jspira

There are myriad reasons to stay at an airport hotel and one of my favorite airport hotels (as many people here know) is the Kempinski Airport Hotel Munich.

But now there´s a new aiport hotel in town and it´s the Novotel München Airport Hotel. Naturally I stayed at it... twice.... so I could report back to you here.

Here are the key differences:

1.) While the Kempinski and Novotel are both on the airport grounds, the Kempinski is practically part of one of the terminals. The Novotel is a bus or taxi ride away.
2.) The Novotel is far less expensive - you can get rates close to US$100 per night (the Kempinski is at least 50% more (and that would be with a very advance booking rate based on my comparisons).
3.) The Kempinski has much higher quality furnishings, linens, towels, etc. in the room. The Novotel´s towels and linens were no where as nice and I am not sure if their furniture will withstand the test of time.

If you want to roll out of bed and get on the plane, the Kempinski is still the way to go. But the Novotel merits consideration and is very child-friendly.

If there´s a question you have that I haven´t addressed here (or in the review), please let me know.

For those interested, my report and review in Executive Road Warrior is excerpted below and available online.


Novotel Munich Airport Hotel Review
[16 Jun 2010 |

starflyergold

Great review jspira, thanks for sharing.

One thing missing is Novotel's membership in Accor A-Club while the Kempinski currently does not have a loyalty programme (other than the invite only Kempinski Private Concierge) but is expected to join the Global Hotel Alliance's new GHA Discovery programme (announced months ago (March), then it was supposed to June and currently delayed).

smileykeith

Thought I should share my experiences. This property is about 10/15mins by bus from the airport and the bus runs every 20 mins and a one way will cost you 1.30 euros. Just follow the signs. My room was a little dated but still functional. 'Breakfast' of croissants with juices and milk is provided free for all from 0400 to 0630

harryhv

Some notes on a recent stay. Be warned, this is not up to regular Novotel standards

- Novotel Munich Airport is about 1 mile on foot from the S-Bahn "Besucherpark" station, ignore their map
- Airport shuttle advertised but non-existent, guests are directed to the city bus stop on the street
- Plat upgrade to exec floor and lounge entry, you may be lucky but watch out if you checked in during the evening as the day manager can revoke the lounge access on your key without notice during your stay, leaving you standing outside the lounge like an idiot. Not that there's much reason to go in there...
- Exec lounge exists but it's just another hotel room, with a worthless locked-down internet-computer and a broken X-Box. Some free sodas and nuts and a coffee machine. At breakfast time you'll find nothing, just the debris from the previous evening
- Plat welcome gift in the room, more nuts and sweets
- No shampoo, like a 2-star hotel there's just a hanging washing-up-liquid dispenser in the shower. The usual square Novotel shampoo bottles are not distributed even in the top-floor Exec room
- Pencil only, the usual white Novotel pens didn't make it

The S Bahn is so convenient and reliable that you don't ever need to stay at an airport hotel in Munich, especially one off the beaten track like the Novotel. It's just as convenient to pick somewhere close to a downtown station such as the Rosenheimer Platz which has a Holiday Inn above it.

Concerto

Interesting reviews, although we're a couple of years out now. I was wondering what this hotel would be like and despite its proximity to the airport, it looks like it will be difficult to walk to. Googlemaps doesn't even offer a route for walking from the airport. There are a number of other Accor properties in the vicinity of Munich airport, which title themselves as "Airport" hotels on the website, in towns such as Erding and Freising. But they get really bad reviews and seem to be a major pain to get to, so I wouldn't go near them. One reviewer had to pay €43 for a taxi to one of them!

I think the post above makes a good point about the accessibility of downtown Munich and the choice of hotels there. Similarly, I have always said that one should not bother staying at Madrid airport, but hop the metro to downtown Madrid to better hotels. But I think the Madrid metro is miles (forgive the pun) better than the Munich S-Bahn, which I find really quite unreliable and a surprisingly tiresome and long trip. It's a major downside to Munich airport for me and almost made me miss flights a couple of times.

Jasper2009

I recently stayed at this hotel for one night and was remarkably unimpressed.

Transportation:

- there's no hotel shuttle bus
- there's a regional bus that leaves MUC every 20-30 minutes and stops right in front of the hotel (fare is ~2Euros), which isn't unreasonably IMO if you know what to expect
- getting to Munich involves taking a bus to "Besucherpark" (a < 5 min bus ride) connecting to the S-Bahn (~45min total)

Check-in:

- front desk staff was rather unfriendly and inefficient

Platinum benefits:

- no welcome gift
- no upgrade
- lounge access was proactively offered
- no other benefits

room:

Not sure whether all rooms have the same layout, but it was extremely poor:

- the room itself had a bed; a desk and chair - whIch were adequate
- then there was a small toilet room, and a completely separate, unconnected shower room (2sqm max.) that opened into the bedroom - I honestly can't think of a more ridiculous layout

Executive lounge:

I probably should be grateful that there was a lounge at all, but it's probably the worst lounge I've ever seen:

- the lounge literally is the size of 1-2 rooms and has 4-5 small tables that were occupied by a single family
- there's a coffee machine and a small fridge
- on the bright side, the fridge contained some sparkling raspberry lemonade (and a few other "outside-the-box" drinks) in addition to water, sprite and coke
- no snacks wahtsoever apart from some very basic packaged snacks
- no breakfast
- no alcoholic beverages (not even beer or wine)

Check-out:

- different agent; perfecty efficient and pleasant

Overall I've stayed at more pleasant 2* guest houses / hotels, and while there was nothing inherently "terrible" about this hotel, I very much hope I'll never have a reason to return.

nldogbert

I actually did recently about 1.5 months ago. Experience is more or less as the previous post (wanted to a write a review but just never came around to do it). I don' have any status with Accor, and I chose this hotel mainly for the convenience and because it was a chain hotel where I could earn some points.
I arrived rather late (due to a delayed LH flight) but luckily I still managed to catch the last bus to the hotel (MUC airport signage is horrible!).

Do agree on the check-in which was quite comical - it was very busy even during that late night time, but they had only 2 associates working the front desk, and only later someone from the restaurant came over to help (seems it is possible). The associate helping me to check-in was quite friendly, same for the check-out.
Room to me was ok - for a quick 1 night stay it was ok.

For those thinking of using this hotel to visit Munich itself, the Besucherpark station is walkable - maybe 10 mins walk from the hotel.

I would say, if the price is OK (< ~80 euro/night), it is a doable hotel. I had wanted to stay at the Hilton MUC hotel, but for whatever reason for my dates, it was sold out even 2-3 months out.

Cheers!

Here are some photos which I took of the room and other areas of the property

TV and working desk

Tea/Coffee making facilities and ope wardrobe

Bed

Exterior

Bathroom

Lobby area

Goldorak