Novotel Aachen City

We checked in on Sat. Reception was open from around 6-11am and 5-11pm, I was told. Check in is possible between 3 -5 pm using the machine at the entrance.

Some useful info:
there is no option to check in on the screen before 3pm. So early check in is not possible.

Parking is currently not available. We use the parking garage at the bus station nearby.

The room is very basic. Baby cot is not available. Not family friendly.

Not an overall great experience.
We checked in on their automatic machine at the entrance, nobody was at the desk. It gave us a room number and code to unlock the room.
When we typed in the code and open the door, we realised the room was already occupied !!!
Since we did not see any staff member we got really stressed about this situation and how to get the room we booked for the night.
Luckily we found a staffer. He was surprised that the room was occupied (???). We got an other room without problem. But when we asked about how to acces the hotel later in the evening we were told that the main doors are always open...

We were staying only one night, so we kept the room, but if we were staying monger in Aachen, we would have cancelled and tried to find another accomodation.
Because, in addition to the initial stress about the room mixup, we ended up in stress to first leave our possession in this room since it seems anybody could open it by mistake (just like we did we our original room). And then, with the idea that ANYONE could enter the hotel unsupervised at any time...............

That said, the bed was surprisingly okay.
But we were happy to check out the next day.
We will never book in this hotel again, and probably think twice to book with an Iris Budget elsewhere.

You have no reception service at all times of the day, which is OK. I followed the instructions and used the machine to get my code and gain access to hotel. The next day I tried to access my room but was not able to do so. Luckily the cleaner was around and she phoned somebody who explained that despite the fact I had a reservation for 2 nights i had only paid for one night and had to repeat the procedure. Luckily I had my credit card on me because otherwise i dont know what i would have done. I understand that is your procedure but it would be good if somebody could explain thus BEFORE or have signs explaining this.

I was not able to turn on the AC because I am assuming it is controlled remotely and they don't want the clients switiching on the AC.

I was travelling alone but the bed at the top was missing a pillow.

This wasn't an entirely pleasant hotel stay. We arrived late due to a nightmare with the trains, there is little to no staff and you need to check yourself in on a machine. There are no room cards, so you are given a 6 digit code which you cannot print so take a photo with your phone or write the code down. We were going to our room when a disoriented man appeared in the stairs telling us we need to go back to reception with him to pay for our dog. The hotel accepts dogs with a fee of €6 per day, and if you book on their website you can pay this fee when you book (which we did). The man was unwilling to accept that we had paid and wouldn't wait for us to get the confirmation email out. But marched off to the reception to check our booking. We never saw him again so I assume he realised everything was fine and we had indeed paid. But it was unnecessarily stressful to experience this late at night. Once we arrived at our room, the room smelled faintly like cigarette smoke. We notice the duvet was too small for the double bed and the water glasses we provided were dirty. The air conditioning didn't work in our room either. The bed was reasonably comfortable but the hotel is not sound proof, you can hear doors slamming from all over the hotel all night and hear people talking in the hall or next rooms.

All in all, it was affordable and fine for 1 night but I wouldn't recommend staying any longer.

In general acceptable for the price, but the main disadvantage - terrible stench of smoke in the room, dirty curtains and heavy air. The neighborhood around the hotel is also crawling with dubious persons and drug addicts

The personal are not friendly, the roms are really dirty enen take in to account that the shower is a new.