Short review
Note: 3 is average
Value for money: 4/5 – Reasonable value for money due to its close proximity to the beach and the CBD
Services: 3.5/5 – Good welcome gifts and welcome drinks; some issues here and there
Bedroom: 4/5 – Spacious with a balcony and an ocean view; wind-induced noise
Bathroom: 4/5 – Clean and fairly spacious
Breakfast: 3.5/5 – Reasonably good variety of dishes
Facilities and amenities: 4.5/5 – Beach, gym, pool, and large kids’ area
Pros
- Close proximity to the beach
- Spacious room with a wonderful ocean view
Cons
- Some aspects of the services can be polished
- Pool is rather small and the water was cold
Long review
My family and I were recently back to the Novotel Wollongong Northbeach for four nights. For comparison, this is my first review of this hotel.
Repeating what I said previously, the lobby is spacious and was adorned with plenty of Christmas decorations. After a fairly quick check-in, I drove my car to the car park in the basement. Throughout our stay, finding a parking spot was easy.
Walking along the corridor to our room, there is a nice view of the hillside around the city of Wollongong.
The room is an ocean view room with a queen bed, a sofa bed and a balcony. The room is fairly spacious and has the usual amenities. I appreciated the staff who proactively prepared the sofa bed prior to our arrival. They gave several welcome gifts, including a bottle of red wine and four pieces of chocolate. They also provided 2 welcome drink vouchers, which could be exchanged with any drinks we wanted in the restaurant. This is quite good because usually the options for these welcome drinks are rather limited.
The ocean view from the balcony is wonderful, especially in the morning. The sulphur-crested cockatoos were back too. They would generally come every time we opened the door to the balcony. An issue with the bedroom was a wind noise. It was not very loud, but always there in the background. I think there was a fairly strong air flowing coming from the corridor to the balcony, resulting in the noise generating from the balcony door.
The bathroom is fairly spacious and clean. Aligning with Accor policy, they use wall dispensers to dispense soap, shampoo, conditioner, and lotion. This is all good, but it would be good if the placement of these dispensers can be placed strategically so kids can use them too. These dispensers were placed too high for my daughter.
Breakfast was served at the Palisade Kitchen and Bar. The place has a glass wall, which provides a wonderful view of the ocean. It also has an outdoor seating area for you to enjoy the view. Typical Australian breakfast, including eggs (sunny side up and poached), sausages, bacons, potatoes, roasted tomatoes, and baked beans, was served in the hot bar. Another section served a variety of cereals and fresh milk. Another station served cold dishes, fresh fruit, and a variety of juice. There was an orange juicer too if you would like to make your orange juice fresh. In another table, there was a pancake maker. The crème fraîche was particularly delicious. Still another table served bread and jam, along with a toaster. Finally, at the end of the room, there were tea, coffee, and some more pastries. They also addressed the problem related to the presence of many flies in one part of the restaurant.
The North Bar is another place to enjoy some food and drinks in the hotel. We got our welcome drinks here.
The hotel has a swimming pool and a gym. The pool is small and cold, while the gym is decent. This time, there is also a large children area near the lobby. I don’t think this space was available in our previous stay. It was a good space with suitable activities for children to read books, do some colouring, and play.
In terms of its location, the beach can be reached easily as it is located behind the hotel. There are also many restaurants within a walking distance from the hotel.
Finally, services were generally good and friendly, but lacked refinement. For instance, even though an orange juicer was provided, there was initially no place to throw away the orange peels, resulting in guests placing the peels randomly on the table. There was no place to throw away used tea bags and their packaging either. Furthermore, there was a silver urn for hot water, but the urn did not work. There was no direction that alternatively we could get hot water from the coffee machines. The Wi-Fi also did not work properly. We were informed that we could connect directly using our room number and my surname, but it did not work. At the end, we had to request for an access code every day. One day, the cleaning staff did not close the room door properly, so literally they left our room unlocked, which is a major issue. Below is a video of the hotel.
