13 Sep Novotel London West – Good hotel for a business trip in London
After the bad experience with Lily Hotel I moved to another place to be closer to my workshop address so I was lucky enough to test 2 hotels on the same trip.
First of all I will review this second hotel in accordance to my usual criteria and maybe compare it to other places of the same type.
Novotel London West is something entirely different. Situated at 1 Shortlands, Hammersmith International Ctre the hotel offers something for every possible type of guest.
If you walk by the front entrance you will have to take the elevator up to the reception where many members of the staff await and are ready to help you check in.
Since I arrived a bit earlier at the hotel I managed to drop my luggage downstairs and get out to explore London for a while before my workshop.
Below sits my experience in this place:
- Location.While not exactly central the Hotel is 2-3 minutes away from Hammersmith tube station which sits on the Piccadilly line. Now this is a great advantage since from Hammersmith you can reach Piccadilly Circus very fast, without having to change the line. Another great advantage is the fact that there is a line straight from the airport to Hammersmith (Piccadilly) so after landing on Heathrow you can reach the hotel quite fast. If you consider reaching some important places on foot Hyde Park is about 3.5 km away while Marble Arch is about 5.5 km away. That being said in my opinion there’s no need to walk from there since the tube is so close and easy to use.
- Staff. A great plus from the girls at reception, to the girls cleaning the rooms, restaurant hotel or the place I left my luggage. Everybody was smiling and helpful so a nice atmosphere indeed. Regardless of my questions or inquiries I managed to get a fast answer each time so this point gets a big plus from me.
- Room. Big. Really big. I think this room was one of the biggest rooms I ever been into. And exceptionally clean. A nice, cozy double bed, minibar and TV available for all guests. If you leave the window open there can be some noise but you have two rows f windows so after closing them there is no problem with getting a good night’s sleep. Bathroom is big also and clean so nothing to object here. 2 things I would note but that’s only my idea so I won’t judge the hotel on this aspect: first I find the TV in my room kind of small when comparing to the size of the room. I never used it but it is just a thought. Second, the bathroom has only half the tub protected by a glass. I am a bigger guy and I always looked behind so I wouldn’t splash water on the dais.
- Breakfast. A large variety of things to choose from both normal food and sweets. To my shame I must confess I kind of enjoyed the pancakes, reason for which I ate 2 or 3. Self Service, you grab your plate, walk to the buffet and chose what you’ll have, moving back to a table you want. The food is ok and as I stated a bit earlier I really enjoyed the pancakes.
I won’t touch the price subject since the hotel was paid for and I didn’t have to take money out of my pocket.
All in all we have to take in consideration that London is expensive. Not just this place but almost all hotels are expensive. While not being central it has its advantage for business trips (many people work/ travel to Hammersmith on business) and the metro is so close that you can easily reach the center.
I can’t say that if ever in London I will book here again because it is a bit over my budget but all in all this is a nice place, an extremely clean place so if the prices seem ok for you, give it a try.