Novotel Makkah Thaker City

Overall, staying in Novotel Thakher City Mekkah was exciting experience. I was here, stayed 4 days during my Umrah, and I'll give several notes for fellow pilgrims, and also the management. 1. Reasonable price, reasonable advantage It's one of the branded 4-star hotel in 2km radius of Al-Haram. Since it's located more than 2km from Al-Haram Mosque, I can say that you'll get the balance price-wise and practicality to go to Al-Haram Mosque. I notice some guests suggests that it's too far, but for this quality and price, I can't really complaint. 2. Know what to expect about the location, and shuttle service to Al-Haram Mosque The hotel provided 24-hours, every 15 to 30 minutes service of shuttle to and from Al-Haram Mosque. It was middle-sized bus with approximately up to 20 passengers. The bus was often noticably not crowded, so it was not really a struggle to get in and get a seat. You need to understand that the hotel is located northbound of Al-Haram Mosque, so you'll be dropped at Al Ghaza Bus Station / Shaib Amir Bus Station (Search on Google Maps for exact location). From here, you'll need to walk for more than 600m or around 15-20 minutes walk, then you can enter Al-Haram Mosque through Al-Salam Gate or any entry within Masa'a Area (Sa'ee Area). There's little to no shade along the walking area, it will be hot and sunlight glare from the ground especially at noon. With that in mind, you'll cleared for up to 30 to 45 minutes from the hotel, including waiting for the shutte, the bus ride, the walk from drop-off point, until entering the Al-Haram Mosque gate. You'll have to really consider and manage your time to be able to get to Al-Haram Mosque on time. 3. Comment about overall service and experience Room and facility quality was as described and as promised as Accor's service level. Everything is well maintained and well operated. Afterall it's a 4-star hotel, so you know what to expect.

New hotel, so rooms are nice but very small can’t even pray. Absolutely pathetic service. We reached at 16:00, that is standard checking time. There were four guys and one lady on the front desk but only two were working. Rest were busy chit chatting. So the checking lines were really long. Took us about half an hour+ to just check in. There was no help available to help you with luggage from taxi to reception. As all of them wanted to stay in AC and reception guy was helpless. After checking in and dragging my luggage to lifts now all of them wanted to help, which was of no use. The hotel says free shuttle but please don’t fall for that. Shuttle drops you far away from haram. Minimum walk time is 15 mins if you are fit and young. And also for return, shuttle is not very punctual. You may be standing at the pick up point for an hour and the shuttle might not show up. (Thursday evening 3rd august I waited for 45 mins 1955-2040), no sign of shuttle and ended up taking a taxi at the end. In case you use shuttle from hotel to haram, don’t waste your precious time waiting for shuttle. Taxi will charge you 10SR to take you back to the hotel even during peak hours from the spot where shuttle drops. If you want to use Uber/Careem from hotel to haram, good luck. Location is so bad that no Uber driver wants to come here. One canceled on us and second one took 30 mins to reach. And this was 2pm. Not a peak time. Breakfast is good but space is so congested, that there is no space to walk, hence very long lineups for food and very congested seating. Overall, was not a good experience comfort wise. They can highly improve on customer service.

This is the best hotel to stay in. The price for the room is not so expensive. The rooms are very neat and clean and moreover they provide free transportation from hotel to Haram and the bus service is available every half an hour. The staff was very friendly and professional. The hotel has separate parking as well. The room in which I stayed has the best balcony view. The location is very confusing as there was many construction going around. It is almost 2 kms away from Haram.

I cannot begin to express my gratitude and appreciation to the team for making my stay so very memorable and definately a once in a lifetime experience. I found all the staff to be very cheerful and professional, some individuals were particularly exceptional and I believe went above and beyond their line of duty to accommodate my requests and ensure my time spent there was of complete satisfaction. I would like to name the individuals but fear it would detract from the outstanding level of service that the rest of the staff provided. I could not recommend the establishment highly enough!

Prime location, good rooms, good service, rooms could be more spacious. The kit for tooth-brush/combs should be readily available which is missing here. Poor room service (Hard to reach by phone and they are not very professional at English) Very good Prayer Hall for Namaz & Azhkar