"Having stayed at Meliá properties internationally, including an excellent experience in Malta earlier this year, I expected considerably better from ME Milan Il Duca. Unfortunately, this property has delivered one of the most disappointing hospitality experiences I have encountered.
We stayed from 24–26 September 2026, and the problems began with something as basic as the lighting system in our room.
The lights were malfunctioning, randomly switching on and off in the middle of the night and repeatedly disturbing our sleep. We contacted maintenance, who attended to the issue, but the problem persisted.
For a hotel positioning itself as a premium luxury property, providing a room where guests can enjoy an uninterrupted night’s sleep should hardly be an extraordinary expectation.
Throughout our stay, requests relating to our ME+ experience, including late checkout, were repeatedly met with the same explanation: Milan Fashion Week.
I understand that Fashion Week is a commercially significant period for Milan’s hospitality industry. However, does that mean the standards of hospitality and guest experience advertised by the hotel suddenly become optional?
Fashion Week was taking place in Milan. The hotel wasn’t walking the runway.
What genuinely turned a disappointing stay into an unacceptable experience, however, was the subsequent response from management.
Despite everything, we decided to give the property another opportunity and booked a return stay within days of our initial visit. As a returning international Meliá guest and Silver member, I contacted management to explain the problems we had experienced and requested a meaningful gesture of goodwill for our upcoming reservation.
Instead of taking accountability for the maintenance failure, management responded by expressing regret that the style and lighting atmosphere of the rooms had not suited our personal preferences.
Let that sink in.
The lights were physically malfunctioning, repeatedly disturbing our sleep, and continued malfunctioning even after maintenance intervened.
This was not a complaint about interior design or personal preference. It was a basic maintenance failure.
The fact that management either failed to properly read the complaint or chose to characterise an equipment malfunction as a matter of personal taste says a great deal about the approach to guest relations at this property.
The remainder of our correspondence consisted largely of explanations about occupancy, room categories, availability and operational limitations.
I fully understand that upgrades and certain privileges are subject to availability. However, there is an enormous difference between explaining those limitations and making a genuine effort to recover a guest’s confidence following a legitimate complaint.
Apparently, that distinction is lost on this hotel’s management.
The most astonishing part came when management suggested that, if its inability to provide our requested complimentary upgrade was a deciding factor, it would happily cancel our upcoming reservation without penalty as a gesture of goodwill.
This was approximately 24 hours before our scheduled arrival.
Imagine booking a return stay despite a disappointing experience, raising legitimate concerns about disturbed sleep and unresolved maintenance problems, and receiving what essentially amounts to an invitation to take your business elsewhere.
Calling that a gesture of goodwill is remarkable.
Offering to cancel a guest’s confirmed reservation at such short notice is hardly an impressive example of customer service. In my opinion, it demonstrates how little importance this property places on retaining customers once their concerns become inconvenient.
My biggest criticism of ME Milan Il Duca is its apparent obsession with commercial considerations at the expense of genuine hospitality.
Every request seems to become a discussion about availability, demand, occupancy or additional charges. When something goes wrong, the responses appear designed to defend the hotel rather than resolve the underlying problem.
There is nothing wrong with running a commercially successful luxury hotel. However, charging premium rates and delivering premium hospitality are two entirely different things.
The contrast with my previous experience at Meliá in Malta could not be greater. The team there was welcoming, attentive and genuinely hospitable. ME Milan Il Duca has unfortunately demonstrated the opposite through both its service failures and its subsequent correspondence.
To be absolutely clear, this negative review is not simply about being refused a complimentary upgrade. Complimentary upgrades are discretionary, and I understand that perfectly well.
It is about malfunctioning equipment, disrupted sleep, an unresolved maintenance problem, repeated operational excuses, management misrepresenting the nature of a legitimate complaint, and a deeply disappointing approach to guest recovery.
I have since escalated the matter to Meliá’s global management.
My advice to prospective guests: do not confuse an expensive room, fashionable branding and an attractive location with genuine luxury hospitality.
A hotel’s true standards become apparent not when everything is going smoothly, but when something goes wrong and management has an opportunity to put things right.
Based on my experience, ME Milan Il Duca has failed that test spectacularly.
An extremely disappointing experience, particularly from an international hotel brand that is capable of delivering so much better."
