Name of the hotel: Novotel Birmingham Airport
What is your Le Club status? Platinum
Were you (or for multi-stayers were you generally) happy with the hotel/stay? Yes, delighted.
Which room did you book and which upgrade did you receive? Booked 2 standard rooms, got 1 standard and 1 upgrade to Executive (adds bathrobe and a pod coffee machine otherwise the same)
How are the rooms? Strange layout. Every room comes with a sofa bed but the sofa bed is so wide that it forces the Queen bed to be about 6 inches from the wall making it very difficult for the person who sleeps nearest the wall to actually get into bed! I would rather they had some rooms without the sofa bed so the main bed could be in a sensible place.
What was good and what was bad?
Good: Amazing staff, friendly welcome and great breakfast. Platinum recognition was spot on, only got one upgraded room but that was quite understandable as there had been an accident on the motorway and lots of people had missed flights as a result. A group of 25 was turned away just in front of us as the hotel was full so even getting 1 upgrade was a nice surprise.
Bad: If you have a car then watch out for the parking charges. £33 a day is the posted rate
(this is a charge set by the airport, not the hotel) but you get 50% off with a voucher from the hotel. You might want to look at pre-booking a cheaper rate if you will be parking here.
Also if you are planning to print a boarding pass (quite a common thing in an airport hotel I would think) note that's there's no business centre. There is a fancy Apple computer in the lobby for guests to use but there is no printer. The concierge was kind enough to check us in and print the required boarding passes.
Did you get club lounge access? How was the lounge? No lounge at this hotel
What about welcome drinks, welcome amenities or any other special perks? 4 drinks vouchers (2 rooms with 2 people) were already waiting for us at check-in. Nice full-size bottle of red wine and chocolates in the upgraded room.
Value for $ or Vouchers? Would you return? Would definitely return. Buffet breakfast was fabulous but the stand out point was the staff. My mother broke her leg just before staying here (I had booked well in advance and didn't know I might need an accessible room) we didn't ask for anything but staff were immediately there to help.