Novotel Sheffield Centre

We stayed for a night before heading into the Peak District. The hotel room was dated and hadn’t been properly cleaned. We found long strands of hair in the sink and bath. We told reception and the guy on the desk really wasn’t bothered about it. The room was very hot - the temperature control didn’t seem to work and even with the window open it was uncomfortable sleeping. The shower fitting was also broken.

Great hotel, warm welcoming staff. Fab pool. My second year in staying here for the snooker. Will be back next year. Had fantastic stay as always, highly recommend

The location and the in site parking

Location is excellent

Hotel was very clean throughout. Room was comfortable. Good location.

Everything to be honest the classy look in the reception and bar area and the rooms where basic but clean and the shower was really good , the location was spot on as we travelled by rail and was visiting the crucible. The pool was a good addition aswell .

We had a disabled room. It was very spacious.

Clean, bright and good atmosphere.
Lovely swimming pool.
Great breakfast.
Great staff, especially Emily on bar service.

Breakfast

Dated

First impressions of the hotel not great - reception staff not visible at check-in (12 noon on Friday). No bell on the desk so went to use the facilities and came back to eventually get checked in after a shorter wait for someone to appear from the back office. The one bonus of the trip was that my room was available slightly early.

4th floor, room 436. Had a fun game of "guess the carpet stain" in the corridor heading to the room. Hoping the white & pink blobs were spilled things from room service food orders but obviously didn't look too closely! Room itself was ok though obviously not been refurbished for a good while. Loose tile in the shower room area which rocked as you walked on it in bare feet. But we'll come back to that!

Next morning signed in for the swimming pool and went for a swim (more loose tiles around the pool). Followed the instructions to start the steam room working (as it only works for 30 minutes after pressing a button on the wall) but couldn't get it to work. Went upstairs afterwards to report this to reception "Was it flashing green?" I confirmed it was. "Oh, it was doing that yesterday too. I'll get maintenance to take a look". It was still flashing green when I left the following morning so I didn't bother trying the next morning.

Back to my room for a shower (as the one in the changing area at the pool was the smallest shower cubicle I've seen). Water simply did not get warm in the shower even cranked all the way to hottest setting. On my way to breakfast I mention this to reception "what you need to do on the higher floors is turn on the sink and the shower at the same time to bring the hot through faster". I was pretty sure I'd already been running the water for long enough, but was running late for a meeting so couldn't discuss further. Tried this the next morning - same result, another lukewarm shower that was only just comfortable to be under for a quick rinse off. I get that hot water supplies can't be "too hot" in case people scald themselves, but we were a long way from that risk!

Down for breakfast - it's about 7:45 on Saturday morning by now, so food can't have been set up more than maybe 1 hour ago. The orange juice in the demijohns had settled below the level of the valve, so what was dispensed was foul tasting orange-coloured liquid. How it would have settled that quickly is anyone's guess - same was true when I went for breakfast this morning (Sunday) at just after 7. I'm just hoping it's changed each day rather than just put back out as no-one is touching it. Remainder of breakfast was "ok" - no hotel anywhere seems able to make decent scrambled eggs anyway. Did overhear one couple asking the kitchen for poached eggs - not sure how they figured out that was an option as none of the staff said anything more to me than "Room number" and I was left to then ask whether I could just sit anywhere.

Checked out this morning and mentioned to the receptionist that her trick about turning on the shower and the sink taps didn't help. "Oh, right" was about the extent of the answer and she seemed to be writing something down but nothing beyond that in terms of recognition that I might have been inconvenienced by this fact. Same for the mention of the loose tile in the bathroom. I guess the maintenance team might fix that around the same time they get to the steam room!

Overall the location was good, but that was about it. Even if I had to attend a conference in that very hotel in the future - I'd be staying somewhere else.

Pool was warm

The location was perfect for the Crucible. Very central

Very clean and well presented room for a peaceful nights sleep. Central location in Sheffield made it very easy for the event we were attending. Lovely helpful Staff when checking in and out.