Hotel Novotel di Karlsruhe

I absolutely hate to give negative marks to anyone, but I feel that it is my responsibility to warn business travellers in particular about what seems to be going on at this hotel and, I am afraid, might well be going on across across the Novotel chain. I also want to alert their senior management who appear to have been deaf to comments passed to them by staff on the ground. I have used this hotel for almost 20 years for my occasional stays in Karlsruhe. It is clearly the first choice for business travellers to Karlsruhe: perfectly centrally located, superb transport connections, with all modern conveniences, very good and varied breakfast buffet, very helpful and unusually friendly staff and up until now well appointed rooms, But upon check-in this time, actually on a private visit, the staff seemed reluctant to let me have a room on the 4th floor, the first one to be completed in their current renovation process. I nevertheless chose a room there, had one look at it, and decided that it was a travesty for what is supposed to be a hotel for business travellers: No desk, no chair other than two huge reclining rocking chairs, no sockets other than a few German 220V outlets dotted about the room, one at a time, no USB charger points. In other words: not a place where one can do any work. Is a business traveller desperate to put a last touch on that PowerPoint for next morning going to balance a laptop on her lap while rocking in an easy chair just out of reach of the socket for the chargers? And, just to discourage the leisure traveller as well, they ripped out the bath tub and replaced it with a shower tray the same full size of a bathtub, and replaced the cupboard for your clothes with open hanging space only. My wife, for one, would not put up with spending a leisurely weekend staring at her dresses and coats. We are not of student-dig age anymore! The real insult is that all of these ”amenities” (necessities if you ask me) were and are still present in the un-renovated rooms on the lower floors, I was on a private trip, but still wanted to do some stuff, so I asked to change rooms, which was not a problem. But it would have been in the not too distant future. Accor Hotel management: PLEASE STOP AND THINK AGAIN, or this might not be the last review of this nature.