Novotel London Excel Hotel

Came here along with my parents for my dad’s convention at Excel London
The hotel lobby is on the third floor, not the ground floor, above the entrance and the meeting rooms. The room we got was double queen, but we realized that the second queen bed was really just an uncomfortable pull out couch-​bed. The room, because of the lack of space, was really small compared to a normal double queen room, but we lived with it. kind of.
The bathrooms/​washrooms were interesting. Right to the left of where you walk in, there is a toilet– but that’s just what it was, a small room with a toilet. The actual washroom with showers and whatnot was right next to one of the beds. Don’t really know if anyone else had this experience or do I really have an opinion on it, just putting that out there!
Another interesting thing was that there was a shoeshiner right next to the elevators! My sister and I played with it and made our Converse shine, but it really was nice. So, hey, if you ever need to shine your shoes…
A downside to this hotel is that it doesn’t have an ice machine. An ice machine really is important when you need to fill up your water bottle for a day out in London. You can substitute cold ice for your sink rap water, but ice would really, REALLY, have been preferred.
While maids had a polite and respectful attitude and were very generous and considerate, the receptionists were a different story. They were exceptionally rude and annoying, to be honest, especially over the phone. I tried avoiding them at all costs, as childish as it may seem. My head was just an alarm going ‘AVOID EYE CONTACT, AVOID EYE CONTACT.‘
Since we stayed for about a week, we also ate breakfast there on more than one occasion. They don’t have a wide variety of food, but it was okay in my opinion. The waffles were really good, actually. But we also missed breakfast a lot of times due to waking up late– which is 100% our fault. Just for future reference, breakfast is open from 6:45 to 11:00 AM on weekends and 6:45 to 10:00 on weekdays– double check though, because you can never be too sure.
The location of Novotel is really a double edged sword. On one hand, the nice thing about the hotel is that it’s located right on the Thames River and it’s a minute or two tops walk to the nearest train station. The con is that the distance from Excel, the station, to downtown London is far; you’ll have to switch stations at least once, maybe twice to go where you want. Warning– it may take 45 minutes to an hour. The trains come really quickly– you’ll wait five to ten minutes, but its just the fact that it’s really far.
September 2013

Hotel macht soliden Eindruck, Zimmer einigermaßen geräumig, nicht 100% chic, aber es passt, Bad mit Wanne und extra Dusche, separates WC
WLAN kostenlos seit Juni 2013,
Essen im Hotelrestaurant schmeckt gut und ist immer nett angerichtet, preislich noch ok (viele Hauptgerichte um 11−17£ und max bis 24£)
Personal nett und freundlich
gute Lage für die Docklands, Crystal (world’s largest exhibition on the future of cities) und Excel Messegelände, aber schlecht für den Rest der Stadt, da ziemlich weit draußen.
Drumherum ist bis auf 2Supermärkte, 2weitere Hotels, Appartmenthäuser, 1Café, 3 – 4 kleine Lokalitäten ca 3Restaurants eher little bit boring.
In 30 Minuten ist man mit den öffentlichen Verkehrsmitteln in der Innenstadt

OK hotel. Service good, room décor a little bland and basic, location good for docklands but bad for anywhere else. Nice views though. Clientele is mainly middle-​aged men on business jollies so level of civilisation is quite Neanderthal.

Next time you visit an exhibition at Excel, instead of queuing for lunch inside the hall, head out for the Novotel next door. It has a wonderful terrace by the river, with fantastic views over the dome.
Menu is ok — decent cesar salads, fish and chips. Do ask for the fresh pink grapefruit juice — it’s gorgeous.
Service is slow (we were there on a Saturday so maybe it gets faster during the week).