The "new" Novotel at Stansted Airport - the one thing you really want from a hotel and it failed. A good night sleep.

We booked a stay here for one night as we had an early morning flight. I had stayed here before, when it was a Hilton, albeit a few years ago, and was looking forward to the pool the day before the red eye at silly o clock in the morning. The owners have recently changed from Hilton to Accor, but I feel that the service and amenities are not to standard. Also the pool ( despite some websites stating it is open has been closed)

Also Accor will send you a lovely e mail stating to the casual reader that the property has a lounge. It does not. It could just be me, but I would have expected an airport hotel to have a lounge.

This is a shame as we have stayed at other properties ( Sofitel Gatwick for example ) operated by this Franchise and had no problems and Lounge Access.

We arrived and were greeted warmly, and were told we had been upgraded to a superior room ( having booked standard ),  and were given our welcome drink vouchers, free shuttle ticket, (normally £3) and key cards. The room had recently been redesigned, and boasted an enormous TV. It had also been recently painted, and still smelt of paint. We opened the window to remove the smell. There was only one bed side table, and the bed linen looked like it could have done with a wash and starch. ( We were told later that this was due to Planet 21, and was unbleached and may appear yellow and flecked )

Walking down to the bar area we stumbled across open cupboards next to the lift with the remains of the old franchise (Hilton) and numerous room service trays in the corridor. They were still there on our return over an hour later. The bar reminded us of a pub chain design, not nice, and with old re used furniture and fittings. The old Hilton was very much in evidence.  Still the displays were nice. The breakfast area was being used as a dumping space in order to save a few seconds in going back to the kitchen.

The bathroom consisted of a shower,  which when used spilled over the floor, and upon investigation the drain appeared blocked by what I took as hair.  As my OH was asleep, I decided to report the issue on departure and just clean the shower. This proved impossible to do at the time as the shuttle was leaving and no one was around at reception.

We did not find any welcome amenity or wine as promised, although the GM sent some wine and olives to our home address later, as it was apparently missing from our room.

The hotel was booked to provide a good night's sleep, and in that respect it totally failed. The smell of paint and the constant noise from other guests and planes ( due to open window ) resulted in us taking full advantage of the early check in offered at the destination hotel and wasting the rest of the day asleep effectively cutting short our break by a day. We would have been better to just arrive at the airport at 4am.