Malmaison Reading

Rooms are clean despite the age of the hotel. Breakfast was definitely tasty! it even taste better than the cafes outside. Location is just a stone's throw away from Reading, and the best part is you can't hear any noise from the train lines. TVs can mirror screen to phone without any issues.

Excellent hotel. Location is 10/10 just opposite the train station and walking distance to the town centre. Room was beautiful, modern and clean. I loved the little touches they put. I stayed in the "Ghan" on the 4th floor and I highly recommend upgrading to that one. It was gorgeous with a great bathroom. Will definitely stay again the next time I visit Reading. Only note is that some rooms are dim and need a bit more lighting.

This is a review for the restaurant, not the hotel. The food I had was decent, although nothing out of the ordinary. I liked the atmosphere of the restaurant. The service was good, maybe trying a little too hard to sell more. I would definitely come back.

This hotel is excellently positioned to get around Reading and very close to the train station. It is beautifully clean and the rooms have a lovely bathroom, great shower and lovely shower gels etc. My bed was so comfy and the room is very well kitted out. The staff were excellent and breakfast was a real treat. I would certainly return and recommend to others. Thank you.

Delicious afternoon tea. I have been here many times for special occasions and the food and service have been great. The Mal afternoon tea has a unique menu & is a lovely surprise if you don’t like cucumber sandwiches. The burger sliders are always appreciated. Yvette served us today and made us feel very welcome with timely service. We stayed to chat and did not feel rushed. Recommended, we will return.

I booked a Wowcher voucher for a cream tea.|Wow!|Much better than I anticipated.|My daughter and I had a reserved table.|The aesthetic was amazing comfortable and clean.|The staff were polite friendly and warm.|The food was amazing flavoursome and yummy. The creme brulee to die for.|We enjoyed teas with our |Mini burgers Fish Tacos Chicken wing all cooked to perfection.|The warm scones were lovely at the end.|I will definitely be returning with my son's for steak night and have registered for a Malmaison membership||Thankyou Malmaison Reading for a lovely experience, much appreciated.||Rebecca and Kairo. London.

the most beautiful place on planet earth and the nicest drinks in town. glasses are chilled for beers and coldest pint in reading also stunning pimms … love this place so much and the workers have a lovely attitude. thank you

First time for me in an upmarket hotel as my wife booked it for a treat. Was a little confused with the entrance for Great Western House or something, but eventually figured it out. The reception service was great. Room was great. Bath had some amazing pressure and filled up in about 1 minute, never seen anything like that before. Pillow was a bit disappointing and over the night seemed just feel like a tea bag. Breakfast was amazing. Upmarket juice, pastries, granola and full English... wow! And staff were great. Overall it was a really nice experience and I'm glad we stayed there.

Let's just start by saying that I spend roughly 9 hours at the property which was about 9 hours too much. I was not a fan and for ease of reading, I'll break down as follows: THE GOOD: *Prime location if you are traveling via train as it's literally adjacent to the Reading Station. In fact, the hotel overlooks the car loop. *Centrally located in the city centre, if thats your need or desire. THE NEEDS ATTENTION: *Where do I start as there is so much that really requires attention. I was told that this used to be a popular chain in the UK which seems to have had a major downturn in recent times. The overall sentiment here is that the property needs a real good scrubbing and updating. *The design is dark. Super dark. To the point that literally one lightbulb is illuminating the surface areas. This doesn't work well in the bathroom when in need of virtually anything requiring a mirror. *The guest room was fair at best - the carpet was stained and held a film of fifth that I did not feel comfortable walking around w/out shoes. The doors didn't have a secure closure. My safe did not function at all. There was a stench of extreme body odor in the room which I believe originates from zero to little air flow due to... *The rooms feature a key card light switch which means you have to place your room key card in a slot to activate the lights and HVAC in the room. I understand this as an efficiency play however it doesn't do well for the room setting as there is zero air flow when you vacate the room. It's also an outdated system often found at the cheaper hotel properties. Not a fan as there are better ways to accomodate sustainability. *The bed was fairly stiff and featured just two tiny bed pillows - of all areas to scale back on, this was a head scratcher. It didn't have a fresh or overly clean sense to it. *The towels need to be refreshed and more fluffy. *The bathroom overall was depressing - dark, dingy and smelly. Oddly enough the hot faucets displayed a custom printed tag warning that the pipe can get extremely hot. The fixtures are very dated. Again the lighting in here is atrocious. I don't think the floors were properly cleaned in years. *The walls and ceiling are paper thin. I think a heard of elephants were staying in the room above me on the 4th floor as I heard loud footsteps throughout the night and early AM for hours while I was waking up. So odd as the rooms are fairly small - how could so much walking occur. *My view was of a wall outside so nothing to note of there. Unless you need a hotel of a certain price point and location, I'd consider elsewhere.

Overall I had a good experience. The breakfast, dinner and cocktails were delicious. The room was clean and spacious. I was very upset one day that we had the "Do Not Disturb" sign on the door and someone opened the door anyway and went into our room while my daughter was lying in bed and I was using the loo! I also noticed my leather gloves went missing from the desk while we were out. No action from management.

Exceptional customer service. The night manager, Like, was particularly helpful and felt catered to in all of my needs. Exceptional team. Pay them more money. x

Located right opposite the Reading rail station, Malmaison is a hotel with a comfortable, if small, lounge. Not too many seats, but there are a few high tables you can lean on. I haven't tried the hotel, but I visited the bar for an after work drink with a friend. Much quieter crowd, compared to the Three Guineas across the way. Full bar and they are more than happy to make the higher end martini and mixed drinks. Wine list is decent and most are sold by the glass. There are no beers on tap, but they do have a wide selection of bottled beers. I even spotted a couple of Coronas being served with the requisite lime wedge. The kitchen closes at 6, so there are no nibbles in the bar except for bowls of salted peanuts.

This place is great! Updated rooms, close to the train station and right in the heart of downtown reading. Great food and swanky bar as well.

Overall, this was a fair experience. Interestingly - not because of a seamless 3 star deliver, but a contrasting 5 star with a 2.5 star experience. I give an easy 5 stars to staff on receptivity, friendliness, helpfulness, and that is both before I started my journey (with questions over email) and all during my stay. Customer service was on point and nothing less than excellent. The areas I ran into issues were the following. 1) I travelled to the UK from the USA to get medication that requires refrigeration to a max of 8 degrees centigrade. By feel, I couldn't get the minibar in my hotel room to get to a temp that felt comfortably cool for my meds. In fairness, they offered to keep in their fridge downstairs, but my meds cost was approximately 2000 pounds and I just didn't feel comfortable having them out if my possession. Thus, I went to Sainsbury's nearby to buy ice daily to stick in the fridge which did the trick. 2) The hand held shower head completely fell off the wall when I went to use it and water started shooting me in the stomach whilst the metal dropped to the floor and injured my foot. Luckily, I'm a physician and I was in good hands for treatment afterwards. 3) The slot to put key card into to activate the electricity of the room fell off and to the ground several times and luckily I was able to figure out how to get it back together and wasn't left in the dark. 4) This is a pet peeve for me. I run my hands over the bath when I arrived to detect the degree of cleanliness. It was gritty and felt unclean and after I washed it before my bath, it was very adequately clean to bathe in. 5) Lighting could have been brighter in the rooms. 6) Couch had no throw pillows, so I always had to go to the bed to grab pillows to sit comfortably. 7) Tea pot was filled with residue which they fixed immediately for me. 8) Cleaning service wasn't offered daily. I understand we are in a pandemic in Feb 2021, but I believe it should be my own choice on whether or not I choose service. In this case, I have been vaccinated for COVID, and I would have liked to have seen an exception made for this situation for me to be able to "opt-in." I generally don't like having to go to reception and ask for toilet paper. There was no indication to me that any amount was taken off my bill for lack of service (which I have seen standardly done in luxury hotels). Overall, this was just a bunch to keep track of while on holiday. It felt a little like work, instead of leisure. However I would like to point out the following GOOD POINTS: 5 star service by all Bathrobes Slippers Quiet in my suite on 4th floor looking out at train station.

I stayed here in a "Mal Club" room in late November. The room was pretty spacious, came with a coffee machine, slippers and a robe, and had two windows for light (no views to speak of, though). The king bed was comfortable. I had no temperature issues with the shower. The convenience of the hotel location, right by the train station and shuttle to TVP, is unbeatable. Breakfast cost extra, and I was pleased with the coffee, juice and breakfast fare each morning. They sell a breakfast package with an evening drink-- be aware that the drink has to be a (watered-down) well drink. Beer is not allowed, and they're pretty strict about this: the bartender was happy to toss away the beer he had already poured, and make me a gin & tonic. Other reviews complain about the dark atmosphere, and I did hear that from my colleagues, so choose your room wisely! There are many homeless people by the hotel asking for change. Service is efficient but was never warm. There is no gym. Finally, it's a small and busy hotel, so it's best to forget about early check-in.

Don't EVER stay there. Staff, front desk manager especially, is inept, rude and useless. Rooms are dark and depressing. Lighting is worse. Nothing but drunks and drug addicts surround the place. Beds are hard as stone, springs push into your back. No closet space. No drawers. Old outdated '80's furniture. Internet is 1994 speed and intermittent. Alarms go off at all hours, sometimes very early in the morning. Skip it.

This is literally the darkest hotel room I have ever experienced. Even worse, apparently this is a signature of the Malmaison chain of hotels! You know you're in trouble when you need to request a desk lamp, and the person bringing the lamp recommends you remove the lamp shades in the room to get more light! Front desk service was super slow... I can't even comment on the rooms as they were so dark. The bed was very uncomfortable and the shower seemed to have two settings -- freezing or scalding hot. Next time I will stay in London and commute to my meetings in Reading!

Wow. Where to start... Having had dinner here once a few years ago, I knew the food - and the wine selection - was some of the best you can get in Reading. But I didn't have the opportunity to stay in the hotel until a couple of weeks ago for a business trip, and, just... wow. Let me start with the restaurant. Having started at the bar for a couple of drinks with my companion, we left a card behind the bar and went to the brasserie for a table, whereupon the bar staff promptly followed through two minutes later and brought the card back to our table - a very good start. Having ordered, we asked the waitress what would be an appropriate wine to go with our steaks - she recommended a rioja, which was probably one of the best bottles I've ever tasted - dark, rich, and with a spicy aftertaste. Nipping out for a smoke after finishing our mains, we got back to our table to find our wine glasses had been refilled for us. Total tab, including drinks at the bar before & after dinner, came to £130 for two - expensive for Reading, but below average London prices and well worth it given the diligent service we received. After this, I then decided to treat myself to a two-night stay two weeks ago, and had the pleasure of staying in their Mallard Suite. As the building is the former Great Western Hotel, believed to be designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, all the suites are themed - even their standard rooms have GWR livery on the bedlinen. Their Mallard Suite came complete with a OO-gauge model railway (I suppose, placed there to satisfy the 6-year-old boy inside every travelling executive). The service I received throughout my stay was impeccable, including securing a table at the brasserie, great local knowledge of bars and other restaurants, and the hotel looked after my bags whilst I went shopping & sightseeing in London for the day. The only downside to this stay was that one of the showerheads' temperature gauge didn't work at all, but hotel maintenance came to fix this within minutes of reporting the problem. I then decided to return to stay the following week whilst working locally, and was greeted upon checking into my room with a hand-written card left on my desk saying "welcome back, don't work too hard!". The staff were also more than happy to receive post & packages on my behalf whilst staying at the hotel - emergency Christmas presents ordered from Amazon at the last minute. In short - great food, great drinks, outstanding service, and the best value-for-money I've ever been benefit to, all the way. I've stayed in (at the bottom end) Ibis & Travelodge, and (at the top end) Hilton & Marriot hotels, that have tried to charge much more for much lesser service and amenities. The staff are truly passionate about providing all the little touches that make you feel instantly at-home-from-home, whether it's just for dinner, one night's stay, or a whole week. If you get the opportunity to be swept away on the platform at Reading into this gorgeous sanctuary, snap it up.

We go to the Malmaison quite a bit and have never had a bad meal or service. The menus change frequently if you were a vegetarian you may find it hard to find something you would like. The staff are always very friendly and do not make you feel intimidated. The atmosphere is spot on, there is a lively buzz without it being noisy or too busy for good service. The only fault i can think of at the moment is that the tables are huge, and you have to stretch your arm a bitif you plan on holding your partners hand.

Very plush bedrooms and bathrooms. Directly opposite the station. Only downsides, no dressing gowns, shampoo or toothpaste in the rooms. Tv has very few channels. Breakfast was very nice. The hotel is very dark inside. Staff were helpful. Unfortunately, there is no car park but a discount is available if you want to use the ncp nearby.

Just not my cup of tea. Walls are black/gray, furniture is black, light switches are black, lights are really dim. Some people call it romantic, I call it mortuary-like. Can't really comment on what the room was like, since I couldn't see it. When I was leaving in the morning, I had to crawl around on the floor to feel for my stuff. They missed my wake-up call. Maybe they were also sitting in the dark, wondering what time it was. Sometimes practical is just more important than cool.