Midnight Hotel, Autograph Collection

I’ve stayed at this location many times, and Midnight Hotel has always treated me well as a Marriott member. This visit wasn’t my favorite. Maybe they were busy with a wedding reception, but I had to switch rooms to get an update, which was a hassle and not how I wanted to spend a two-night break for rest and relaxation. They could have handled it better, especially since this isn’t my first stay here.

The reception area smells lovely, and the room was new, nice and spacious. There were plenty of good facilities and free things, including the minibar and toiletries. The receptionists were super friendly too. I felt very safe traveling solo and had a great time.

The manager replied to my review, acknowledged the problems and promised to improve. I ended up taking off another star because these same issues had already appeared in reviews several times over at least a year. That’s not good enough. The paid breakfast feels stingy: it’s one main, one side and one drink. Want orange juice with your tea? That’s another $8. The gym is tiny, more like an afterthought, and its only Exercycle was out of order. The entrance is odd for a five-star hotel too. You have to carry your luggage down stairs or take a long ramp, with no porter service. I really wanted to like the place, but it fell short in a few key areas.

Midnight Hotel’s best feature for me was its central location. It’s very walkable. The free drinks in the minibar were fun too, even though our room didn’t have the snacks that other people mentioned. The lobby was lovely and smelled beautiful, and the staff were polite and friendly. Our level 7 room felt nowhere near five-star. Maybe other floors are nicer. The hallway was oppressively hot because the area outside the rooms isn’t air conditioned. We had a long walk from the lift with our luggage, which wasn’t the end of the world but wasn’t pleasant, and the hallway paint was scratched and chipped. The room smelled of drains until we ran the shower. It was much smaller than the pictures suggested, and the bathroom was one of the more disappointing hotel bathrooms I’ve seen. It didn’t feel luxurious, though the products were nice. We ordered room-service breakfast on the morning we left. It came in takeaway packaging with disposable cutlery, which was disappointing. The coffee and food were good, but they got my order wrong. We didn’t have time for a fresh replacement before checkout, so I ate what arrived. I mentioned it at checkout hoping they wouldn’t charge the full amount for that item, but the woman serving us apologized and seemed confused about why I’d brought it up. Perhaps room service isn’t linked to the hotel, or maybe it’s contracted out? The gym wasn’t much use for me: dumbbells only went up to 20 kg, with two adjustable benches, a cable station and cardio machines. There’s not really a way to train your lower body there. That may only matter to people who value training while away from home. I was surprised by the five-star rating. It felt more like a tired four-star hotel that needed freshening up. Most of my reviews are five stars, but every now and then a stay disappoints me enough to rate it lower. This was one of those times.