Marie's Royale Hotel

Positives: friendly, helpful staff. Very clean overall, including the communal areas and rooms. Nice restaurant, lovely (vegetarian) breakfast. Plenty of eating places in the area. The city centre can be reached in 20-30 minutes, depending on the transport. Negatives: it can be a little bit noisy, especially during the weekend, as there are a few clubs in the area. If you are a light sleeper like me, I recommend to use earplugs.

My stay did not start well - the Hotel overbooked. Despite a confirmed booking that they acknowledged, they were full, so they moved me to their “sister” establishment, BK Suites Hotel, into a greatly inferior room (the list of issues is too long to describe). After a terrible night I complained to management. After getting back that evening (to an un-serviced room), at close to 9pm, they invited me to move into Marie’s itself, where a room had apparently become available. I as upgraded to a suite which was luxurious in contrast to the previous night’s. I could quibble about small things, but the room was comfortable and the WiFi good. There were however 3 problems. 1. There was no hot water - I could choose cold and colder; apparently this is due to solar heating that could not cope with the hotel being full. 2. The A/C had no remote. Staff came to set it to the right temperature but said there was only one remote in the hotel so they couldn’t leave it with me - I should call them, but when it went off and would not go back on at about 2am I did not feel like calling! The next night they gave me a remote but I discovered too late - when the A/C went off again - that the batteries were flat and I could not get it re-set. 3. The biggest issue was not the hotel’s fault - noise. Music blasted from a nearby nightclub till 3-4am and a call to prayer broadcast at similar volume from a nearby masjid at ~5.40am made for poor sleep on both nights. But staff were very friendly.