) was not very superior at all. The tiler must have brought his 3 year old in to do the grouting in the bathroom, finishing touches like that were terrible. We did order a few times from room service and it was okay with an interesting menu and the breakfast (which costs extra) was good too. We didn't use the swimming pool but it did look good. All in all unless you are getting a really good rate then you would be better off staying in one of the 4* hotels in the town centre.

On reading some reviews I of this hotel I was a litle shocked. I thought this hotel was fantastic. My standard double room was huge with a walk in shower and if you want one over the bath. Breakfast was really good and the leisure facilities were top notch. I was here with work but I have booked again with my wife to stay here for a weekend away.