Malone Lodge Hotel & Apartments

"As a regular past visitor to Malone Lodge, I was interested to see the recent refurbishments following relaunch. We had a standard room which looked newly decorated , facing the front. It was a good size apart from the bathroom; maybe a smaller sink would give more room to access the cramped toilet area. The room had a fridge with water which was an unexpected.touch. The bed was very comfortable and the room had great blackout curtains. The common areas downstairs hadn't changed much for the better. The lack of update to the bar was disappointing as that was where we had to have dinner midweek. It's not a bar you'd want to linger in over dinner but great if you want to watch several different TV programmes at the same time. Breakfast was served in the restaurant, which also lacked personality. Unfortunately, staff were not coping with service. On arrival before 9am it was hard to find a cleared and set table. I had to ask for mugs for the coffee machines, and alert a server that one wasn't working. A request for bowls for cereal, fruit and yoghurt was forgotten and had to be restated after an annoying wait. There were no small plates for pastries. The choices were basic, not matching up to the breakfast served in the city centre chains like Leonardo, Clayton. Hilton , Maldron. The gluten free section was not refilled when empty. Fried eggs were left on the pass rather than brought to the hot food area. so lucky we spotted them. I'm still giving 4 stars, as we had a nice stay, and as they've only recently relaunched, hopefully they'll take on board the areas for improvement."

"The refurb has done nothing except make it more obvious how badly this hotel is managed. Complete chaos, poor standards, and zero sign of competent leadership. It’s actually worse than before. Looks nicer on the surface, but underneath it’s a complete shambles. Avoid at all costs."

"Stayed here with my partner for a trip to Belfast based on good reviews. My partner had never been to Belfast before and was looking forward to a romantic stay. The man on the check in when I was arrived was lovely and helpful, but this is really where the positives stop. When I went up to my room (my partner was having to arrive slightly later than me), the tv and occupants of the next room were so loud that I felt like I was sitting in the same room as them. This carried on for many hours even after my partner arrived, and we had discussed the possibility of asking for a new room/going elsewhere. But it was a Friday night, so we let the issue slide, thinking things would quieten down. However, there was a constant stream of people banging and talking throughout the hotel and it was never really that peaceful. The next night was a similar situation. Again, it was a weekend and I was happy to chalk this up to it being busy. Imagine my surprise when reception called our room with a noise complaint accusing us of being loud despite the fact that we didn’t have the tv on, weren’t playing music and were just quietly chatting in the room! The walls are absolutely paper thin, everything echoes and the sound badly carries. The next morning we tried to apologise for any complaints made against us (even though we were not being loud at all)! The person on reception hurled more abuse at us as we were checking out. I was just so shocked at the attitude, I would never wish to stay here again as we were being shamed for something we didn’t do. The breakfast was also not of the best quality given the price that it cost to be added to the room. The first morning was so-so, but the second morning the staff were being surly and rude, there were barely enough plates, glasses and cutlery for people to be able to actually have breakfast and apparently the only spoons (when you could find them) were soup spoons! Staff just didn’t seem to care that food was overcooked, and you were left waiting for ages for extra crockery and food to appear. The restaurant was busy, but not overly so considering it was a weekend, the hotel would have been aware of how many people they were expecting based on the number of people staying/had booked breakfast. Just really poor planning. Even though this was my partners first stay in Belfast, I stay in Belfast a lot, and I absolutely will not be staying here again - much better off at the likes of premier inn which are cheaper, friendlier staff, and apparently better sound proofing. It has left a really bad impression of the city on what should have been a fun getaway."