Novotel Wollongong Northbeach Review

Great place. Only let down was signage to the room the event was in. People were friendly and helpful when asked. Glad about that

Easy check in. Had to move rooms as occupancy was too many for the first room. Ladies were lovely. No fuss. Gave the kids some little treats for the inconvenience. Comfy beds and fluffy towels!

Amazing service, great conference facilities, top buffet, incredible views.

As I had just gotten married that day i booked a 2 night stay with the novotel, i had asked if champagne and strawberries could be arranged for my wife in the room and when we got there, there was a bottle of champagne yes but no strawberries, and a note to myself shane paterson, nothing to congratulate both of us on our wedding. I had also booked another room for the best man and his wife, and on the sunday my wife went to have a shop in your boutique come back to the room and was locked out as was my best mate, to which your staff tried to say it was our fault for maybe having the room key near a phone? funny though how all 4 keys were now not working just after 11am that morning,like we had only been booked in for 1 night stay,not the 2 nights i had arranged. Also upon checkout, i checked my invoice and had been charged for 2 x panarama rooms not just 1 x pamarama. This was corrected after a minor dispute with staff, I then went to pay on my savings card and cause it was over $2000.00 it declined I then paid on the same card and and pressed credit to which i was told i would be charged $27 something for using a credit card,my wife then went back in to question this charge as we own our own company and the credit card charge should not have been on there cause it still come from a savings account, the lady she spoke with was quite abrupt and rude. We marked everything we had used from the mini bar on the leaflet provided and still an extra $30.00 was debited to my card the following day?? what for I have no idea??
On the Sunday night my wife filled out the breakfast order form and hung it on the door as it says to do,only to awake the following morning and it still be hanging there.
Please i would love a response to this survey as I am not happy.

On 9th floor and none of the lifts worked they have had trouble with them since march get there act together handicap person climing stairs in stairwell never book there again you would think a 5 star motel would find a tech to fix problem

It had been a while since I'd stayed at the hotel. Mainly because while it was in a good location, that wasn't enough to make me pick this location over others. This time the staff was exceptionally nice and I got upgraded to a suite (very nice even though that won't happen every time). The upgrades to the place were good and I'll definitely request that I stay there next time I'm in town.

Right next to the beach. Excellent staff as you would expect from an Accordion hotel. Breakfast had a wide selection from your cold to your hot foods. Had a great stay.

Had a lovely stay - only main disappointment was the room we were given. We got married that day. The boys all stayed the night before at the Novotel & got ready for the wedding there. We received a congratulatory bottle of wine & chocolate (thank you ) but our guests received a better ocean view room than us. I made my booking first then recommended for our guests to also book this hotel. Many guests did & some ended up with rooms at the very front overlooking the beach - some even got balconies. As the bride & groom, and as an Accor member I was a little disappointed

Ok without being outstanding as s far as hotel lobbies go

Great place to stay with friendly staff ready to help you. Close to beach.

We always enjoy staying at this hotel. Especially enjoyable is its buffet breakfasts and buffet dinners. There is always plenty of variety to choose from and the food is always fresh. This hotel is always children friendly as well.

Value for money = low (compared to other hotels of a similar location/view/facilities)
Breakfast = terrible (poached eggs were all hard boiled and turning green, bacon inedible)
Not to mention: the bathroom (yes it may have been renovated but) it smelled like bleach mixed with spew and urine. The car park wreaked like a fish sauce factory. AND there was a wedding on & they have zero sound proofing so we could hear every word to every song or MC announcement for half the night. Oh AND dinner at their restaurant - sorry we can t seat you until the next sitting in 45 minutes (despite many empty tables).
The lifts are super old and you can just tell they need a major investor to upgrade this hotel to continue charging what they do.
Only positive is the proximity to the beach but if you re after that then go to Terrigal and stay at Crowne.
We won t be back.

The food was wonderful however people not part of our function kept sneaking into our function room for the bathroom when there were some available outside

Very helpful. Twice the door cards wouldn't work.
Always helpful.
Beds were very comfortable. Restaurant for breakfast and dinner was great food.

Nice stay, good views of the water, close to everything. Good seafood options close by

Made a request from Singapore about two days before my stay, to request for a bouquet of flowers and a birthday cake for my wife and my son, who are celebrating their birthdays one day apart. The CSO said that should not be a problem, to my delight. However, one day later, she dropped my an email telling me that it is not possible, until I checked into my hotel. I could write to them though. Baffled, I replied that email to request for the hotel's contact at the soonest - it came only one week later!

At check-in, I asked if anyone conveyed the message to prepare a bouquet of flowers and cake. They gave me an impression it did, but they are only able to prepare small cakes for us, not the bouquet. I am fine with it. I specifically asked them to place a written note on the cake that will be delivered to my room. I got the promise.

When I moved into my room, I requested for the cake to be sent. Inexplicably, the person who answered my call (who was the same guy who attended to me at check-in, transferred me to the room service kitchen. My conversation with them revealed that they were quite clueless on what I requested for. It was only after some explanation, they appeared to understand. Alas, the came without the note, and I had to ask them to bring it back and get the note. Surprise dashed!

Every call for amenity top-up nearly took at least 30 minutes before it arrive at my room. On the first day, I asked for bottled water without the need to pay extra. On the second day, I asked for it, only to be presented with a bill of $16. I fail to understand what system is this.

My failed entry to car park made me stuck at the gate for about 10 minute, as the intercom button led to no one answering the call. I had to press for a ticket, bring it to the counter to get it validated. Unnecessary hassle in view that there is a call button at the gate!

WiFi was spotty most of the times. My laptop gets disconnected from the WiFi, and I cannot get back on, unless I disconnect it, and reboot my system. I am not kidding, I had to try this almost everytime, and I really do not know why is this so!

That said, I see most of the staff putting in their best to provide us with the nest service. However, there seems to be something that limits their ability to deliver the best they can. Is it communication? Is it infrastructure? Is it the lack of empowerment? I simply cannot point to a source.

Something is just lacking, and it is a real pity for Novotel!

Great place to stay and attend functions backed by wonderful customer service.

Great location and great size rooms.
pleasent teams and nice and quite. overall would recommend this hotel to anyone who is staying in the Wollongong area.

We had an employee by the name of Jake look after us.
Jake went above and beyond to ensure we had a lovely stay at the hotel!

Thank you for making our stay at the Novotel great!

Your hotel is in a beautiful location! Unfortunately we had views mainly of a concrete roof - however I don't think we chose to have ocean views so that was our fault. We came from Cairns and had battled Sydney Friday afternoon traffic to get down to Wollongong - so were very relieved to be there! We checked in and parked the car and got up to our room - after a long wait at the lift - only to have both our keys not work. But they did work, actually, just no-one told us that we had to put them in backwards, with the arrow pointing out, not in! Before we found that out, my husband went back down to reception, via the stairs (rather than wait for the very slow lift) - but the fire doors were locked and he couldn't get out, either at our room level, or at the level of reception! Luckily he had his phone, and rang me to come and open the door for him. And we managed to find out about the keys. These were only little annoyances, but not what we needed after a long day travelling.
We had dinner with our friends on the Friday night - the seafood buffet. We found the buffet very overpriced at $75pp - the seafood was not good quality! (maybe we're spoilt in Cairns) and the >$200 per couple bill (with drinks) seemed excessive
We had breakfast in the restaurant on Sunday morning (which happened to be Mother's Day - thus it was very busy). Again, the food was adequate, but nothing special. And because it was Mother's Day, the restaurant was very busy - so it was too much trouble to join the queues and we found we had very little food for the $35pp charge
The service was adequate in all areas - but nothing or no-one stood out - it was all pretty ho-hum.

Best view, rooms great but food service was not good.

Have been here plenty of times with out issue. Friendly atmosphere and pleasant. Rooms are clean and tidy. Could be updated a little.

Attended a wedding reception. Food and service were excellent.

Venue is awesome for casual drinks with friends ,the bar has a very good vibe ,service is always amazing ,drinks are very reasonably priced for Wollongong

Comfortable, spacious and well appointed room at a reasonable price. Food service and quality in bistro was excellent.

Always my favourite place to stay in Wollongong. Wonderful service & superb rooms with sea views. Luxury & so welcoming.

After 10 years of visting this hotel, I checked in to find we had been allocated a room on a low floor. I went to reception to look at other options due to the noise from the iceskating and bar that was directly below us. I was told by your operations manager with a tone of arrogance "that we were lucky to get a room at all and that Novotel Wollongong is booked out every weekend and that the rest of Wollongong is too"! In other words shut up and stop complaining as we should be greatfull we got a room! Our concilatory gift was tickets to ice skating.

Upon taking the kids we soon discovered it was not ice as advertised and my wife was told by the same manager "that out of 100 people who had visited there were only 3 people who complained and that we were one of them"

Dinner followed and we were served 1 x undercooked meal and 1 overcooked meal. We sent them back and it was fixed. All credit goes to the waitress who served us I think her name was Elizabeth as she was extremely professional and her customer service skills were impeccable! Certainly not something I can say about the operations manager we dealt with 1 hour prior!

Lastly, the change from barista made coffee to take away rubbish at breakfast has brought the whole breakfast experience down a notch or two.

Does this operations manager have any customer service skills or does he believe belittling and arrogance will keep people coming back! Far from it - for the first time we are now looking at other hotels and chains after years of loyalty!!!

An Epic & Gastronomical experience!!! Love the makeovers!

Oh god! Soooo dated. In urgent need of a complete refurbishment. Such a shame because the location is great.

Lovely room, great shower water pressure and relaxing bath tub. The bed was not an inner spring mattress and somewhat uncomfortable after a few hours of sleeping.

Went for the news years it goes off best place I've been to

Friendly service. Hotel looks pretty old but decent and clean rooms.

Excellent service, check in was very quick and professional, the rooms are absoultey clean and modern.

Great location and the lobby bar is great for a few relaxed drinks

Paid over $500 to stay last night in a semi beach view room, toilet smelt of bleach and music from a wedding function was so loud we could barely hear the tv let alone have a quiet night away!

We stayed in a Panorama Suite for our Honeymoon, and the whole stay was fantastic. From the moment we checked in, the staff were amazing & happy to help with any request, and we were treated to a platter of chocolate-covered strawberries & desserts, plus a bottle of champagne, free breakfast each day, and late checkout !

We ordered room service, and also dined in the hotel restaurant, and the food was fresh & delicious !! We also visited Pepe's Bar for afternoon cocktails, which we really enjoyed.

Overall, we had a fantastic stay, and we would recommend Novotel Northbeach to everyone

The staff were excellent. The room was very comfortable. The breakfast was ideal.

Unfortunately we could hear the next room as clearly as we did not wish to...an inter connecting room, big mistake...will be careful next time
The room was beautiful and the young lady at reception was very gracious...tried hard to placate
Her effort was appreciated

We had an amazing time at Novotel Wollongong with my family last week. Our room was nice and newly renovated which we loved . My kids had a great time in the pool. Bfast was great. The best was the live music on Friday night at the foyer - that was the best! Looking forward to our nxt short break to Novotel Wollongong

Really friendly and helpful staff, the BEST views from the ocean view rooms and not stingy on extras (slippers, wine, shower caps etc) like other hotels. Hubby and I always go here for anniversaries. All front desk staff super friendly and funny, especially Darren our fave. Really good standard maintained throughout! Best place to stay in Wollongong by far.

Novotel Restaurant -smorgasbord. Disappointing - not many hot meat dishes; salads - OK & varied; prawns - small; desserts - good number & choice of ice creams BUT only one serving spoon for approx 8 ice creams; not the usual number of selections that other Novotels have had. All in all VERY ordinary lunch; wouldn't drive from Sydney for the Xmas lunch; couldn't trust quality & quantity.

This hotel stay proved to be problematic, from when we arrived and through to the time we exited.

We used Agoda as our booking platform, and our booking reference # very much included WiFi, yet we were advised by reception staff on check-in that WiFi would be charged as an extra. After a conversation on this front, they did revise the matter, and with our thanks, but I would suggest its inadvisable any hotel to have to have its client's feel compelled to negotiate this, as soon as they arrive.

We then found out (as later confirmed in small print in the original booking terms and conditions) that 'some' of the hotel facilities were closed for renovation. As it so happens, these facilities included pool, spa, gym etc etc. Other items included issues with housekeeping (hairs found in the bath ), and major noise penetration into the room itself, (from adjacent room).

Staff were generally reasonable to deal with. and we appreciate the way they responded to our queries, but at a rate of over $400 for the night, this hotel is sub-standard for what it purports to offer, and represents poor value for money.

My question to management: If a large swag of hotel facilities are not available to guests, because of renovation ( which is entirely understandable), then why have tariffs not been moderated to reflect this ?

Nice big rooms and a huge lobby.

No free wifi - ridiculous in this day and age.
Lifts were hopeless - only one working and people waiting 15-20 minutes with suitcases, resorting to bumping them down the stairs (damaging backs and cases).
Staff quite indifferent - no friendly ones

Stayed for a conference. Great food, view and service. Would highly recommend it for corporate travellers

I am a regular guest at your hotel as I have family in the area, I always choose to stay at the Novotel because the service, the rooms & the facilities are terrific.

A quality place indeed with great coffee and good options :)

Great place. The lagoon view is amazing. The rooms are cozy and clean.

Excellent buffet lunch. Great food and fantastic service. Highly recommend.

As it was our wedding anniversary it was the perfect time to have a night at Wollongong Novotel. We had the most beautiful room on the top floor. The view was spectacular and the room very comfortable and modern. The morning breakfast was also very good and having a late check out we were able to enjoy a walk along the promenade.

We had 5 Japanese Karat teachers stay at your hotel and they enjoyed the experience of staying so close to the beach Breakfast was affordable and overlooks the ocean.
Glenn Stephenson
Past President, All Japan Karate do Federation Gojukai Australia

The room is quiet big and tidy the service is good you can walk to the beach within 3 mins the trees block some part of sea view but should be better at higher level however the privacy of balcony is not good enough because you can see the others while standing up no free wifi service and high rates for wifi at room only half hour wifi service at lobby the breakfast is normal quality but you can find some food nearby.

Location is great for taking early morning runs along the beach

First & foremost the beautiful & welcoming staff are an absolute delight, we've been down on many occasions & each time make it more fabulously personal for us, they know our name & ask us how we're going & just like a friend I really have never got this from any other hotel in the world & ive stayed at many hotels in my time.
I'm so looking forward to going down again bringing my other half & inviting him to enjoy my same experiences.
Marina was an absolute wonderful 100%+ organiser & beautiful lady in helping us with all our conferences meeting rooms changes & alterations with a smile & caring amazing attitude. Ashley & Brittany at the front desk we're truly amazing & gorgeous ladies to work with always helpful & kind & smiling too it's infectious down there.
The staff around the hotel from food & beverage attendants to house keeping to room service & brilliant conference/av helpful on point staff too.
You made our time every time wonderful we've successfully completed & set up our David Jones Wollongong store & you had a helping hand in implementing this massive task. We are so proud & thankful.
I really look forward to coming back on a holiday very soon team Novotel Wollongong best regards Carol Armstrong David Jones Talent Aquisition Team

Have stayed here many times - never disappoints. Clean, well-appointed, comfortable rooms and friendly staff. Unfortunately, while the restaurant food is quite good, it comes with a comically-exaggerated pricetag. Excellent ocean and escarpment views, the downstairs bar is surprisingly well-stocked, and the facilities - including surprise sauna - are pretty darned good for a mid-to-high end hotel in a small-ish town.

Attended for the ice skating event. The staff were friendly and the experience was hassle free. Everything was as advertised. An enjoyable time.

Happy to stay there again staff brilliant. Seaford buffet absolutely breath taking.

Seafood buffet was good but very little selection of seafood not your thing

Beautiful views excellent service and food coffee etc a lovely place to stay or day visit

Great Hotel. Ice Skating ! Thanks for the advise of surrounding area from Jake at front desk.

Location is great, perfect for the beach and laid back place. Breakfast had good choices

Are you stressed...come to the beach....you can get the waves cracking on the shore, watch the sea gulls....enjoy the breeze...you will start feeling better soon.

Beautiful experience... Loved the stay and the amenities... Rooms were spacious...

Fantastic place and great staff, hotel menu bit pricey and bathroom wasn't extremely clean but they employees were happy to help. The function room was great and the food was lovely. I recommend for a function event or wedding.

Love this hotel . Stunning views , great food,, fantastic common areas with a live band

Fantastic service and room, gorgeous view and right on the beach, would love to stay again.

Had our conference here in Feb 2017. The hotel is a bit dated in certain areas but overall it is nice. The location is outstanding though with it sitting right on the beach and plenty of access to shops and entertainment. It was an extremely pleasant stay.

Enjoyed my stay at their Novotel. My room had amazing views and the buffet lunch was very nice

Beautiful spot, very friendly staff and lively rooms

The room was great overlooking the ocean. The staff were professional, friendly and willing to assist as required. We ordered room service and also ate at Windjammers and found the food enjoyable and service professional and friendly.

Very close to the beach, several restaurants surrounding. Has a gym and pool, as we as seasonal events. Friendly staff, nice rooms

We stayed at your hotel as we were attending a wedding on 26th August 2017. Nothing was too much of an ask for your wonderful staff. I must make a special mention to Chloe who was incredible on the night of the wedding, she went above & beyond. We will definitely be recommending your hotel to family & friends and cannot wait to come back in the future.

The Novotel at Wollongong is close to the beach, we had a lovely view of the water from our room. The room was spacious, the bed dreamily comfortable and had everything we needed for a short stay. Nearby are some great places to eat and a convenient and regular free bus takes you into the city

Went to a wedding on Sunday night what a great night with really good service and friendly staff

Wedding reception. It was friendly and delicious food.

It was wonderful I will be putting the experience on all the medias... I just haven't had time yet.. The room (1001) was incredible including the shower and bath, highly recommended!