Novotel Ulaanbaatar

“Centrally located”

The hotel was very clean with friendly staff and a central location. Breakfast was excellent. We had a minor issue with the A/C and called the front desk; they came up immediately and showed us how to use it.

“Great location and breakfast, but no heat or A/C in rooms”

I stayed in three different rooms of this hotel during June while traveling back and forth from Ulaanbaatar (UB) on a tour across Mongolia. This hotel is conveniently located in the city center, the front desk staff were great, our extra luggage was secured there while we traveled to other parts of… more

I stayed in three different rooms of this hotel during June while traveling back and forth from Ulaanbaatar (UB) on a tour across Mongolia. This hotel is conveniently located in the city center, the front desk staff were great, our extra luggage was secured there while we traveled to other parts of Mongolia, WiFi service in the rooms was good, the breakfast buffet had a vast selection of delicious hot and cold food (including made to order omelets!), and the main floor pub served yummy beef barley soup, for which they were kind enough to serve me some after their lunch service had ended. A special shout-out to the friendly breakfast host guy with the bright smile; he always greeted me with a smile, and he would get me bottled water to drink with my breakfast. I felt safe staying there, but I was always aware of my surroundings when walking inside and outside of the hotel and taking the elevator up to my room. I had a standard King room with a comfy king size bed and sofa. The room was large, and it included a safe deposit box, bathrobes, fluffy towels, a huge shower, and complementary bottled water. The pillows on the bed had feathers in them (which I'm allergic to), so I used one of the small pillows on the sofa instead as my bed pillow. There is a convenience store across the street where you can buy bottled water (the tap water in UB is not safe to drink or brush your teeth with due to old infrastructure, which can allow pathogens to enter the water supply pipes). There is also a bank around the corner where you can exchange foreign cash for Mongolian tugrik currency (if exchanging U.S. dollars, use newer bills of a higher denomination such as $100 bills). Alternatively, there are cash machines nearby. Just be careful of the pickpockets in UB. Cell phones are also a target of thieves in UB. There were a few quirks with my rooms, which is why I am not giving this hotel a 5-star rating. It was unusually cold in UB when I was there, and the heat did not work in any of the three rooms I had. The first time staying there was the coldest, and the hotel provided me with a portable heater that only had one setting. It would get too hot after a while, and I would have to turn it off. By morning, the room was cold. There was also one return visit where we didn't get to the room until about 11 pm and were leaving again the next morning, and for which my room was stuffy. The A/C didn't work either. Some of the rooms I stayed in were a little worn, particularly with the curtains and sofa. The tv didn't work, except for some basic Mongolian channels; the front desk indicated there was some issue with a router being upgraded. Another member of our group informed us that the pool wasn't open. I didn't have a chance to check it out for myself. All in all, though, I would recommend staying at this hotel.

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