Sofitel Budapest Chain Bridge
 

What is your Le Club status?
Platinum

Were you happy with the hotel/stay?
All things considered...yes.

Which room did you book and which upgrade did you receive?
Classic room, got upgraded on check-in, without asking, to a "Prestige Suite"

How was the room?
1 lounge area, a hallway with access to the bathroom and then the bedroom in the corner of the hotel, offering spectacular views over the castle, Danube and the chain bridge. Very comfy, huge bed. Nice bathroom with Hermes products.


What was good and what was bad?

Good:
Excellent location

The upgrade ofcourse.

Second day I encountered a problem with the TV (remained stuck on the intro song "life is magnifique"), that got quickly resolved and a few minutes later I found 2 letters under the door, first one apologizing for the electricity problems and a second one inviting us for breakfast for the last 2 days of our stay (more about that later)

Nice gym

Good food from room service

Free wifi, a bit shaky the first day, but fast and reliable the next 3 days.

Late check-out: first we had to check out at noon, but after they saw my status in the PC I got a 4pm checkout without a problem

When finding out my flight was canceled I could use the business centre for free and could call Belgium to get my tickets changed.

Bad:
The room was great but I had troubles keeping it warm. It seems the aging heating system has had its best time.

Problems with the breakfast! The whole breakfast area doesn't seem to be too well managed. Glasses and plates were constantly in short supply, the girl at the door couldn't seem to cope with the people coming in and left people just standing there while she was chatting away.
And even though on the first day we got in without a problem, the second day we were told we were going to be charged. I told her about the letter we got, inviting us for breakfast. She told us to get that letter and go to the reception with it. Reception first also said we had to pay, then read the letter and reluctantly said "well, it would appear that this letter gives you access... ok, you can go up". So we were let in, started our breakfast, and a few minutes later the breakfast manager showed up, asking for the letter again. We gave it, and he promptly disappeared with it, to make a copy of it. When he came back, he ignored us for at least 20 minutes, while we were trying to get his attention. We started fearing he just destroyed the letter and was planning on charging us. After I got up and was going to walk over to him, he got the letter out of his pocket and gave it back to me. I asked if everything was ok, and he assured me it was, even though "we had misunderstood the letter". The whole thing left me with a sour taste. It seems that somebody decided to give out free breakfast, then didn't notify the kitchen and in the end they tried to put the blame with us. Very unpleasant situation. We had breakfast the first day at nearby Gerbeaud and would've been more than happy to go there again if it wasn't for their offer. It all was very unprofessionally dealt with in my opinion. Somebody ....ed up behind the screens, but you should keep your customers out of the internal politics.

Would you return?
Despite the breakfast incident I did enjoy my stay there, so I would look into the hotel again if I was to return to Budapest

Mercure Queenstown Resort (NZ)
 

What is your Le Club status?

Platinum

Were you happy with the hotel/stay?

Yes, definitely

Which room did you book and which upgrade did you receive?

Despite nothing told at FD about my status (didn't expect that as it was a Mercure), was upgrade from a basic 2 doubles garden view to a 2 queens Lake view

How was the room?

Room was basic, bed enough comfortable, bathroom very basic and a bit old... But the view of Lake Wakatipu was just... awesome. One of the most beautiful view I ever had in an hotel.

What was good and what was bad?

Good:

Price (89 NZD incuding 25$ resort credit per day which cover full breakfast buffet)
Lake view, situation
Nice upgrade for an hotel who didn't have to offer it
Very helpful staff

Bad

Internet : no wi-fi in the room, just 5 Mo / 30 min of free wi-fi in the lobby, after what you have to pay a lot...
Bathroom need renovation
Pool and whirlpool too cold
Not in downtown (but that was fine for me as I had a car and don't really enjoy the "big party atmosphere" the evening in Queenstown)

Would you return?

For this range of price, yes definitely...

Next time try Novotel Barcelona City (and ask for a room faceing westwards). It is a nice new hotel with good transport (metro and tram stops, airport train stops 10 minits away).

I had a similar experience there. Got a "personal" letter in the room with an offer of late check-out and also 2 bottles of free water. Wifi was free.

Sofitel Victoria Warsaw
 

What is your Le Club status?

Platinum

Were you happy with the hotel/stay?

Yes, definitely

Which room did you book and which upgrade did you receive?

Booked superior room with magnifique breakfast, got an upgrade to a luxury room.

How was the room?

Nice room with a view.

What was good and what was bad?

Good:

Location, price, breakfast, almost everithing

Bad

Nothing realy

Value for $ or Vouchers? Would you return?

Yes, I would return. The room had a great price. The rate (magnifique breakfast) included breakfast and had to be paid only at checkout nonethless it was cheaper than the cheapest prepaid rate+breakfast, so i could use some vouchers without any losses. What is also interesting is that a room in Novotel Warszawa Centrum was priced the same then in the Sofitel.

Location of Sofitel is perfect
but the ugly architecture gives you an instant trip back to the 60s

Luckily you don't see that from your room :D

Nice hotel though, I enjoyed it too when I stayed last time.

Seoul Novotel Ambassador Gangnam

What is your Le Club status?
Platinum

Were you happy with the hotel/stay?
Yes - apart from noise.

Which room did you book and which upgrade did you receive?
Classic room, got upgraded on check-in, after asking to exec room

How was the room?
Pretty standard 4* room, nothing special, nothing Korean, international plugs were handy, robes, kettle, single twin beds, average size


What was good and what was bad?

Good:
Excellent location except for the hill, festive lobby, clean


Bad:
Ritz Carlton nightclub next door - bedlam all night from drunk noisy clubbers to 4am, swearing, singing, revving cars, impossible to sleep. VERY NOISY.
Exec room upgrade was just that, use of the room. Lounge access and free wifi not included. Pretty feeble.
lots of tour groups hanging about in lobby
slow check-in/check-out
On a steep hill and icy paths made walking an adventure

Would you return?
No. Glad only had one night with the noise and lack of benefits.

Sofitel Brussels Europe
 

What is your Le Club status?

Platinum

Were you happy with the hotel/stay?

Yes

Which room did you book and which upgrade did you receive?

Standard room, got junior suite

How was the room?

Nice room with a view and balcony (my favourite room and I seem to get it every time I stay)

What was good and what was bad?

Good:

Upgrade, drinks voucher, late check out (eventually)

Bad:

No welcome gift, when asking for a late check out the trainee told me that they would have to charge. I asked him to look at his screen and try again. Another staff member quickly took over.

Value for $ or Vouchers? Would you return?

Yes and yes.

Novotel Bangkok Suvarnabhumi airport
 

What is your Le Club status?
Platinum

Were you happy with the hotel/stay?
overall, no

Which room did you book and which upgrade did you receive?
Superior room booked and supposedly given. No upgrade (I know upgrades are not normally a perk at Novotel but I'm pretty sure this hotel has higher room categories). In fact I'm not even sure I got the room category I booked because the description on booking (done on Accor web site) mentioned a sofa and there was none. Same in another room booked by family members (platinum also).

How was the room?
Room and bathroom were large, clean and quiet. Nice view on BKK taxiways and nice TG birds ;)

What was good and what was bad?
Good:
- Unbeatable location when you just want to overnight between 2 flights.
- Shuttle service between hotel and terminal well organized and efficient. Shuttle drivers and staff taking care of luggage transfers were also very nice and helpful.
- very nice lobby. Nice rooms for Novotel. Several restaurants
- if you take the offer "bed & breakfast", you are given 1 voucher per person that you can use either for dinner (buffet) or for breakfast at the main restaurant (The Square).
- Le Club members can check-in/out at business center (but no mention of this anywhere :rolleyes: )
- points posted within 24 hrs (and correct amount)

Bad:

- price : this hotel is very expensive for Thailand (more expensive than the Sofitels in town). You pay a premium for the airport terminal location, as everywhere in the world. But of course, you know that when you book so no surprise of course.

- no free wi-fi

- Check-in and mostly check-out processes. The latter was the perfect demonstration of the total lack of training of staff we are witnessing so (too) often at many Accor properties (see details below).
- Cold staff at reception, business center and restaurant. They were not rude but there was a total lack of warmth and were pretty inefficient. I found this very surprising when you know how nice and professional the hotel staff are usually in Thailand.

- Check-in : we arrived around 9:30 pm at the hotel. There were very long lines for checking-in (the hotel was obviously very busy). So I asked one staff member in the lobby if there was a dedicated desk for Le Club members (as I saw such desks in several Novotel but usually they were always unstaffed). He replied that we could go to the business center. This is nice but written nowhere (no signs). We arrived at this business center and a woman took care of us. But check-in formalities took forever (she was typing and typing I don't know what on her computer without saying a word). No signs at all of status recognition and I did not bother to ask anything as we were all tired and would just stay overnight with a check-out planned around 8:30 am.

- dinner at restaurant : buffet was good (in terms of quality and wide choice) but staff was very slow to remove plates or to bring you wine list (you needed to ask twice or ask them to remove plates). They just seemed "bored".

- Check-out : clearly what made me considered this stay as a bad one because until now things were OK, although nothing exceptional as described previously. I supposed we could check-out at the business center but as there were almost nobody at the regular front desk, we've been there for check-out. I wanted to use 3 Le Club vouchers of $60 each to pay part of the bill and I gave these vouchers with my CC to the attendant. I saw rapidly that she was not even looking at the vouchers but only at my CC :rolleyes:, so I say to her that I have 3 Le Club vouchers to use. So she looked finally at the vouchers and said "What is this ?". I was already thinking inside me "oh no, not again :mad:...". So I repeated : "those are Le Club redemption vouchers".
Attendant : "OK but what do you want me to do with this ?"
I was starting to boil inside :eek:
Me : "this is to pay part of the bill"
Attendant : "oh, but you need to do this on the internet"
Me : Sorry but no. You obtain the vouchers on the internet and that's what I did but now, for the payment you have to enter the voucher numbers in your system"
Attendant : "I don't know how to do this. I see that yesterday you checked-in at the business center. So you should have gone there for check-out. They know how to do this. I can't do it" :mad::mad::mad:
Time was passing and we had an int'l flight to catch and this was beginning to really take too much time.
Me : "This is an Accor hotel, right ? So basically you are telling me that you are not trained to Accor policies and procedures ? I came here at the regular front desk because there was no line, so no need to go to the business center for a simple check-out, even with vouchers involved. I paid many many times at Accor hotels with vouchers without problems. Now I'm starting to run out of time and it is out of the question that I will go to the business center to start again the whole process."

So she called the business center for help and a woman from there came at the front desk and explained her what to do. But the madness was not finished. She asked me to sign the vouchers. First time I'm asked to do this but OK, if it can please them, I did it. Then she gave me 3 A4 blanks sheets of paper and asked me to sign these blanked pages :confused: So I asked why. I did not understand at all what she explained me but I think I finally understood that they have a kind of form to fill when there is a payment with vouchers and that she did not bring them with her from the business center, so I have to sign these blank pages. I of course refused to do so saying that I don't sign blanked pages and asked to speak to their manager. He was also there at the front desk taking care of other guests check-out. I summarized the problems encountered but he was unhelpful and just repeated that I should have gone to the business center which has trained staff (confirming de facto that the others are untrained. Unbelievable but true :eek:). No apologies from him. They did not insist for signing the blank pages. Completely pathetic...

Would you return?
No, except if I need to overnight between 2 close flights at BKK because no other choice and unbeatable location.

Again, as a summary, lack of training, training and training as in too many Accor hotels.

That is absolutely appalling Goldorak:mad:. This is exactly the kind of treatment that will put people off ever staying at an Accor hotel again, made even worse when it involves a loyal customer of the group.

If we as customers can learn the details of Le Club why on earth is it so impossible for Accor staffers to do the same? :td:

Indeed. Will you be contacting Accor over this, Goldorak?

If I were Goldorak, I would rather email to the GM so proper training both for Le Club program and attitude would be held.

Som nam na ;) plenty reports in the internet (and here as well) that this is just a 3 star hotel (at best) which charges rates for a 5 star hotel. My stay there in march wasn't much better than yours.

Anyway there are tons of hotels in Ladkrabang that offer decent accomodation including breakfast and a free shuttle transfer for a fraction of Novotel's rate. Maybe you have a look at The Vismaya.

In fact, I was waiting to see if I would receive the classical satisfaction survey we receive after a stay. But nothing received so far, except an automatic e-mail hoping that I had a nice stay and suggesting me to make a comment on TripAdvisor :rolleyes:
So I will likely send something to the GM when I have time (these last weeks, I have spent way too much time to monitor and following-up Accor points problems and am tired of this but I want to emphasize that Accorconcierge (Chris) has been very helpful).