Novotel Lyon Gerland Musée des Confluences

“Good With A Few Flaws”

The Novotel has a lot to offer, but some big drawbacks. We were traveling as two adults and one teen (age 13). The interior of the hotel is nice looking and there’s a lot of interesting art. The staff were friendly and helpful. Our room had a living space with a sofa bed and then a separate bedroom… more

The Novotel has a lot to offer, but some big drawbacks. We were traveling as two adults and one teen (age 13). The interior of the hotel is nice looking and there’s a lot of interesting art. The staff were friendly and helpful. Our room had a living space with a sofa bed and then a separate bedroom, which was a great setup. The room was a good size. In the living area, our daughter had plenty of room to leave her carry-on sized suitcase open on the floor. In the bedroom, my husband and I could each do the same. I also appreciated that even though the couch was being used as a bed, there were other chairs and a table available in the room for relaxing. We opted out of the buffet breakfast because our plan was to walk to cafes in the morning to get something to eat. Unfortunately, this hotel is really not within walking distance of cafes. That ended up being okay because our jet lag made us sleep late, so our first meal ended up being lunch out, but it was a bit disappointing. The big issue is that although the hotel is perfectly nice looking, some design elements are not thoughtful in terms of functionality. The walls are very thin, and we could hear everything going in the hallway at all times of night – groups walking and talking at 3 am, people moving furniture, knocking on doors. Even with earplugs and a white noise app, the noises woke us up and scared my daughter. The sofa bed is also very small. At age 13 and under 5 feet tall, my daughter had very little space to move around in the bed. The balcony is very cute with astro turf, two lounge chairs, two upright chairs, and a little table. Unfortunately, there is a huge step to go in and out. There are two sets of glass doors and the ledge where they open and close is fragile. I could see that someone before us had tried to step on it to get out and the middle was sinking in. This means that to get out to the balcony, you have to step up over a foot and then also step out over the ledge with the doors. To get back into the room, you are stepping out and down and it’s very awkward for short people or people with any sort of mobility issues. The bathroom had a combined bathtub shower. The bathtub was raised by about a foot or so, as though it was sitting on a podium, so getting in and out required another huge step up and down – dangerous when wet. The shower itself has no curtain and only a partial glass door that extended less than halfway along the bathtub. It also swung outward (I assume for cleaning), so there was nothing sturdy to hold onto when climbing in and out. Needless to say, after the first shower, the bathroom floor was covered in water. It took a lot of care to keep the bathroom dry, which is not ideal. There were also not enough hooks for 3 towels, so I had to hang mine in the closet. If the room sleeps 3 people, there should be 3 towel hooks available. Although the location was not very close to cafes and restaurants, it was pretty close to Vieux Lyon, where we spent most of our time. We ended up taking taxis and Ubers most of the time because public transit took much longer, and the rides were never very long, so it’s in a decent location. Also, we were there to see Taylor Swift and the hotel gave my daughter a friendship bracelet for the concert, which was a really nice touch. I also really appreciated the water bottle refill station in the hallway and the coffee maker, slippers, bathrobe, and hair dryer in the room.

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“Just a hotel but not 4 star”

Overall I would rate this stay and hotel as a 3.5 Star for hotel. The room was clean and tidy and bed was very comfortable. Maybe because of World Cup and crowds in the hotel this was the reasoning for the low service levels but a couple of things stuck out. One was be very careful when asking for … more

Overall I would rate this stay and hotel as a 3.5 Star for hotel. The room was clean and tidy and bed was very comfortable. Maybe because of World Cup and crowds in the hotel this was the reasoning for the low service levels but a couple of things stuck out. One was be very careful when asking for a taxi. We asked for a taxi ( and could have been our English) but hotel car turned up and cost us 85 euro instead of 25. Being an Accor Platinum member i was a bit disappointed with some of the stay.

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