Mailmaison in Newcastle is in a great location, and we had a great room with a fantastic view of the Millennium bridge and the Baltic. There was a lot of noise from the street at night, but I think you have to expect that as the hotel is on the busy Quayside where people are partying into the early hours.

There were two reasons why our stay was disappointing. The first and most important is that we didn't feel welcomed by the staff - it was so different from the far superior customer service we experienced at the Malmaison in Birmingham earlier this year. Newcastle is an exceptionally friendly city - it is a pity that their staff can't convey this!

The second reason was that the hotel struggled to cope with a large wedding party along with their non-wedding guests - e.g. our original dinner booking was moved back by 2 hours because of the wedding party. Not good enough when you've booked dinner early because you need to get somewhere! We ended up eatting in our room - a compromise that might have worked, except that the food was poor. We wished we'd gone to one of the restaurants nearby.

We stayed here for a couple of nights and thoroughly enjoyed feeling spoilt in our comfortable and luxuriously appointed corner room, with great view of Millennium Bridge and the riverside.

Liked our huge bed, and two plasma TVs. Bathroom not quite as amazing as rest of room but more than adequate. The decor both of the room and the common areas was stylish and luxe with a modern twist (think Costes Brothers' hotels and cafes, if you know Paris). Some might find the fact that the talking lift only spoke French a tad pretentious, but personally I found it's over-the-topness fun. The staff were generally helpful and charming.

Only prevented from giving it full marks because, firstly the quality of the dinner in the restaurant was disappointing. I know you don't generally expect hotel food to be good, but this is a chain which sets out to be different, and the menu read well so we gave it a try - but it didn't deliver. The other thing - minor but a bit irritating - was that throughout breakfast (which was itself of very good quality) Radio 2 was on at full belt. Preferring to breakfast in peace, we politely asked for it to be turned down but were told it was 'management policy' to have it on. I couldn't help feeling that Radio 2 sat very oddly with the hotel's considerable, and largely successful, efforts to be trendy and cool. It seemed more Travelodge style. Or perhaps it was intended as post-modernist irony??!

My husband and I stayed at this hotel to celebrate our first wedding anniversary and absolutely loved it,
the staff were so friendly and helpful. The hotel itself definetly has the WOW factor very sultry and sexy.
we booked a basic room and it was huge with great views of the winking eye bridge.
Its in a fab location , directly on the quayside so there are lots of restaurants and bays near by.
we never ate in hotel , we visted est est est which is near by and it was lovely..

CANT WAIT TO GO BACK

It was as expected, room very comfortable, with a wonderful view of the Millenium Bridge and very centrally located indeed. Only quibbles were the room was very hot and the aircon even if it had worked properly was noisy and there was only a winter weight duvet, so the chioce was either be too hot with noise or even hotter without noise.The breakfast (always order one in this chain they are ample) had been prepared some hours earlier, and this was clear as the fresh OJ had solidified leaving marks on the edge of glass and was stuck to the paper doily and the pastries were a bit soggy. next time I'd go to their cafe downstairs. shame as it is more luxurious to have breakfast in bed.

We ate in the Prickly Pear just around the corner, it was really good cooking and the early bird menu pre 7pm made it fantastic value.