Novotel Nantes Carquefou Hotel

Novotel Nantes Carquefou Hotel

The hotel, despite its name is not near Nantes. We made this mistake when booking. The hotel is approximately and hour from the centre using the park and ride, which is again 10 minutes’ drive on a good day.

The hotel is situated just off a main road, and next to a Courtepaille and literately in the grounds is a 24/7 McDonalds that was busy for the three days we stayed here.

This hotel is very much business oriented, and is set up to facilitate the use of the meeting rooms, that were all occupied every day of our stay. Business comes first here. Even to the detriment of the breakfast as on one day the one working coffee machine was “hijacked” by staff filling thermos flasks for over 30 minutes for a conference room(s).

On the weekend the hotel tries to attract families with the heated pool. Apart from us, the pool was not used during our stay, despite the efforts of a member of staff to resurrect a flaccid unicorn pool toy for many hours! ( It actually was the highlight of the stay )

Check in was quick and efficient, and we were given two drinks vouchers for a range of soft drinks and low cost beer / wine. We were allocated a room that had been upgraded on the first and highest floor. There is no lift. The room was clean(ish) and we had free access to the complimentary drinks in the mini bar. There was also tea and coffee facilities.

Not knowing the area well, I enquired at reception for details and a tourist map to show how to get to the centre of the city. I was told that the best way was by Taxi at about 50€ one way. Confused, I asked how far it was away, and was told about 1h drive. The hotel I realised was like a Ryanair airport – nowhere near where we wished to be.

I asked if it was possible to move hotels to be in the centre of Nantes as we had obviously made a mistake. This was not possible. Resigned to driving to the centre in the morning, we retired early, as breakfast service was due to finish at 9am.

In the morning, before breakfast we again enquired about transport to the city, and was given much clearer and better information. The hotel was just a 10 min easy drive to a park and ride by tram that was free ( well included in the cost of parking I think we paid 6€ for a day and that included two persons on the tram ). It was obvious that this reception team member had had this question before, as he even set out sat nav to the parking spot.

We moved rooms, as the shower leaked and would not drain, and that there was a very loud party all night outside our bedroom window (and we could not open the window as it was full of bug nests that housekeeping could or had not removed over a few weeks).

Breakfast was a typical buffet style, but the hot food selection was poor. No eggs. I obtained some when the chef came on duty by asking, but none were out. There was a range of local products and breads, all cheap and filling, like a cheap Chinese all you can eat buffet. The fresh fruit was never replenished over our three-day stay.

The second room was much better, but suffered from the constant revving of customer engines at the McDonalds drive through ( the hotel signage board was in the McDonalds car park it was that close). On the plus side the mini bar was replenished daily and the room cleaned 95% ( there were patches of carpet that had engrained sand – presumably from the paths around the hotel. )

I bumped into the GM on our day of departure, and was told that we could have changed hotels for free, and that it was confusing to have the name of the city in the name of the hotel when in fact they were miles away.

The hotel is a good stop on route, but nowhere near the city. Once we had been told how to get to the centre it was a good option. Breakfast always seemed rushed and as an afterthought despite the high cost of it. It was poor value. As a result of this we did not try the evening meals and ate elsewhere.