Moxy Madison Downtown — Attraction in Madison

My dad and I chose to try out this hotel since it provided a new option for those coming into town for a concert at the Sylvee. It's certainly a weird place, but weird doesn't always equate to bad so here's my review.

The good is that the location can't be beat; it's walking distance to the Sylvee, it's also not far from other attractions like the state capitol, and it's next to lots of great bars and restaurants. The check-in at the hotel is also a bar, and they give you a token for a complimentary drink at the bar. Another good is the stash, which is a closet on every floor with a bunch of necessities for a stay. Ear plugs, razors, tooth brushes, tooth paste, extra blankets, pads and more are super stellar to have available. It's great if you forget or didn't pack enough of something. My dad forgot ear plugs for the concert, and the stash having them was a great additional amenity to have.

I actually had to file a noise complaint while staying here (a guest in a nearby room was extremely loud and it sounded like they threw something against the wall at 2:30am). Guest services were on it so quickly and took care of it in a matter of minutes. I'm genuinely impressed with how quickly they handled the issue.

The rooms don't have safes nor mini fridges included, but the mini fridges are available upon request. I requested one for my room and it really helped out. I'm not sure about safes but it looked like they have lockers near the lobby? I didn't bring much cash since this was a weekend trip, but if I stayed longer I could see not having a safe in the room being a challenge (unless those are available upon request too).

Are the rooms small? I think it depends on what you book. We booked two larger queen doubles and I felt they were absolutely fine for space. There are end tables with outlets in them (including type-c outlets which is great), lots of drawers in the bed and in the TV stands. I wish the bathrooms had more counter space but it wasn't the end of the world for me. They also had an extra fold-up table which is good if you need more space to set something down. I feel like if I went for a smaller room I'd absolutely be struggling, but the rooms we had were good enough for space.

The mattress is...okay? It's not the worst thing I've ever slept on, but it's much more firm than I think a bed should be. For a new hotel I expected better beds but it's not the worst. The sheets and blankets are quite nice. I saw other reviews saying they were scratchy and I don't feel like they were. Since my room was a double I tried both mattresses and I feel like I slept better on the one closer to my door, so maybe just a quality issue.

I had missed receiving housekeeping so I requested housekeeping to come to my room while I went out and when I came back I found that they left my door open. Turns out the doors don't close super well and tend to stick a bit. It didn't happen again, and none of my belongings are gone, but I really hope there's some work done to fix the security of the doors.

The parking/valet situation is a hot mess and is one of the worst ones I dealt with in a long time. The night we came in the lone valet guy was clearly so overwhelmed with just tons of cars and had no help. Plus during an event at the bar they closed off the valet area despite the fact that it was supposed to stay open for hotel guests. We went to the front desk to get help and they told us they couldn't help because the valet is a 3rd party? They had no information on what to do. Considering how expensive it was to valet for the weekend it was a huge setback and pain point during the trip. Granted, it did get better throughout the trip but that first night was rough. Also, the valet app kept crashing when we needed a vehicle, even the valet couldn't explain why it was happening.

Overall, I would give the hotel a good rating. If parking/valet improves and the security oversights are addressed I'd give it a 5 star. But for now I think a 4...

I had no idea this hotel had only been open for two months at the time of my stay. There are definitely still some growing pains - staff juggling multiple roles, acclimating to the booking/invoicing system, and being seemingly surprised by rushes of customers at what I'd assume would be predictable times (check-out, breakfast, happy hour). That said, the staff was cheerful, helpful, and generally seemed happy to be muddling through with an unnecessary amount of apologizing.

The rooms are indeed a bit smaller than a traditional two-queen room; however, the tradeoff is that the bathroom is in between the two beds, which allows for a surprising amount of privacy. The rooms were well decorated and well-equipped. It would have been nice to have a mini fridge, but definitely not a deal breaker - I literally can't think of a time that has a been a deciding factor for me in choosing a hotel. There was creative storage throughout - drawers under the bed, lots of hooks to hang things, bedside tables that folded up to the wall. As others have stated, I could definitely hear the dull thud-thud-thud of the nearby DJ, but even as an extremely light sleeper, this didn't prevent me from crashing hard around 9:30 on Friday and Saturday nights (I'm old). The beds were incredibly comfortable, the showers had great pressure, and the toiletries were quite lovely. All of the housekeeping staff were friendly and were busy every time we were coming and going - it was evident they take pride in keeping the space clean.

The mini grocery area was well stocked with surprisingly healthy options - Greek yogurt, fresh fruit, and the like - as well as the usual hotel snacks. The morning coffee service was excellent. There was definitely a run on the carafes at peak hours, but staff were quick to refill them, and there were some basic espresso options available at the bar. The bar was well stocked and relatively reasonably priced, but I'll look forward to a more well-rounded menu once they get more established.

The lobby/hang-out area was delightful. A bit loud in the morning and working hours, but it was nice to have a place to come back to after dinner, play some arcade games, and have a nightcap. I've already saved the playlist to my Spotify account.

Overall, very pleased with my stay. Could the location be a smidge more central with more parking options? Sure - but you know the location when you book, and there is a fairly reasonable ($34/day) and responsive valet (never waited more than 10 minutes) and an hourly self-park across the street. I'm back to Madison in a couple of months, and I've already moved my reservation from another hotel a couple doors...

I have never had such a frustrating and disappointing hotel experience in my life. My husband and I live in the area and spend a lot of time in Madison. He surprised me with a night away downtown to celebrate my birthday and thought trying the brand new Moxy hotel would be a fun new experience, as we've tried pretty much everything else in the area. When we arrived, we were greeted with unorganized chaos. They didn't have a room ready for us and didn't even have a sense of when a room would be ready. We ended up waiting over AN HOUR for a room and in that time missed my birthday dinner reservations that my husband had made almost two months prior. Thankfully, the restaurant did not charge us the $70 cancelation fee (on top of everything else), but certainly couldn't accommodate a later reservation given you had to make them two months in advance. (We also didn't have the opportunity to just ditch our luggage and go because we needed that hour to get ready in our room.)

When we finally got to our room, it was such a disappointment. Yes, it's brand new and beautiful in that respect, but it's the smallest hotel room I've ever been in. I immediately felt claustrophobic and again, severely disappointed. At this point, we had zero options in front of us. Dinner was missed, it was too late to make reservations anywhere else, and given it was a Saturday night with lots of events in the area, we weren't left with many options, so we decided just to leave.

However, just getting out of the hotel proved to be an obstacle. Even thought we just arrived almost two hours prior, we still hadn't recieved our valet information. We tried calling down to the front desk to get access to our car and were hung up on multiple times. One time the lady even said "try calling again" and hung up. At this point, we gathered our bags and went to the valet stand ourselves. Although the valet workers were very kind, they had a disorganized mess on their hands and it took two of them to even find our keys.

Needless to say, this goes hands down as one of our worst hotel experiences ever. Not only that, but your lack of organization and readiness completely ruined a well-thought out and highly anticipated celebratory birthday weekend. We aren't high maintenance people and can usually roll with the punches - in fact, this is my first Google review I've ever written good, bad, or ugly - but our experience tonight was absolutely awful.

If you need a one-night crash pad out of desperation because everything else is booked downtown Madison, this hotel would be fine, but other than...