This was the 2nd time that I stayed at this hotel. The 1st time, it was absolutely fantastic! This last time, not so much! My disappointment started the second that we walked in the door and were greeted by a giant construction tarp that was covering the entire lobby. I booked my reservations on the hotel's website and there was no mention of any remodeling at all. Turns out, not only are they remodeling the lobby, which doesn't effect much other than the immediate feel of the hotel, but they are also remodeling that the 2nd floor lounge area and the 3rd floor.

The 2nd floor is where they have their complimentary happy hour service and their complimentary breakfast service. There were signs directing you to the 3rd floor for both of these events. I don't know why they moved it to the 3rd floor, it's under construction as well. Drinks and breakfast was served at makeshift tables surrounded by construction tape and hanging plastic tarps. Not exactly the relaxing, romantic atmosphere my wife and I were expecting.

Now, onto the accomodations. The first time that I stayed at the Magnolia, I was blown away by my room. It was large, immaculate and more than I expected. This time around, it was nothing but an average hotel room - plus a giant stain on the carpet, an air conditioner that never shut off and a bathtub/show faucet that felt like it was going to fall out of the wall. The bed had 2 of the smallest pillows I've ever seen on it. No extra pillows in the closet or anywhere else for that matter. We called down to get some extra pillows sent to the room. After waiting 30 minutes, we finally gave up and left for dinner. On the way out, we stopped at the front desk to ask about the pillow request. The guy says, "aw geez, I sent your request in as soon as you called, I don't know what happened. I'll have them in your room before you get back from dinner". That was great but he never bothered to apologize or anything. Luckily, the pillows were in our room when we returned.

10 minutes after we got into our room, a guy, with all of his bags, comes walking right into our room. Apparently, he was given our same room when he checked in right after us. I travel a lot for business and that has happened to me before so I didn't really think about it again, accidents happen. However, after returning from dinner later that night, we found out that neither of our key cards worked anymore. When I went to the front desk to get them to fix the problem, all that the guy said was, "oh, they cancelled all of the keys issued for that room because it was given to 2 different people". He never apologized for the mistake with the other guy or for the fact that our keys were "turned off" and nobody bothered to tell us.

Will I stay at the Magnolia again? I have to admit that I probably will. The location is absolutely perfect and I'm assuming that when the remodeling is completed, the whole place will go back to being a beautiful hotel. At this point, I'm 50/50 on this place. The 1st time was amazing and the 2nd time was not so great. I'll give them 1 more shot. If it's half as bad as this last time, they'll lose my business for good. They are lucky that the 1st experience was so great. It's all that's keeping me from getting really upset about this latest visit.

My best friend wanted to celebrate his birthday in Houston and stay at the Magnolia so I had no choice in what hotel to stay in. I wish I had gone with my instincts and stayed at another place. As soon as we got there, they took us to our "room" and it only had one bed. There were 4 of us that were going to stay and we had booked a suite with 2 beds. They took us to the wrong room and when the valet called down, the clerk told him to take us to another room. When we got to the second room, it only had 1 bed as well. By this time, we were very frustrated and 1 hour had passed. They finally took us to the correct room and it reminded me of a cheap hotel room you pay $69 a night for, not $200 a night. The next day we left the hotel and I made a HUGE mistake of leaving my brown suede Italian boots by the bed. I bought these boots in Lake Como, Italy, so it wasn't like I could easily replace them. I called the hotel the next day when I realized what had happened and left a message. No returned call. I called back 4 times until I got the Housekeeping Manager on the phone. When I told her what happened, she put me on hold for 2 minutes and returned and told me she didn't find anything. I wasn't satisfied so I asked to talk to the manager. He assured me that he would investigate it. After one day, he called back and said that no one had turned them in. I find it hard to believe that they disappeared into thin air. Right now, some housekeeper is walking around in a $400 pair of great boots...Of course, now with the Euro rates, they are almost twice as expensive to replace.

My husband and I spent Memorial Day weekend at the Magnolia and can say nothing bad about our entire stay. We arrived Friday and were greeted by the valets to park our car. Now some might try to save money on the valet parking, but the convenience of having the car there was more than enough to overcome the additional cost. The lobby had the air and feel of a boutique European hotel with a bit more Southern charm. The room was spacious and the bathroom was quite nice with lots of marble and tile. The hotel was conveniently located to both of our main attractions. We had tickets for an Astros game - and the Magnolia is just blocks away from Minute Maid Park. Then we had tickets for a show at the Alley Theatre and the hotel is just blocks in the other direction from the Alley. The free breakfast in the morning is fabulous as is the free happy hour. The milk and cookies at night may appeal more to those with children, but I snuck a cookie as well. All in all this was a great stay and I would highly recommend the Magnolia to anyone.

I stayed at the Magnolia for two nights during a weekend conference at the University of Houston, just south of downtown. This is third time I've stayed at the hotel in the last four years. I love it. It's in the middle of a surprisingly vibrant downtown scene, within easy walking to restaurants, Minute Maid Park, light rail, and the downtown government and business complexes. The hotel itself is relatively inexpensive ($120 a night). But it has a luxurious, stylish, and historical feel to the rooms and common spaces. Even though there are numerous restaurants suitable for all tastes just outside the front doors, you may never want to leave the second-floor Magnolia Club, which has a great bar menu (best calamari I've ever tasted). The club has live jazz on some nights and free "cookies and milk" on all nights. It also a free pool room tucked away in a corner. Great for business or a weekend getaway.