Novotel Hotels in Southampton

Decided to book this Novotel as a place to stay for a couple of nights in Southampton for some wedding celebrations. We have previously visited this hotel approx 22 years ago as we had our wedding held at this hotel. So we were familiar with the hotel location and surroundings as we frequently visited Southampton centre for many years over the past 22 years. The location is ideal if you are arriving by coach and train. The coach station is literally on the door step of this hotel , approx 500/600 metres away. The train station is also within walking distance too. You really are in the centre within walking distance of the main shopping centre , the West Quay .John Lewis entrance is only a 10 min walk from this hotel which takes you into the West Quay shopping centre. Novotel has a car park , which is shared with 2 other hotels at this location , including an Ibis hotel. There are plenty of spaces to park, however we arrived off season and I can imagine during the cruise season it can get busy. My only grievance with Novotel is, we booked through the Novotel website and it does say on there that parking is available however you have to pay £10 per night to park your car there. Upon arrival, you just speak with the checking in staff, provide them with your car registration number & they simply register it on their system and you pay them at the counter for your parking.So £20 on top of your hotel booking as we were staying for the 2 nights. We decided not to book any breakfast as on your doorstep is a McDonald’s…literally at the car park entrance….there is also an IKEA store 5 minutes walk from the hotel. You can see it from the hotel rooms.since the hotel is alongside the major road alongside the port, you can walk along there to IKEA and towards the pier.if you’re really lucky , you can admire one of the large cruise liners berthed up…we did , you could look at it from the hotel car park.There is also a TGI Fridays restaurant across the car park entrance at this location and a small retail park with a few shops like Poundland etc. The checking in process was seamless and we got the lift to our room which was one of the top floors. The room was pretty large ..we had a king size bed and a large double sofa bed open for our 2 teenage kids. The room had pretty well insulated windows with some really good blackout curtains. The tv was a decent size and the room also boasts a small fridge with some complimentary bottles of water. There is also a small safe which you can change the lock number on however I’m not sure how secure it can be as these budget safes are battery operated with a manual overide key., but they’re handy if you want to place some small items in there like your car keys etc. I wouldn’t be leaving anything particularly valuable in there or your passports if you’re staying here prior to your cruise….you’re better keeping them with you. The overall ambience of our room was warm welcoming relaxing and comforting which is what you want to