My husband and I had a very mediocre stay at the Novotel off Grand Place a year ago, but the promise of 2018 renovations persuaded us to stay here again just a few days ago. While the hotel’s restaurant (GourmetBar) is very good, and the location is obviously still excellent, we found the “renovations” to be extremely disappointing. Our room (220) was surprisingly spacious, but terribly unattractive. From the popcorny walls, to the weird, ugly wooden bench/chairs, the room just looked, and felt, cheap and tacky.
The biggest issue, however, was with the smoke alarm. It looked like someone had wrapped a shower cap/plastic around it - my husband surmised that it was put there in an ingenious way to bypass the hotel’s no-smoking policy (if the alarm can’t detect smoke, it won’t go off). We immediately alerted the front desk to this incredibly dangerous fire hazard, and were assured that the wrapping would be removed. Unfortunately when we returned to our room later that evening, we were shocked to see that nothing had been done. When checking out the following morning, we again brought this to the attention of the front desk, so I truly hope that the issue has been remedied. The safety of a hotel’s guests and its employees should be paramount, and even one out of commission fire alarm should be addressed immediately, and with great concern.