Novotel Hotels in Porto Alegre

The reception and room service staff provided good service. However, the experience in the hotel restaurant was poor. We had previously booked a meal at the hotel restaurant and chose to enjoy it after check-in, the restaurant staff did not have this information and did not know how to conduct the service. The service was poor, the main course took a long time, the salad came without sauce, the dessert which was a mousse was frozen and the staff were impolite. In addition, the entire building smelled strongly of frying during the first day and, if I am mistaken, the benefits of my Gold ALL status were not fully available.

We knew our flight arrived in Porto Alegre too late to go ”up” to Gramado, so we stayed one night. We called the hotel to call for a shuttle, which picks guests up at the same place of the rental car vans. That worked well. However, I noticed the front desk serves as guest service also, so sometimes it takes long for someone to answer the phone - which happened when we requested something. The team is attentive, though not exuberant - but it's more of a business hotel in style, so that's OK. During this brief stay, when we requested extra pillows. then help with the safe and even later some extra sheets, all were brought very quickly. The shower is very nice & the bathroom amenities are of the expected quality, though nothing to rave about too much - the bathroom door is at a slightly odd angle, but what just caught my attention negatively was the squeaky door to the shower stall - but no biggie, just a detail. Beds are OK, but more importantly, the accoustical isolation really worked well - I mean, our window was to one of the runways. TV has some limited channels and not much in the English language (CNN was the one I noticed as an exception). Even the movie channels apparently only in Portuguese - though maybe I just didn't find how to reverse to the original language. Breakfast is fine and served quite early, which I like (starts at 5 am on weekdays - so it works well for early flights). However, don't arrive too late - my daughter, who woke up much later than I, wasn't able to get waffles, which had run out more than 1 hour before the end of service. The omelette I ordered with lots of cheese was tasty, but the local cake (called cuca) was a bit drier than I think it should be. Something that one doesn't see much where I live in Brazil - blackberry - was fresh, though not too sweet. The lobby has a lot of different seating areas, books to read or just look at, and maybe because of that, neither it, nor the adjoining eating area has sufficient sockets to charge one's phone or laptop. I didn't actually ask - maybe they were hidden - so maybe I'm wrong on that count. There is a very nice eating area nearby, Boulevard Laçador, with very nice options for dinner - though it seems that the hotel's chefs actually prepare some good meals. We didn't stay long enough to confirm as we went out to a very good Thai restaurant.