Hotel VIU Milan a Member of Design Hotels

It takes about 40 minutes to walk into the centre of town from this hotel. It is close to Chinatown and a couple of tram stops. We used a tram to get to the main railway station. The bedrooms are modern and tidy, and the bathroom is nice. There is a good espresso machine in the room. The pool area is adequate, but the pool itself closes at 6pm (the temperature was still over 30 degrees at 6pm when we were there) so we watched a lot of people being told to get out of the pool. The rooftop bar area is good and was open until 11pm. We had food and drinks late one night there. The breakfast is very average (for the cost).

I thought the facilities were great and Chinatown was a fun part of Milan to explore. The staff was helpful at check-in and check-out and they upgraded my room as well. I gave the hotel a 3 star rating because the day before my flight I put the do not disturb signal on in an attempt to sleep earlier in the day so I would be adjusted to jet lag when I got back to the US. Just as I was slipping under the phone rang very loudly. The front desk called me to ask if I would like to be disturbed or not. I was awake for the rest of the night after that. I was shocked that this happened at a 5 star hotel.

Unfortunately, my stay at this hotel was disappointing. The staff were generally unfriendly and not very helpful. I had informed the hotel in advance that I wanted to celebrate my birthday during breakfast, but unfortunately, this information was apparently not passed on to the breakfast team, which was very disappointing. When I arrived at breakfast, there were only three other guests present. The staff asked for my room number without even greeting me. No table had been prepared, and I was simply told to choose any table myself. Unsurprisingly, there were no decorations or any special touches. My room was located right next to the elevator, which made it far from quiet. On top of that, renovation work was being done on the third floor, and the strong smell of paint or lacquer in the early morning was very unpleasant, definitely not a good way to start the day. Overall, the stay did not meet my expectations.