Novotel Convention & Spa Antananarivo

Genuinely an excellent and luxurious experience. I travel quite widely for work and for pleasure when possible and this is genuinely a stand out hotel experience for me. I like novotel, but this was very much more like the sofitel experience in the Accor stable. All elements of the hotel are genuinely excellent. Adding my loyalty card to the booking (which was originally made by my office) the front desk staff immediately upgraded me to a huge suite. This is the best recognition of loyalty I ever experienced as a Platinum member. The facilities of the hotel are all superb, the fitness and swimming pool are top grade. The rooms and public areas are beautiful and the restaurants and bars are welcoming and serve excellent food and beverages. The staff are genuinely excellent, providing a next level of hospitality. Not only the front desk experience described above, but more than once staff members observed me looking for somewhere or struggling with the lift and came straight over to help. Restaurant and bar staff were welcoming and remembered my orders. Genuinely this was a superb experience and I couldn't recommend highly enough. Some small feedback for improvement: Don't clean the pool during the open hours of the fitness studio, guests get up early to swim! Find a better way to share the guest info, even if it's old fashioned printed info. The TVs are unreadable to the point of being useless. Advise guests they need to hold the key cards against the lift units, it takes a bit of work to get used to. But these are tiny details in an otherwise impeccable experience. Thank you.

I had a lovely stay! The staff was extremely kind and very accommodating. Not only were there great dining options on the property but there were also great options nearby. The spa services were also great. I would definitely stay again.

I stay in hotels often all over Africa. The Novotel in Antananarivo is by FAR the best hotel I have ever stayed in. Everything is so well thought through. The room layout, the food, the staff are all amazing. No idea how they could make things better.

The hotel is 5* with extremely comfortable rooms. It feels classy. We slept well here. Breakfast was good and it is very close to the airport. Very newly built so everything in good condition. I’ve marked the hotel down because of dinner. We were on half board so dinner was included. All we had to pay for was the drinks. We had a glass of house wine each and a small bottle of water. The house wine wasn’t on the menu so we were horrified when we signed the bill of 144,000 ariary!!!! On my Mastercard bill £27. That was the only time in 3 weeks that we felt to have been fleeced. So we recommend the hotel but steer clear of the drinks!

The food in the Italian restaurant was just superb. I just loved the pizza and the pasta. The breakfasts were also excellent and there was a wide variety of choices. The service was also exemplary. The rooms were comfortable. I particularly enjoyed the showers/

We left this hotel with a bad taste despite the rest of the experience being good. We stayed there for two nights on our way to another destination in Madagascar. The area surrounding the hotel is not conducive to going out and walking around so we ate all of our meals at the hotel. The breakfast buffet was delicious. And we had one nice dinner and one nice lunch. But when we went to the sky bar for dinner the first night, we got scammed. We asked for two glasses of Chardonnay. The bartender said he did not have it by the glass so we asked to look at the wine list to see if we could order a bottle. He said there was no Chardonnay available on the wine list but then he pulled three bottles of white wine out of the fridge at the bar. Two of them were Sauvignon blanc and one was Chardonnay. We asked him how much the bottle of Chardonnay was and he said he did not knw but he would check. He made several phone calls, and after about 15 minutes he still had no answer. Bottle was getting warm and we were anxious to have a glass of wine. We looked at the prices for the other bottles of white wine on the wine list and saw that they were reasonably priced. So we figured this one would be along those lines. When we got our check, he charged us about $250 for the bottle. We enjoy wine but I can honestly say we have never had a $250 bottle of wine so I wouldn’t even know what that would taste like. But I can say that the bottle we had was nothing special. When we asked him to explain the price he called a manager over and she pointed to the wine list and said that the bottle that we had was the one that was priced at 1,100,000 Madagascar. Kind of strange that they couldn’t find price when we asked about it, but then were able to find it when they charged us. You would think that a bottle priced at that level would be coming out of a wine cellar and not out of a small bar refrigerator. But the bottom line is that they told us they didn’t know the price and all of a sudden it was right there. I think it was a total scam.

We spent two nights at this hotel. Because it seemed very unsafe to leave the property. We ate all of our meals there. Most of them were good. But when we went to the sky bar for dinner, we got scammed. We asked the bartender for two glasses of a Chardonnay. He told us he did not have it by the glass. So we asked to see the wine list to see if we could order a bottle. He then checked the refrigerator at the bar and took out three bottles of white wine. One of them was Chardonnay, and the other two were Sauvignon blanc. We asked him how much the bottle of Chardonnay was he said he did not know and he checked the wine list, but it was not on the list according to him He made several phone calls and inquiries to find out how much the bottle of wine was. After about 15 minutes with no answer and the wine sitting there getting warm and us wanting to have a drink, we asked him to just go ahead and open it because we had looked at the wine list and the wines listed were mostly around $60. The wine was fine, but certainly nothing great. When we got the check, they charged us about $250 for the bottle of wine. We were stunned. We enjoy wine, but I can honestly say we have never had a bottle of wine that cost $250. Especially one that was pulled out of the refrigerator at the bar. It didn’t even come from a wine cellar. When we questioned it, another woman who I assume was a manager came over and pointed to the wine list and showed us that it was the one that was marked $1,100,000 Madagascar That equates to about $250. They had already taken the bottle away so we couldn’t even question whether that was the same bottle but either way there is certainly a question why they couldn’t find the price for the bottle that we had if it was right there on the wine list. I think they just scammed us. The rest of the hotel stay was nice the rooms were fine and the Spa technicians were really excellent Breakfast buffet was good as well. But I would never send anybody to this hotel, knowing that they feel comfortable scamming. Guests. It was an awful feeling.

New hotel, Clean and tidy. I got a beautiful suite on the 6th floor. Breakfast was good with a wide range of western food. The staff was pretty reactive both at the restaurant and at the front desk. On the downside, wine is terribly expensive. They sell an inexpensive French wine for 60000AR (18€) per glass. I complained about it and they mentioned import tax but I don't buy it. Import tax is high in Madagascar but it is even higher in Thailand or China. A glass of a similare wine in Thailand hardly cost more than THB300 (about 8€). At the Novotel, they propose a Limo service from/to the airport but the limo is a Hundai!!). I ended up taking the hotel shuttle as I did not want to pay €100 for a private car. There are often issues with the key card in the elevator. it does not work as expected. The digital TV does not work well, it often freezes. The personnel are friendly but some of them are a bit inexperienced. Noise insulation is insufficient. I can hear people next door as if they were in my room. Bottom line: I got a good rate because I am a Diamond member with Accor but this hotel is too pricey for a Novotel. Accor has 10 or 11 luxury brands and Novotel is not a 5 star brand within Accor but they charge 5 star rates! I wanted to debrief with the GM but he was nowhere to be seen.