The Novotel Mexico City Centro Histórico is a new hotel. Its newness shows in any number of ways, both good and bad. First the good: Staff were all friendly. And my room was shiny new and free of signs of wear. Everything in the room worked perfectly. It is true that the room was rather small and that the view was mostly of a blank wall. Since I was by myself and did not spend much time in the room during the day, these latter issues didn’t bother me very much. There were, however, some issues that were also perhaps related to the hotel’s newness. The cleaning staff didn’t empty the wastebasket on the first day and didn’t replenish the Nespresso pods on the second. Perhaps they should start working from a checklist … ? Also, breakfast was only available half an hour later than advertised. And, oddly, only certain guests were offered omelettes. And, as someone who doesn’t eat meat, I was bothered by a cheese-and-luncheon-meat plate on which the cheese and luncheon meat were piled on top of each other. I would also have appreciated labels on the four stew-like dishes on offer—I couldn’t tell what they contained. There is also the issue of billing. When I checked in at 3 p.m., I was asked to pay the entire bill—no problem there. But, when I arrived in my room, I found an e-mail from hotel management informing me that, because the hotel was extra busy, I’d already been charged for day 1. It’s true that I’d opted for a “flexible” rate which required me to agree to pay for the first day whether I showed up or not, but it was a little startling to be charged for a no-show before the earliest possible check-in time—and then charged again when I checked in. It took a week for the double charge to disappear from my credit-card statement. I can’t believe Accor would have approved of this billing procedure. The thing that most bothered me about the hotel was the absence of a minibar. The TripAdvisor website—and also the websites of several booking agencies—all claim that rooms in the Novotel Mexico City Centro Histórico have minibars. The Accor website, I’ll admit, doesn’t. But I guess I’ve come to expect that hotels of a certain class would have minibars. And I missed having one, not for overpriced drinks, but for the groceries I bought. I wasn’t, in other words, very enthusiastic about the Novotel Mexico City Centro Histórico, although I acknowledge that, with a few changes, it could most definitely be turned into a very good hotel.
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