The hotel is located a little bit out of the centre of Milan, but is in close proximity to the Lotto Fiera Metro stop, so it makes visiting the city centre a breeze for those who are happy to use public transport (like us).
We arrived late afternoon, and were 'greeted' by the grumpiest receptionist I have ever encounted. He made no effort to acknowledge our existence and was quite rude when we had to ask questions about breakfast and such, things that are normally told to guests when checking in. We were then asked for our passports, which was fine, and we thought he said that we could come down in 20 minutes to pick them up. When my partner went to get them, she was told that they keep them for the duration of the stay. We weren't comfortable with this as we like to have them with us, and asked for them back. The passports were then reluctantly thrown onto the counter with a snide remark along the lines of 'we don't steal them, you know.' While the first part could be put down to an error in communication due to the language barrier (on both sides), the way he handled the situation was unacceptable.
The room itself was quite nice. Very spacious for European standards with an average size ensuite. Although there isn't really a view, the room we had had large windows that let in a nice amount of natural light. It was cleaned daily to a reasonable standard, but do not disturb sign would have been useful as we were woken up at 7:30am on the day of our departure by the cleaning guy trying to get into our room!
As the other reviews have mentioned, the breakfast is pre packaged food, but if you know what to expect, it isn't that bad. There was one gentleman who tops up the food and offered us coffee every morning. He was quite pleasant.
There is a supermarket about five minutes away, and a McDonald's near the metro stop. There isn't much to do around the hotel itself, but as mentioned earlier, getting to the centre of Milan is easy on the metro.
Checking out was fine, and we dealt with another receptionist who was much nicer.
All in all, this hotel is a cheaper option than staying in the centre of Milan and probably has bigger rooms than anything close to the Duomo. Just be prepared for the possibility of having the same man at reception as we did...
- Hotel Oro Blu
- Oro Blu Milan
