After leaving it till 6 days before we were due, I finally settled on a deal that I had found on last minute via their secret hotels options. This is a scary option for me because I am pretty fussy when it comes to hotels, so the thought of not knowing where I will be staying till after I had paid made me a bit anxious to say the least! However I had used secret hotels once before and came out with an impressive deal for a swish airport hotel (which is still waiting for us, ready for Florida!), so I had a bit of faith in there somewhere.
After selecting the areas in which I was happy to be situated in London, and narrowed my search down to what star rating I'd be happy with, I scoured what they had to offer and settled on a price I was happy to pay. After paying, an email winged its way to me which revealed my chosen hotel.. Novotel London City South. I immediately checked out the photos, reviews etc and was not disappointed. A 4* hotel for 1-2* prices.. perfect.
In a fantastic position, the Novotel City South is just a stones throw away from tourist locations such as The Thames, The London Dungeons and The Shard. It's minutes away from London Bridge tube station which offers links to the rest of the city.
After reading the reviews, I was aware that the hotel was under renovation before I even arrived. After simply asking for a refurbished room upon check-in, it was no problem at all for staff, who were more than happy to accommodate us. There was a slight glitch with room cards, but after a quick switch of rooms, this was all sorted and we were presented with a newly renovated room. The kind staff even offered us complimentary late check out of 5pm which was perfect because our train on the day of departure wasn't till tea time, so this saved us lugging our heavy bags around the city - result!
The rooms are spacious with warm modern colours and different materials/textures to add uniqueness. The bed was huge and super comfy (I even had a sneak peak at the mattress label to see if I could buy one myself!) with an option of different styles of pillows and crisp white sheets. A perfect addition which is very rare in most hotel rooms was A plug socket next to the bed! The amount of hotels we’ve stopped in are missing this simple little amenity. I also loved the bendy reading lights next to each side of the bed.. the ultimate spotlight and perfect if one wants to read whilst the other sleeps (like me, in this case!).
Although the bathroom was great to look at (tiled from floor to ceiling, back lit mirror etc) due to us being in an accessible room (because no other refurbished rooms were available) our bathroom was wheelchair friendly, and we had a slight issue with the water from the shower seeping into the bathroom (rather quickly as well!). This wasn't ideal and showering became an unfortunate burden instead of something I usually look forward to. However I'm unsure if all rooms are like this or it's purely because it was a disabled room. Either way, its not very practical that the shower was unable to be put on full power for this reason.
The room also came with complimentary tea/coffee and biscuits, which is usually standard in most hotels now. It also had a fully stocked mini bar, however prices were steep so unfortunately this was avoided on this occasion! A safe and many USB ports were provided in order to recharge all those gadgets!
Apart from the glitch with the shower I would definitely return to this hotel. Its location is ideal for people wanting to explore the city, and its on point in regards to luxury, especially for the fantastic price that I paid!
Where is your favourite place to stay in London?
Check out my footage below of the room tour!
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