Every year we go to London as my boyfriend is a big fan of London (or at least some of his favourite shops are located there). This year we combined our London trip with a few days in Liverpool as the hotel prices in London where exorbitant due to a big convention in the London Excel convention centre.
In Liverpool our eye fell on the rather newish M Gallery the Municipal. Located in the old grand classical building of the Liverpool Municipal Offices. The location was excellent being a short walk from Lime Street Station, the Liverpool One shopping centre and the riverside.
Our welcome was very warm and after a bit of a struggle at check-in as they were having computer problems the lovely and super enthusiastic Alice took us to our room, explaining us stuff about the city and the hotel. We never had such a warm and genuine reception at a hotel, hopefully she can keep doing this as it is a true asset for the hotel to have such an employee.
The room was rather small, despite already having received an upgrade to a high-floor located room due to my ALL Gold status. Sam did think some of the furniture was arranged oddly in the room and they could gave optimised the space more if they arranged it slightly differently.
They did have a small sofa nook with a coffee table in front of the fireplace, a desk with the wall mounted TV above it tucked away in the corner and a closet in the hallway. The hallway closet also included the complimentary minibar (with 2 cans of water, still and sparkling) and coffee and tea facilities. Despite it being a new 5 -tar hotel there was no proper cup machine for coffee but rather just teabag style coffee bags to make your coffee.
The bed itself was comfortable, nice and big. With both a fluffy and firm pillow and power plugs and USB-A plugs at both sides of the bed.
The duvet cover was too small however, when both sleeping in the bed one would always be half naked due to the small size of the cover. Also when opening up the cover we noticed it filled with bloodstains, clearly these sheets weren’t properly cleaned and this shouldn’t have been used.
The bathroom was tiny, but did contain a wonderfully powerful walk-in rain shower that did not flood the bathroom. The tiles of the shower however where loose, letting moisture sip into the floor which could possibly cause problems down the line.
Products by the Italian brand Culti where bolted down the walls and offered a nice scent.
When we came back to the room at night we were surprised that they offered a turndown service, something you don’t see often anymore.
In the morning breakfast was served in the beautiful palm room. You had your choice of hot dishes to be ordered from the menu while a small continental buffet was offered in a side room. Sam did find it stingy that you could only order 1 hot dish per person. The first morning I ordered a full English breakfast while the second morning I had the eggs benedict. Both where delicious and generously sized. The service however was rather slow, nearly making us miss our train on the second morning.
The slow service was also something we noticed when going to the palm room bar at night. Both nights we had to wait a long time for any staff to notice us, being so bad that the second night we had to go to the bar ourselves to order. Considering they added a 12,5% service charge this was unacceptable. If you charge for service you should provide it.
The food we had on the first night was delicious however.
The hotel also offered a spa, but this was on reservation only and at a £50 per person charge, the same price for in-house guests and external guests. While the spa area was beautifully designed, with comfortable loungers featuring ice water coolers and cups on the tables in between. Also offering a beautiful pool with whirlpool jets, a Sauna, steam room, laconium and experience shower. We did think the pool water was a bit too cold and the entire experience overpriced, I think a fee in the £20-£30 range with be more appropriate.
All in all we still had a lovely stay at the property despite the hiccups. The hotel has good bones so if they can address the issues of maintenance and slow service we are sure it can really turn into the top address for Liverpool.