NH Graz City

As a GHA Titanium member as well as Marriott Titanium & IHG Diamond I did have some moderate expectation of this 4-star hotel... Unfortunately a lot of them got unfulfilled. The Phillipino front desk staff could be described as being "cold" at best: when I went to check in around 12 pm she bluntly told me "your room is not ready yet", without smile, without courtesy, and without care. And when I asked to leave my luggage she directly told me "you need to bring this luggage ticket back"... Come on I am not a 5-year-old and there were countless times I accidentally dropped my luggage tag but got my luggages back thanks to the responsible staff of other hotels, and couldn't you also do it in an easy manner to keep your guest comfortable? Fortunately the other staff I encountered are relatively more cordial. The room is okay and I did receive my upgrade but... I found no ironing board, iron, or bottle water in the room, which should be the standard provisions of a hotel like this. When I asked for them, the staff brought me a... completely wet ironing board soaked like a piece of rug. As for the bottle water, I was told that they are not free and the price is ridiculously 7 euro for a large bottle of sparkling water. I really could not believe in 2023, a hotel in the same rank as Courtyard or Holiday Inn could not even offer its guest complimentary bottle water! Even your colleagues under the same NH brand in Trieste prepared a large bottle of Acqua Panna for me in the room a couple of days ago. That is simply absurd, not to mention the tap water of Graz is the bitterest I've ever tasted. Lastly, I borrowed a charger from the hotel to charge my phone (which was directly delivered to my room), and when I am checking out, the same Phillipino staff told me "you need to bring it back because there is a 15 euro deposit for it"... Honestly, I cannot believe you do not know in other hotels the housekeeping staff would simply recycle the borrowed items without disturbing their clients. I really lost my patience and told her to do that herself, and fortunately she did not bring me more annoyance. In all, this is a 4-star hotel with 4-star equipment but 2-star service. I do not want to be mean, but you should at least fulfill some basic service requirements as your colleagues and competitors already do.

Altogether happy with my business stay. Rooms are nice and clean. Staff is friendly and happy to help. My only two problems are, I was given room with broken window in the hight of the heat in Graz, and even the ac didn't work. Let's just say sleeping in 28c is not a pleasure to have. Another small issue is with the hot breakfast food. Very limited choice and scrambled eggs are usual quite hard even solid. But to give credit, I had my room changed after complaining altho it took 3 days.