Overall, this is a standard European Novotel as you would expect it: clean, practical, and well laid out. This property is about 50km (35 miles) from downtown Milan but only 5km (3 miles) from the airport (MXP - make sure to double-check your itinerary because Milan has another airport named Linate, LIN, and in some cases even Bergamo, BGY, is listed as one of the city's airports!), so it appeals predominantly to transit passengers. Despite the fact that Milan is quite a distance away, take note that the airport has a train station from where a 15 EUR return ticket will take you into town and back within apprx. 50min each way. Trains seem to leave two to four times an hour, so if - like us - you have extended time, visiting Milan is easy and convenient.

Our room was quiet, well-heated and of average size. The restaurant seems okay, as far as we could judge by just having had a pasta and a glass of wine. The bar - where we waited for the restaurant to open at 19:00h - seemed blissfully unaware of potential business and did not approach us for 20-25 minutes. We would gladly have had a glass of wine or two, but if the staff is nowhere to be seen that also tells you something about the level of motivation… (On a side note: the bar is also where you go to get ice; room service told us they wouldn't send an ice bucket to the room.)

We chose this hotel for a one-night stay between flights, involving a planned 24h layover. So ease of airport/train station access was essential, and this is exactly where the hotel was most disappointing:

After having read in earlier TripAdvisor reviews that some travelers found it hard to find the Novotel shuttle we paid great attention to this and were informed via email correspondence with the hotel that the bus would leave twice an hour (quarter past the hour and quarter to) from the arrivals level at T1, door seven. We arrived in the morning, went for the 8:45h shuttle and everything worked like clockwork. A friendly driver, the bus clearly labeled and everything went without a hitch.

After our check-in we took the 9:30h bus back to the airport to catch the train into town. Surprisingly, the driver (a different person from the one who had picked us up) was typing on his mobile phone while driving and we did not feel particularly safe.

In the afternoon, we returned in time to catch the 15:45h shuttle and waited where we had been waiting earlier in the day. Unfortunately, we only saw the shuttle drive by in an outer lane and the driver did not recognise us, since he had taken a left turn just before entering the bus bay area.

We resisted the temptation to take a taxi and waited for another half hour. To be safe, we moved about 70m up the road to the bus bay entrance, so that we could flag down the shuttle regardless of which way the driver would be taking. This turned out to be a good idea since - again - the shuttle would not have stopped where we had found it in the morning.

Much to our surprise the afternoon shuttle then stopped at door 10 before proceeding to T2, both of which hadn't been the case in the morning.

When we arrived at the hotel we brought up our disappointment and confusion with the Manager on Duty, a friendly gentleman who introduced himself as Diego. He apologized for the confusion and mentioned that this was a "new situation that had come up recently" - apparently the smaller car used in the afternoon has no permit to stop at the bus bays and therefore the pick-up regime changes between 12:00h and 17:00h.

We suggested that clearer instructions be put on the hotel website, and Diego mentioned that they were in the process of doing this, but they had no access to the site and a request was already pending with the HQ in France to make sure the information was updated online. With Accor seemingly being a rather organized Group, I find this surprising because who would delay a simple task that helps keep customers happy?

In our case, if we had to stay at Malpensa again under similar circumstances, we would choose the Sheraton. It is right on top of the airport train station and in convenient walking distance from T1. And as it turns out the rate for our dates would have been more or less the same. Plus it would have saved us at least 90 minutes in transfers and/or waiting time…

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