Not very welcoming

I had a bad time here. The guy on the desk blurted out 'NO' before I had chance to tell him I had a reservation, and the room stunk of smoke.

Quite nice stay, especially for the hotel staff!!

We have just returned from Brussels. We booked Melia Hotel by its internet site. Price was quite good 80-85 euros per night, buffet breakfast enclosed.

The hotel is quite good located and it's easy to get to the airport (just metro Louise/Louiza) to Gare du Midi/Zuid Station and there you can get the express airport train or trains to Brugges, Anvers, ... Also you have tram stops (92-93-94) that brings you to the Grand Place in ten minutes (you can go walking in 30 minutes maximum, also). The hotel is 10 minutes walking from metro station (and 5 minutes from tram stop - Place Stephanie) across a posh shopping street (what is very interesting if you like shops). Superior rooms are medium-size, small for a long stage, in my opinion and below the average of other 4-stars hotel I've been in other places. The hotel is 30 years old and you notice it. Carpet on the floor, not totally clean but new bathroom (quite small) with lovely toiletries articles.

The main point is its nice staff. Always looking forward to serve you, anything you ask for (tea-coffee facilities in your room, information) and what is important if you are spanish, they speak perfect spanish. Quite good breakfast (just a litlle more variety of fruit, maybe). Around the hotel you have restaurants (a little bit expensive) but I can recommend you Livorne Brasserie just 1 minute from the hotel where you can lunch at moderate price (20-25 euros per person), obviously depending on drinks (always very expensive). To get something light you have a supermarket GB express where you can find sandwiches, salads, drinks to eat at your room. Summarizing, hotel is quite good. I will give 3,5 stars and althought for me, rooms are not quite large, in general is a good hotel.

Very Good Hotel

Stayed here as part of a lastminute Eurostar break to Brussels. Although this hotel is a little further from the Grand Place area of the city (the tourist area) than hotels I have stayed in before, it is in the shopping heart of the city, and the area is very nice.

The hotel is tidy and well kept, and the staff are very friendly and helpful. The rooms are large and decorated in the regency style. The only gripe is that, as others have pointed out, the bathroom is a litle cramped....

The buffet breakfast was included in our deal, and was very tasty, although I do feel that 22 Euros may be a little steep for it if it is not included.

The clincher was that we were booked on an early train back to London, and the staff specially prepared us a small selection of croissants before they were even serving breakfast to see us on our way. Now how many hotels would do that for you?

Highly recommended!

A lovely hotel in every respect.

Having read previous reviews I was not sure what to expect of this Hotel. Fortunately within a very short time my fears were allayed and I am really pleased that I stayed there. It has everythng you need from a short stay Hotel. It's clean and presentable throughout. The rooms are large, the bed certainly is and it has all the room extras that you might need; hairdryer, tea and coffee making facilities (in the cupboard next to the minibar), a TV, a room safe, a minibar, a comfy chair and a desk! The bath is a tad on the small side but the bathroom itself is as spacious as it needs to be.

The desk staff were extremely friendly and helpful and did everything thay could to look after us.

My only gripe is that it cost 7 Euros to get there from the Station and 14.8 Euros to go back! I have yet to work that out!

Thoroughly recommend the hotel.

Brilliant

All of the Sol Melia hotels I have stayed in have been brilliant and this one is no different. For the person who said they wish theyd never stayed there: had you checked on either Expedia or on the hotel's web site you would have been informed of the distance from the metro/tram stops and 1 km is hardly much of a treck, secondly the vast majority of continental hotels do not provide tea and coffee making facilities in rooms, this is a British thing, and given that this is a spanish hotel chain its not suprising that they weren't available, again, the web site details room amenities.

This is a fantastic hotel, don't stay anywhere else in Brussels

Okay, with a few minor quirks

As the name suggests, the Melia Avenue Louise is situated off Avenue Louise (posh shopping district), near the picturesque "Marollen" quarter. It's about 700 meters to the nearest Metro station (Louise/Louiza) and about 500 to the nearest Tram (streetcar) stop (Stefania/Stephanie).

The hotel doesn't look like much from the outside but once you're in the lobby, everything turns out to be tres chic. Rooms are relatively clean and have some (fake?) olde worlde furniture, for those who are into that sort of thing. Staff members are friendly and multilingual but do not speak a lot of Dutch, so visitors from Flanders or the Netherlands will have to resort to speaking English. The rooms are very quiet. The bathrooms are really nice, marble tiles all around. Yes, they *are* a bit small (as has been suggested before), but I rarely have the urge to tango.

The breakfast buffet looked nice but I had to forgo the pleasure because EUR 22,- per person seemed a bit steep to the missus and me. I suggest that you save that money and get some rolls from a bakery.

The only major issue I have with the Melia is their policy of swiping your credit card at check-in, in case you're Oasis and plan to wreck your room or empty the minibar. Lots of hotels do it, nothing wrong with that. What I don't like is that they keep the credit card slip until after you've checked out (and left), i.e. until THEY have checked whether or not you've been a good boy. Now call me old-fashioned, but I just don't like the idea of a blank credit card slip of mine being in other people's hands for god knows how long. If you feel the same way- make them check the room and minibar while you're checking out and have them destroy the credit card slip on the spot. It worked for me- it can work for you, too.

Having said that, the Melia is still a nice place to stay. Their usual room rate is EUR 260 per night for the standard room and to be honest I wouldn't be prepared to spend that kind of money for ANY hotel with less than perfect service and rooms, but if you can get a special rate (as we did), something like EUR 100 per night, then I strongly suggest you give the Melia a try.

Pleasant Surprise

We had booked the Melia Avenue Louise through the web, because it seemed to provide a good balance of cost and quality. We were not disappointed. We stayed there from Dec 6th to 10th.

This being my first visit to anywhere in Europe, the room was larger than I expected (equivalent to standard hotel rooms in North America). The marble bathroom was absolutely beautiful! The elevator and stairways were very small (which might be typical in Europe), but fortunately, we packed light.

The staff were very pleasant and accomodating, and spoke English which was very helpful because our French is weak. We noted that their suggestions for restaurants was somewhat disappointing (expensive and not very good). It was better for us to rely upon our travel guides for recommendations.

The hotel is about 1km away from a metro station, so it isn't in a very central location. On the otherhand, the walk to the metro station is through a shopping district, so there is plenty to look at on the way. Additionally, Central Brussels is not that big a place. Walking around central Brussels to see the major tourist highlights only took only a few hours.

I wish I had never

There was no faulting of the ambiance and decor - worthy of the four star rating the hotel is billed to be. However, the so called 'superior' room is the basic version and anyone who would like to enjoy the luxury of having a kettle in the room should beware - you need the 'executive' room.

What defied coomon sense was that I had booked the hotel through Expedia and hotel charges were pre-paid. When I realised 'superior' was basic, I offered to pay the difference and upgrade my stay to one of their executive rooms, but oh no I should contact Expedia for any alterations to my booking.

Location was most inconvenient if you do not have a car. I did not enjoy having to trek 1 km to the Metro in the winter and used the taxi more often than I would have liked.

COULDN'T HAVE BEEN LOVELIER!

I just returned from 2 weeks in France, Belgium and the Netherlands and this was the nicest place we stayed during our trip! The hotel is beautiful - very elegantly decorated. The staff couldn't have been more friendly or helpful. They rushed out from behind the desk to help us with our luggage and offered us a map of Brussels, orienting us to where we were and the various places of interest we might want to visit, before we even had the opportunity to open our mouths to ask. The room was gorgeous - large, clean and comfortable. The bathroom was smallish, but beautiful - made of gleaming marble. And considering all the amenities, a steal at only $107/night for two.

Loved the Melia

I went to Brussels on a short, solo trip and felt very pampered at this lovely place. It is very clean, new, wonderful service, parking, good food and very comfortable (large) bed. If you need a large bathroom, you might not be happy - it's a pretty marble one, but not large.

Everything else was perfect