At first we had to give a creditcard unless we already paid in advance by paypal for the hotel. We don't have a credit card, so they wanted cash, which we don't have barely in this modern times. At first EUR 400, then EUR 200, then EUR 50 and at the end we paid our EUR 8 city taxes and she made a note that we had to pay immediately if we use an extra service.
Then we went to our room: small, very old, nasty, broken bedsidetable, moist in the bathroom, dusty waterboiler, no fresh smell, nasty chair. Not like we expected from a 4 star Novotel. I went back to the receptionist and she got us an other room, unless the hotel was fully occupied.
We had to make the bed for the children ourselves. Bathroom was more like expected, but also a broken bedsidetable. I went back to reception to hand over the cards from the first room. The receptionist where we checked in was not anymore at the hotel, so I went to an other which apologized for the inconvenience and offered free breakfast for 2 days for our family. When I came back to the room, my husband told me there where missing shelves and a missing strep in the childrens beds. Also the waterboiler cover was broken and the mirrorlight blinked. Lots of dust behind the childrens beds. I went back to the nice receptionist and because no technician was available immediately, he came help himself to fix one of the beds. The next day the other bed, and water from the sink that got away very slowly was repaired after asking at reception.