Location

Novotel Genève Centre is conveniently located near Geneva train station, with a 7-minute walk to the station or a 7-minute bus ride (due to the bus using a longer route). The area between the hotel and the train station felt a little complicated, especially at night (we later found out from one of the hotel staff that this part of the city is the red light district). Having said that, walking through this area felt completely safe. There are several restaurants with a good variety of cuisines, ranging from African to Indian to French and Italian restaurants, within a 3-minute walk from the hotel. There are several supermarkets located around the hotel, with the nearest about a 3 min walk to the main street from the hotel and one more situated in the train station. The tourist sights like Lake Geneva can be reached from the Novotel Genève Centre on foot in under 10 minutes, and Geneva Old Town is slightly further, reachable in 25 minutes’ walk.

The Suite

We checked into the 50㎡ Superior Suite, the only suite category that Novotel Genève Centre offers, which has a weird layout. Not only does the suite have two entrances, one in the bedroom and the other in the living room, but it also has two fully functional bathrooms. It felt as though two rooms were reconfigured into the Superior Suite.

Entryway 1

The first entryway is situated further from the lift lobby and leads into the living room of the suite. At the entryway, we found a full-length mirror and a single hook installed on the wall. This simply furnished entryway is where the entrance to the bathroom (I termed the bathroom in the living room as Bathroom 1) is. Past the entrance to the bathroom, a minibar station fully stocked with a Nesspro Machine and a kettle, as well as a mini fridge, is located. An in-room safe is located between the Nespresso Machine and the mini fridge.

Living Room

The living room took up a bulk of the real estate in the Superior Suite at Novotel Genève Centre. Originally, this room was furnished with two sofas and a chaise lounge. However, when we entered the room, we saw the sofa placed against the wall and facing the window being converted into a bed. This sofa bed comes with its own headboard and charging outlets on either side of the headboard. We managed to get the housekeeping staff to reconfigure the bed back into a sofa the next day. The second sofa in the living room is placed by the window and faces the entrance to the bedroom. This two-seater sofa can be split into two single-seater chairs.

A chaise lounger is located at the other corner of the living room, by the door to the bedroom. The brown fabric chaise lounger not only can comfortably sit three, but it can also be used as a daybed. The only coffee table in the living room is placed in front of the chaise lounger. The wardrobe in the living room opposite the chaise lounger, capable of holding at least one week’s worth of clothing, seems to suggest that the living room of the Superior Suite might have been used to be a Junior Suite. The TV in the living room is mounted on the wall facing the sofa bed, and can be tilted to face the chaise lounger or the sofa placed by the window at the end of the living room. Despite having many channels for us to choose from on the TV, only a handful of these channels are in English. Most channels are either in French or German.

Bathroom 1

There are two fully equipped bathrooms in the Superior Suite: Bathroom 1 in the living room and Bathroom 2 in the bedroom. Entrance to Bathroom 1 is located in Entryway 1. Bathroom 1 has an elongated layout, stretching from the entrance to the suite to the living room. The space allocated to Bathroom 1 was excellent that it did not feel cramped when using the bathroom. Other than the bathtub in the left corner of the bathroom being a little on the small side, whose length occupies the entire width of the bathroom, the rest of the bathroom felt spacious. Novotel Genève Centre fitted only one sink in Bathroom 1 next to the bathtub, and there is space on both sinks for us to place our toiletries on. The toilet bowl and the European bidet were wedged between the sink and the walk-in shower, which is only fitted with a regular shower head. Even the space afforded to the semi-opened walk-in shower is sufficient to prevent any elbow war with the walls while I shower in here (unlike that of Bathroom 2). I find it weird that the bathroom in the living room is the bigger of the two bathrooms and is better equipped in terms of amenities. Only Bathroom 1 is stocked with full shower amenities, while the other bathroom lacks conditioner and bathroom amenities.

Entryway 2

Weirdly, there is another entrance to the suite via the bedroom, hence a second entryway for the suite. Like the other entryway, Entryway 2 is only furnished with the wardrobe in the bedroom, and it is also home to the entrance to the Powder Room. The wardrobe has only hanging racks, which limits the amount of clothing we can stow. The limited number of hangers the hotel supplies further limits the number of clothes we can hang. Despite having a ledge above the hanging racks, we found little use for this rack. Next to the wardrobe, and facing the bedroom, is where we found the second minibar and the second in-room safe. A second Nespresso machine, an electric kettle and a second set of coffee capsules and tea bags occupy the open shelving space on top of the safe. In contrast, a second mini fridge is situated below the safe.

Powder Room

The Powder Room is a weird situation in the Superior Suite at Novotel Geneva Centre. The suite does not have a powder room per se, rather it has a toilet that is separated from the bathroom in the bedroom. The toilet is situated in the entryway next to the second entrance to the suite, akin to a powder room. However, unlike the powder room of other hotels, the powder room in the Superior Suite only houses the porcelain throne and does not have a sink. The space allotted to the powder room is rather modest, and the absence of a sink makes it inconvenient to use.

Bedroom

A king bed is placed next to the entrance to the bedroom from the living room. The king bed was comfortable with a firm mattress, but the sleep quality on the king bed was impaired by the soft pillows that were provided. Those who prefer softer pillows might find better sleep quality on the bed than I do. The bedside tables in the bedroom are essentially two wooden planks that were wedged into the headboard of the king bed. The space afforded by these bedside tables is a little tight, which provides us with little space to place our lifestyle equipment to charge overnight. To make matters worse, the phone placed on the right bedside table took up the entire space, rendering this bedside table useless. It also doesn’t help that only one side has a power outlet, while the other only comes with two USB-A charging outlets.

Next to the entrance to the bedroom from the living room is another two-seater sofa, identical to that one in the living room by the window. I thought the sofa was useful here as we used it to place our backpack (there is limited space in the entire suite where we can place our backpacks). Next to the sofa, facing the wall, is a work desk. The already sizeable work desk that has another table top can be swivelled out to face the king bed, further increasing the available desk top area for guests to work. The power outlets are conveniently installed on the wall by the work desk, ensuring guests’ work is not disrupted by keeping their laptops juiced up. The TV, mounted onto the wall, beside the work desk and opposite the king bed, provided us with the same entertainment options as that in the living room.

Bathroom 2

The bathroom in the bedroom is the second bathroom in the Superior Suite at Novotel Genève Centre. This bathroom is smaller than Bathroom 1 in the living room, equipped with only a shower and bathing facilities. The sink lies in the centre of Bathroom 2, which only has a small countertop space on the left side. A bathtub, having the same size as the one in Bathroom 1, is located on the left of the sink, while a walk-in shower lies to the right of the sink. Due to the space allocated to Bathroom 2, the walk-in shower is smaller than that in Bathroom 1, and there are no toilet facilities in Bathroom 2. Not only is the space in Bathroom 2 reduced, but the amenities are also reduced, such as the absence of conditioners. Despite the “reduced” bathroom, I thought Bathroom 2 still functions as a full bath.

Service

Our interaction with the staff at Novotel Genève Centre was very limited, and it doesn’t help that the reception is tucked further into the lobby, with a little distance to the main entrance. This design somewhat inhibited the staff from interacting with guests. Despite our interactions with the hotel staff being limited to check-in and check-out, I found the service in the hotel to be good. They were friendly and welcoming, and processed our check-in with great efficiency. The staff were always seen with a smile and greeted us with a warm bonjour whenever we approached them. We were given detailed information by the staff who checked us in about the location of the hotel and the amenities in the hotel. When we approached the reception for an additional fan and converted the sofa bed in the living room back to a sofa, things were done efficiently. The reception staff were always seen with a smile and stood ready to render any assistance that guests might have. Even the housekeeping staff, whom we bumped into every morning, warmed up our day with a friendly greeting.

Hotel Facilities

Gym

Novotel Genève Centre has a small gym located on the Basement (-1 floor) of the hotel. The gym has a small setup with only two treadmills, two stationary bikes, a couple of strength training machines and some dumbbells. Despite its modest size, guests would still be able to do strength and cardio workouts in the gym.

Overall

Novotel Genève Centre is well situated between the train station and the old town, close to most of the sights in Geneva. I find the layout of the Superior Suite to be weird. It felt like the hotel converted a Junior Suite and a connecting Superior bedroom and called it a 1-bedroom suite. The sleep quality on the king bed was decent, and the furniture in the suite shows signs of Aging. Despite the limited interaction with the hotel staff, we felt welcomed by the friendly staff in the hotel.