Novotel Lausanne Bussigny Reviews

I never got a chance to stay here so cant speak to the quality of comfort at the hotel, however I can speak about the customer service. The staff and management are very dismissive and unsympathetic. They will say anything to not give a refund, no matter the circumstances. My fiancé and I had not traveled internationally in over 5 years and this would have been our first trip together. We were denied boarding at the airport because my fiancé’s passport did not meet Switzerland’s 3 month validity rule for passport expiration. Her passport would expire in September and we were traveling June 27 - July 5th. We were not aware of this rule as we haven’t really done much international travel, although I admit we could have done more research. So you can imagine how devastated and upset we were to find this out at the airport, all packed and ready for our trip. We had to turn back and there was no way for us to get an expedited passport in less than a day due to all the wait times brought about by COVID. We booked this hotel at a non-refundable rate, however I don’t think it matters because even if we had booked a refundable rate we would have missed the cutoff time to request a refund as we would be staying here the day after our flight. We explained the circumstances to the hotel staff and management and pleaded for an exemption to get a refund but were denied. The hotel staff kept deflecting and insisting that I must contact the travel agency that I booked. I had already reached out to the travel agency and they would not approve a refund unless the hotel approved a refund. The travel agency suggested I could try and reason with the hotel which is why I contacted them directly. However, there was no reasoning with the hotel staff. We had back and forth communication over email and they didn’t consider me their customer, they considered the travel agency the customer and did not want do deal with me. I even asked if a partial refund was possible but still got denied. I would stay clear of this hotel and wouldn’t count on any refundable rates to help either because if the timeframe for a refund has passed, they will not give a refund.