"My family and I visited many cities and several countries during our Mar-Apr 2026 Europe trip, including Chur, Zermatt and Geneva. Before our arrival at Geneva, we found the people in Switzerland were warm and friendly.
However, our experience with the check-in staff at Novotel Suites Genève Aéroport (“Hotel”), Jade, had tarnished that impression. She was not only unhelpful in the discussion, to the extent she was arrogant, probably she felt she is superior to the guests from the other parts of the world.
Basically, we booked 2 double bedded rooms for 3 nights, 9 months ahead of the intended Stay-date. Due to subsequent changes to our travel itinerary, we originally wanted to reduce our stays from 3 nights to 2 nights (ie. only check-in from the 2nd night onward, but not the 1st night). We wrote-in to the Hotel and raised our request, but was told that was not possible as the terms for our booking were non-cancellable. We accepted the reply from the Hotel and agreed that we would pay the full 3 nights even though we would only stay for 2 nights. My credit card details and charging authority were all given to the Novotel when we made the booking way back in advance in June 2025. All these discussions were recorded in the email correspondences with the Hotel.
On the original 1st night where we were supposed to check-in at the Hotel, my wife tried to do an on-line check-in while we were still on the road at Zermatt, but it was not successful for some reason that we don’t know. Separately, I saw the Hotel had proceeded to charge the room rates for 2 double bedded rooms for the 1st night on my credit card that I had provided to the Hotel. I expected the charge and the figures were correct, thus nothing had drawn to our attention.
However, when we arrived on the 2nd night, we were told by Jade that our bookings for the remaining 2 nights were cancelled without prior notice. When my wife showed her the email correspondence we had with the Hotel, that the Hotel knew that we would only check-in from the 2nd night. I had also shown her on my phone that my credit card had been charged for 2 double bedded rooms for the 1st night and the payment went through. However, she refused to listen or look into the matter further, but merely said our reservations had been cancelled, and the WHOLE Novotel Suites Genève Aéroport does not have a single room even if we want to make a new booking on the spot. She even repeated this - “not a single room is available even if we want to make a new booking on the spot” statement several times and said we have to leave for another hotel. My family and I all spoke fluent English and there is not a single possibility of misunderstanding due to the command of language.
Her attitude is the worst that I had come across among hundred of hotels I had stayed before in over 20 countries during my course of travels. When we requested to speak to the hotel manager to clarify the matter, her answer was : "It is Friday. There is no other person you can speak to. I am the only person around and your rooms reservation had been cancelled.". I didn’t believe there was not a single hotel manager who was on duty and had no alternative but to raise my volume to register my displeasure. Please take note, I only raised my volume and definitely did not shout at her. Thereafter, she made a call to an unknown person and spoke in a foreign language (not English) that we did not understand. After that call, a 4-bedder room suddenly became available for my family on the spot, to substitute for the 2 double bedded rooms we had reserved.
The whole experience at Novotel Suites Genève Aéroport was so negative. In fact, that was the only negative hotel experience we had during our stays in our Mar-Apr 2026 Europe trip. Personally, I had stayed in few Novotel hotels before in other parts of the world. The experience we had at Novotel Suites Genève Aéroport was so disappointing, to the extend it made me doubt that whether the good impression I had with other Novotel hotels in other parts of the world were not representative of the superior service standard Novotel hotels upholding to."
