Magnolia has a great location, modern looks, and nice rooms and not much else.

The outside: The main entrance is very nice but turn the corner and the hotel windows along the street are covered up with black trask bags and the sidewalk was covered in trash. Parking is a pain and after watching the valet service nearly trash a BMW while trying to park it, I would suggest you do it yourself. However there is no connection between the garage and the hotel. You have to walk all around it to get there and hope the garage elevator is working.

The inside: very clean and modern not my taste but whatever works for you. The rooms are nice and neat. Big bathrooms and big rooms give you room to stretch.

Other: The workout room is fine and the pool/spa area are on the roof. The pool is small and cold. It does offer great views and over looks Minute Maid Park. Don't bother with room service, not great.

Location: Great. dowtown walking distance to food, symphony, baseball, and basketball.

Staff: terrible.They never had answers to any of our questions. We were looking for a "cheap sports bar" and they told us there were none. We didn't know our way to the Houston Symphony and they told us we would need to take their limo service when it was only a few blocks away. They have a "cafe" but it is never open and nobody knows the hours. It wasn't open at noon but it was at 11pm.

It was a nice hotel, but I would never stay here again. If I were to do it over, I would have gone to the Hilton.

Comfortable medium sized hotel with well-furnished rooms, free breakfast (kinda), free Internet and good workout facilities.

Staff are on the whole quite helpful and friendly.

The hotel could get five out of five if it wanted to. However, it just doesn't give you that 100% feeling, for the following reasons:

1) Sloppy cleaning - Every day at least one thing wasn't cleaned. Upon closer observation it would appear that the rooms are never checked after cleaning.
2) Elevators - Take hours to arrive.
3) Breakfast - The free continental breakfast is a nice touch. However it really doesn't include that many things, and even doesn’t have toast. Interestingly the paid for breakfast requires the same effort to collect, and also the same effort by the staff, who simply give you the bill. That doesn't stop them asking for a tip. Something important ran out every day too. For example coffee, or bread, or forks. (Forget about telling the staff if you have a dirty fork.)
4) Pool – small and freezing cold. I can still feel it now, two weeks later.

Apart from these points it’s a good place to stay and I would go again. A 3.5 really but lets give it a 4.

I stayed at the Magnolia Houston for three nights on a family trip. The hotel is in a nice location, with many unique (for Houston) restaurants around and more on the way judging from the construction. My problem with the hotel primarily stems from a few problems with the service and facilities that, although they were resolved, really shouldn't have come up in the first place.

1) Upon checkin, the (wired) internet in my room didn't work. We tried a different room (the internet worked), but the ventilation fan on the lowest setting was extremely noisy. We tried a different room and the internet didn't appear to work as well. Luckily, I had a spare network cord and we (I) determined that they had a bad cord. All the while, they were seeming frustrated with my peristence to get a room where the internet actually worked. They appeared to question whether I was doing things right, which, of course, is not rocket science.

2) After changing rooms I had to request 3 times that the mini-fridge that I had in room number 1 be moved to room number 3. I shouldn't have to ask more than once.

3) We went up to the roof to use the hot-tub one night and it was ice cold. We informed the staff and they fixed it by the next night. They should have a staff member check the tub periodically during the day.

Although it's a nice hotel and I feel it was worth the price, I am not sure I would stay here again.

I found this hotel through trip advisor and I wanted to stay somewhere downtown in Houston for a weekend getaway. I was traveling alone, however I still chose the romantic weekend package which included dinner at a swank jazz club called Sambuca's which was within walking distance. Then I came back to the hotel which had a roof top pool with a breath taking view of the city. The only down side was that the pool closed at 11 or 12 pm. The would be the perfect romantic place to sit and have drinks for the evening.
The staff was warm and friendly.
My room was comfy and chic, never thought that could be possible. I will stay here again.