I stayed here several times of a 6 month period and loved the hotel. The restaurant was fantastic. The staff was very courteous and helped me find my way around. Great location, clean rooms. It was very easy to find and commute from as well.
Only disappointment was the reception staff. I asked them specifically not to debit my account with a £25 room service charge as we would not be using room service. When I checked out i was told that the £25 debit would be refunded to my card!! I was not happy about this to say the least! The same query was raised in Newcastle and my wishes were complied with. I was just told it was standard policy - make sure you check this when you check in, or out!
Apart from that moan, which was not resolved satisfactorily at the time, the hotel was very similar in decor and layout as other Malmaisons. It was very dark in the lift to our room.
The room was very clean and there was plenty of space but nowhere to place our suitcases.
Overall a good stay slightly marred on check out. Would I stay again? Probably as very good location and reasonable rates - even with Robbie William's in town!!
Set in Picadilly it is quite easy to miss the hotel but once inside you will be glad you didn't. The rooms are well sized with the most comfortable beds. Our room overlooked the outside bar seating area but we could not hear any noise at all. Staff are extremely courteous with a fabulous breakfast. All in all one not to be missed & we will definitely stay again.
We booked in for a Saturday night stay in July 2013 on a package that gave us an evening meal and a spa treatment each. The visit was a romantic weekend away.
It's worth noting that we'd booked the Malmaison purely off the back of a particular meal that they offered - as this was important we checked twice prior to the arrival date the the meal would be available.
Check-in was fine, we had a room on the fifth floor that overlooked the street. The room was a fair size (would have expected more as we'd paid for a bigger room) with a large bathroom. The decor was dated, and the bathroom has several areas that were dirty. The TV was tiny, and there was a DVD player (but no indication on if you could hire DVDs).
The spa downstairs was small, but fine. We'd opted for joint massages, which were perfectly pleasant.
There were parts of the hotel that felt unloved, and you can tell it could do with a refit. I was genuinely suprised at how dirty elements of it were, I know times are hard and margins aren't what they used to be but it could really do with some work.
The meal was the worst part of the trip - we were told that the meal we wanted was not available (queried this with a member of staff, we named the other staffer who had confirmed the meal would be available but were told that "menus change"). Ordered a fillet steak which came medium-rare in the middle (asked for well done). I pointed this out and the waitress said "Let's see if we can make things better with a desert". If you read this as "Have a desert on us due to our mistake" then you'll have made the same mistake that I did! My desert was fine, my girlfriends was wrong. In the end I asked them to remove the service charge from the bill, so we ended up paying £77 for a meal that was - IMHO - pretty sub-standard.
On check-out I wanted to make sure the service charge was removed from the restaurant bill prior to us paying, but they couldn't find the receipt. I was told they'd send me a copy via email that day, rang two days later and was told that the restaurant manager wasn't in, they'd email it today, etc etc.
I stayed in the Mal on business three years previously and wasn't particularly impressed, and this stay did nothing to make me think any different. There are lots of hotels out there that are real "boutique" hotels that manage to get most things right, and for >£250 this was a waste of our money.
I've been meaning to write for a long time to say how pleased we were with the hotel on this occasion. We use the Manchester Malmaison quite frequently but have never held a meeting here before. I have to say I was quite apprehensive as the hotel always strikes me as a great place to relax but not to work. I was completely wrong. The meeting rooms were great - the staff fabulous. A special thank you has to go to Becky who was great at organising the agenda - and James McIntyre and Sarah Burgess who worked tirelessly behind the bar each evening and were great with informing us of places to go in the area. The whole stay completely exceeded my expectations and we will certainly be back!
Over the years I have stayed in other the Malmaison hotels in Leeds, Liverpool and Newcastle, all of which were very positive experiences. In contrast the Malmaison Manchester was not a great experience. The superior room was actually quite small and an odd shape let down by poor housekeeping, with the bed not properly made and bathroom with a broken light fitting. We stayed on a dinner package where the restaurant constantly kept trying to up-sell to dearer options - by saying the the set menu option portions were too small!. The decor and and public area were very darkly lit to the point where it was hard to see anything. At breakfast there were a lot of staff, but service was really slow and I had to ask for coffee three times before it eventually came. Upon checking out I had to join a long queue with most customers having complex queries. When I got to the desk my bill was overcharged and I had take the receptionist through the bill and detailed receipts to explain the error - and then have the bill amended with no apology given. This hotel could be quite nice, but its dreadful management lets it down with a catalogue small but totally unacceptable errors in service. For the price it charges and the boutique image its seeks to cultivate - it is simply not good enough; especially when there are plenty of good alternatives nearby. I would not stay here again.
