Hotel Novotel di Ulaanbaatar

I stayed there over 7 nights. On the first day I arrived at 12 noon and the check-in time was 2.00 pm. After a 13 hour flight and car ride from the airport to the hotel I just wanted to get into the room and have a hot shower. Usually in all other cities and hotels in Asia, they would have allowed me to check in earlier if they had a room. In this case, they had a room but wanted to charge me the rate of 30% for that two hour stay. I paid for it as I was in no mood to argue over it and as my Mongolian business partners were with me and I did not want to cause a scene. The hotel toilet had a smell from the drainage pipe and they could not clear the smell even after I had complained. The service staff was generally pleasant although some of the restaurant staff need some further training. At the Chinese restaurant when I asked one of the waiter to change to a private room after being seated at the normal dining hall which was noisy, the waiter replied that he was busy. And asked me to go to the reception. Perhaps they are still a bit rough at the edges. Also, the 24 hour room service does not exist as is promoted in their brochure in the room. I had to go to the front desk and then I was directed to go to the coffee house to make my order. I asked why nobody picked up the 24 hour room service line and the front desk asked me what number I dialed. I replied 3222 as was in the brochure in the room and he told me it was 3150. I told him its 3222 as per the room brochure but he insisted it was 3150. I went back to my room to double check after placing the order at the coffee house and it was 3222 in the brochure. So either they have a wrong print or they have not updated with a new number. I was seated in the cafe many times and I noticed a gentleman who would go up to sign for a coffee at the cafe. I assumed he must be a senior staff of the hotel. If he was indeed a senior staff I thought he would be friendly enough to smile to the guests at the cafe and assume some if not all the guests are also guests of the hotel.