Barcelo Milan Hotel

Fashion capital of the world, home of EXPO 2015, Milan is a sprawling commercial city, in central North of Italy – up near the ‘cuff’ of the boot.

View of the EXPO site from the Sky Terrace. Photo: Willunga Wino

Here to take part in the wine equipment conference, SIMEI, we stayed at the art hotel Barceló Milan (Hotel Barcelo Milano) – which is in the same vein as the North Adelaide Minima Art Hotel.

Arty entrance. Photo: Willunga Wino

Location

North of the city, toward Malpensa airport, Barcelo Milan towers above the surrounding industrial area.

Driving our hire car from Malpensa airport, it is tricky to get to, sandwiched in between an elevated freeway, a train and a tram line. Pay attention to the slip-roads! Proximity to the public transport does make it easy to get into Milano city.

Lobby

Huge, plastic, curved ‘trees’ in red and green make the lobby feel quite surreal, like being inside an art installation. A concierge will transfer your bags to your room for you, and a long check in counter in white is well staffed.

To the left of the lobby is the always open bar, which serves an aperitivo buffet of snacks each day from around 6pm, which you can help yourself to if you buy a drink. You can also purchase beers to take away and consume in the room. Further around is the Tondo restaurant which opens for dinner at 7pm.

Bright, bold lobby. Photo: Willunga Wino

Service

Service is friendly and good english is spoken, but there were a few issues.

When we complained that the air conditioning in our room didn’t work, we were told that due to the cold weather, the whole hotel’s air con was turned off by maintenance in the control room. It was not resolved during our five night stay, and at no time did the air con in our room work. Despite it being 11-18 degrees outside, we sweltered in upwards of 27 degrees, with a window that opened via a tilt mechanism only about 3 inches at the top – just enough to let in the sound of heavy machinery being operated along the rail corridor 24 hours a day.

Rooms

We stayed in a Superior King Room.

It is large, bright, clean modern and full of curved lines.

Modern, colourful rooms. Photo: Willunga Wino

The shower is a unique pod which juts out into the room, creating an entrance hallway – keep that in mind if you are sharing with a colleague!

Amenities under the bench. Photo: Willunga Wino

Thankfully the toilet is separate, and has a sliding mirrored door that says “Private Space”.

Wood panel toilet “Private Space”. Photo: Willunga Wino

A number of cable TV stations are available, including international sports channels.

There are no tea and coffee making facilities, but there is a mini bar fridge. we kept some beers in the fridge and found that even on the coldest setting, our beers weren’t very cold.

The bed is very firm, as are the pillows.

Sink and bed. Photo: Willunga Wino

A large clothes cupboard and luggage stand sufficient for one suitcase, with room next to the long work desk for a second suitcase. The superior king room desk has only one chair, meaning if there is more than one person staying, the only option is to sit on the bed.

Decorations inside the wardrobe. Photo: Willunga Wino

Windows open via tilt mechanism inwards about 3 inches at the top. This does not create much ingress of fresh air. It is also very noisy outside with the train line, car park, freeway and construction noise.

There is no balcony.

View from our Level 19 room. Photo: Willunga Wino

Handy bedside stands double as over bed tray tables for working on a laptop or eating a meal in bed.

The light switch for the toilet is over the sink.

The air conditioning on our visit didn’t work. It was between 27 and 30 degrees celsius in the room at all times, despite being 10 degrees outside. We requested a room with working air conditioning, but were told that maintenance had turned off the air con to the entire building. It was not resolved throughout our 5 day stay.

Views

Our room had views overlooking the railway line, and beyond over the outer city suburbs of Milan. It is an industrial and commercial part of town.

View from our Level 19 room. Photo: Willunga Wino

From the Sky Terrace you can see very far, and Barcelo Milan appears go be the tallest building for a very long way around.

Restaurants

Two onsite restaurants.

Firstly, Tondo the Italian Steakhouse, pasta and pizza restaurant on the ground floor. The pastas are quite nice, though a little pricy for the serves. The mains were less successful in size and flavour.

Tondo Restaurant stylings. Photo: Willunga Wino

Secondly, the Birch Forest Breakfast Buffet on level 1. The breakfast buffet was great. Pastries, an espresso machine, nice teas, prosecco, cheese, charcuterie, cereal, fruit, yogurt, grissini, nutella, and toast.

Breakfast restaurant. Photo: Willunga Wino

Read more about Tondo Italian restaurant here.

Facilities

Two observation decks, one on Level 3, which was locked when we visited, and the rooftop Level 22 Sky Terrace which is fully outdoors and equipped with ashtrays.

Easy to spot signage. Photo: Willunga Wino

A swimming pool and spa are also available with a mixture of free and paid services.

Onsite car park is 20 euro per day, multiple entries and exits allowed. A free above ground car park is across the street, though sometimes the entry is blocked by police tape, and there was a lot of broken glass, indicating smash and grab break ins – do not leave valuables visible.

Free transfers to the nearby (1km) Certosa train station, and the 4km away subway station Lampugnano, are available from 10.30am – 1pm and 5pm til late. This worked well for us on our first night, but on the second night the shuttle was 50 minutes late, forcing us to cancel our dinner reservation in town. It is approximately an hour to get from the hotel into the centre of Milan.

Value

The cost of a basic room is $126.75 on Wotif, in comparison to other hotels we’ve stayed at in Italy, it is average value.

Overall

The hotel itself is innovative in design, but is in an industrial area, devoid of restaurants or sightseeing.

The room was large, clean and modern, but the air conditioning did not work, and it was uncomfortably hot. The included buffet breakfast is delicious and the decor beautiful. The restaurant’s pastas are good quality but the mains are hit and miss.

Service was friendly but were not given a solution to the lack of air con in the room.