Novotel Suites Hamburg City

The hotel was situated close to the old city center and had easy to reach parking. The cleanliness of the room was fine as were the amenities. Staff at the front desk were mostly professional. The free coffee and muffins to go were a nice touch.

The lobby is also used as the breakfast location, which means it is terribly crowded at most hours of the morning. The buffet was small and constantly being restocked from trolleys, which made the place even more crowded. At checkout time, there were at least 30 people at the reception desk but only one staff member to help them. Other members of the staff were walking around but seemed not to do much. Through all of this, one of the cleaners was busy with a vacuum, making everything more crowded and noisy. I validated my parking at check out but when 20 minutes later I wanted to drive out of the parking garage, the machine said I had to pay extra. I had to back down the ramp, go back up to the front desk, get back in line with more people still waiting to check out. At the front desk, I was told I had waited too long to depart (10 minutes, really?). Fortunately, my parking was validated without extra payment. In the corridor, window sills were littered with bugs so most likely rarely cleaned. The elevators were slow and crowded at certain times.