Goldorak

Name of the hotel: Novotel Genève Aéroport (Ferney Voltaire, France)

This hotel is very close to the airport, but on its French side, located in Ferney Voltaire.

- What is your Le Club status? Platinum

- Were you (or for multi-stayers were you generally) happy with the hotel/stay? No, no and no

- Which room did you book and which upgrade did you receive ?
Booked superior double bed + sofa bed and received that. There is only one room category.

- How are the rooms?
If I tell you typical Novotel, I think there’s nothing to add :-)

- What was good and what was bad?
Good: very close to the airport, comfortable bed and very quiet (no noise).
Bad:: This stay (1 night) was mediocre from beginning to the end. Here is the story. I booked this hotel because Accor of course but because very close to GVA (I was between 2 flights arriving evening and departing the following morning) and they have a free shuttle. In the afternoon, I called to enquire if it was needed to call for the shuttle or if it was running periodically. Answer was that it was needed to call and I was asked to exit on the French side of the airport. I called while disembarking my plane. It was 22:20 pm. I was answered that the service was ending at 22:30 and that the last shuttle already departed…Whaaat ??? Despite I was still in the operation hours, it was no and no. A nice way to welcome a Plat customer… At the question on how do I reach the hotel, they said “take a taxi” (I believe the correct answer should have been “I’m sending you a taxi right now”, but that was certainly too mucho ask.

Then my next problem was that there was no taxi at all on the French side. Same after a 15 min wait. I tried Uber but they were all on the Swiss side and didn’t want to go to the French side. There was a gentleman waiting apparently for a pick-up by his wife. I asked him if there was any hope for a taxi coming and he said no big hopes at that time. He asked me where I was going and proposed me very kindly to drop me there as it was on his way. His wife arrived 5 min later with the car and thanks to them I finally arrived at the hotel.

As you can imagine, I was very upset when I checked-in and spoke to the lady I had on the phone. She said nothing, listening to an upset customer. Another example of poor training and poor loyalty handling.

Toward midnight, wanted to take a shower, I close the door of the bathroom and discover 2 used towels hanged behind the door and not removed by housekeeping. So you even wonder if the room has been made.

I had no time to see the GM the following morning, but I sent immediately an e-mail to the GM to complain about this unacceptable stay. He replied within 2 or 3 hrs, with plenty of apologies and that this was certainly not rejecting the service he wants to offer to his guests. He explained me also that the end of the Shuttle service at 10:30 pm was imposed by the Airport authorities to French operators (weird, but I can believe him of course), and that this should change soon, but that doesn’t excuse why I was not picked-up at 22:20. He said also that the housekeeping problem will be handled by him. He credited immediately 8000 compensation points on my account. Good response, but of course it would have been better to not encounter those problems.

- Did you get club lounge access? How was the lounge? no lounge

- What about welcome drinks, welcome amenities or any other special perks : drink voucher was given spontaneously, but I didn’t have time to use it.

- Value for $ or Vouchers? Would you return?likely not.