Novotel Birmingham Centre, Priestly

Pros- Breakfast was really good. Staff were very polite. They have a secure-looking luggage room. The bed was OK, not the most comfortable but not the worst. Good location for ICC. Cons- They advertise a sauna and steam room, but this is only open for 3 hours in the evening! Pretty much everyone who stays in a hotel is going to be out from 7pm-10pm, so this policy makes no sense and I felt very misled as I didn't get to use either facility in the 4 days I was there. They also 'upgraded' me to a room that looked smaller than the photos of what I had booked, and had what must have been a disabled bathroom because the sink was so low. I'm a small person yet had to really strain my back bending right over to wash my face. The curtains aren't total blackout as they stop just short of the floor, so light does come in. The lighting in the room is really awful and will give you a really hard time when you're trying to get ready to go out.

I will go out of my way to make sure I don't stay here again. Paid £70 for a double room for one night and got next to no sleep. Definitely not a 4-star hotel! Odd that the hotel doesn't check on the floors to make sure that the floors of the hotel are quiet in the evenings. Guests are quite rowdy with it being on a road of Birmingham with multiple clubs. Rooms lack soft close doors and proper soundproofing so very loud. Odd room layouts too (with toilet in separate cupboard-room. Also, I was almost double charged for my room as they argued they hadn't received the payment until I showed my bank statement. Staff were pleasant enough but the manager just didn't listen to the fact the neighbours beside and above were loud until 5:30 am...