Review Novotel Toronto Centre
 

Introduction The central location of the hotel is convenient if you want to stay downtown.I stayed there for 1 night. Booked Executive room and was upgraded to Signature suite (next category). What a name for something very average... Check In Two days prior to my stay, I received an e-mail for e-standby upgrades proposing me an upgrade for free to the junior suite (platinum upgrade). I followed the process and received instantly a confirmation that my demand was taken into account and that it will be confirmed at check-in whether my upgrade was granted or not. The upgrade was indeed granted, but not a word was said by the clerk at check-in outside "you are staying with us for 1 night, right ?" and "your room is number XXX, and the lifts are on the left". So very robotic, "minimum syndical" as we say in French. You discover if you are upgraded or not opening your room door. Room The room was very dark because you are just under the top of some arcades on the street (see picture). So it was OK for one night, but I wouldn't stay in such a room for several days. On top of that, very poor soundproofing inside (I heard very well at 6 am the neighbour taking his/her shower) and outside (street noise). There is a Nespresso machine in room. Bathroom was the best part of the room !The room was on the 2nd floor, where the meeting rooms are. Corridors give the feeling of an average hotel (dated). Same for the room : they call that a "suite" because there is a kind of small "corner" at the entrance of the room where they have put a table and 3 armchairs, but this is not a separate room. Five min after I arrived, they bring in my room a bottle of water and a small cake + an envelope containing a welcome message from the GM and the drink voucher. Dining The bar/restaurant area is pleasant and the barman was very nice. Drink voucher can be used for soft drinks, beer and wine. I took a glass of wine and he made me choose among their full list of wines-by-the-glass of their regular menu. Overall Overall, not a bad stay, but a lot of room for improvement. And the weaknesses of the building and the hotel design will be hard to solve, even after a renovation.

Thanks. I'm booked to stay here for four nights later this year and am now starting to hope that the FRHI properties are integrated into LCAH sooner rather than later...

I hope for you indeed.

You got a drink voucher? I just got a piccolo bottle of Henckell-Trocken when I stayed there this summer!

Yes, classical drink voucher. They bring me a bottle of water in room and not a bottle of Henckell-Trocken (I admit I didn't know what it was, so I googled it ;) ).

Follow-up : after the stay I reported here (mid-January), I received the usual satisfaction survey which I filled immediately. Never got any answer/feed-back until tonight when I received an e-mail with a kind of copy & paste answers / apologies. Three months after completing the survey, WOW :td::td:

The positive spin would be that at least now someone has read and (sort of) responded to your comments... But it really is very poor that it took so long.

We stayed here for five nights this week. Following Goldorak's review our expectations were not high, so we weren't surprised to find that this is a rather disappointing property or to conclude that we wouldn't return.

We made an unrestricted booking several months in advance, expecting to rebook at some stage to secure a lower rate (or, after Goldorak's report, stay elsewhere). That didn't happen, as a very large conference (Microsoft WPC) brought 15,000+ people to Toronto during our stay. This meant that the hotel was genuinely sold out and no upgrades were to be had.

The lobby area and lifts are clean, fresh and modern. Everything else was identikit 1980s North American chain hotel, including chipped paint in unattractive shades of pink, peach and beige. Nothing about the property said "Novotel"; in fact even as a Mercure it would have seemed overbadged. The 2cm gap at the bottom of the door needed to be blocked off with a towel to try to exclude noise, light and cold air.

Platinum acknowledgement: a bottle of water, a voucher for a single drink, two fluorescent cup cakes that we didn't touch.

Thanks for the quick review. Seems that nothing changed. I won't return too.

Issue at Novotel Toronto Centre
 

I was given a room without a shower tray in the walk-in shower. I called to the front desk and an engineer was sent up to the room. He told me that the room was newly renovated and all of the new rooms no longer have shower trays to hold bars of soap and shampoo. When I asked him if it was intended for the soap to stay on the shower floor, he replied that he did not know.

I went down and spoke to the hotel GM and was told that I was given a "mock room" that was not yet fully completed. The GM told me that the shower tray should be in all rooms.

Is this really the right room to give to an elite member?

Indeed a non-sense. But I'm not surprised knowing my own experience in this hotel in 2016. God to know that they are renovating but I will likely not return.
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/accor...to-centre.html

Wow, I guess it's an honor for elite member to have PRE-ACCESS on anything; including mock room. :D:D:D Sorry for the jokes.

Anyway, some of the Accor properties need room for improvement; unfortunately some of them didn't have space for it. :o

I like the way you reviewed it, especially the "Bathroom was the best part of the room" part. I guess it's not a compliment, right ? ;)

:D Correct !

blast from the past! terrible windows too.

but wait till you stay in Mercure Ginza Tokyo. Haha

yes, coz they gave you newly renovated room. you should be happy :p

I was quite surprise. I walked by the hotel when I was in Toronto 2 years ago. The lobby looks OK.

Threads now merged

/mod

Cross-posted this from the Le Club Experiences Thread 2019 as an additional data point.

- Name of the hotel: Novotel Toronto Centre

- What is your Le Club status? Gold

- Were you (or for multi-stayers were you generally) happy with the hotel/stay? Yes - very satisfied.

- Which room did you book and which upgrade did you receive? Booked a Newly Renovated Superior King and received a Newly Renovated Premier Executive

- How are the rooms? Very nice - the renovation style is typical Novotel (so think shades of brown and greys) but the graphics are quite funky (there were clouds in my room). Good sized desk, comfortable bed and plenty of plug sockets - including USB charging points next to the bed and a comfortable sofa. The rooms also had a safe, ironing board and a Nespresso machine. The bathroom just had a shower but it was a large, walk-in shower with a rainfall head, which I liked. The room had good air conditioning.

- What was good and what was bad?

Good: Staff were friendly and helpful, breakfast was good with a good range of food to choose from and staff quick to replenish items (only quibble was you had to ask for condiments, which was a bit weird). Room was very comfortable and the hotel was 10 minutes walk from Union Station and the CN Tower, so it's very central. My status was recognised without prompting with a drinks voucher being given with my welcome letter but I had to ask whether I'd been given an upgrade.

Bad: Not so much an issue but something to be aware of - there's a lot of construction going on in the area and I was woken up at 7am one morning by the works. Also, you receive a complimentary bottle of water in the room but it's just one bottle - it's not replenished, which seems a little cheap.

- Did you get club lounge access? How was the lounge? No lounge.

- What about welcome drinks, welcome amenities or any other special perks? Drinks voucher given without prompting. A welcome gift of macaroons was waiting in the room.

- Value for $ or Vouchers? Would you return? The hotel was expensive for a Novotel (about 200 quid per night), although I think the double upgrade did represent value for money (and it's why I retain my Accor status). I should say that I found that many 4* hotels in Toronto were expensive for the time I was staying so I don't know if this was just bad timing on my part or typical of hotel prices in the city but, as ever, I think you do need to shop around if you're looking for a hotel with a specific rating.

1F

I stayed at this hotel in the end of 2019, a few months before the lockdowns. Nice room, good breakfast.

Sad to learn that it basically became a homeless shelter:

WOW :eek: