ME Milan Il Duca — Hotel in Milan

Our stay here got progressively worse as the days went by. On our first day, we arrived a bit earlier than check-in time. Our room wasn't ready, which was fine. When we came back to the hotel at 3 our room still wasn't ready. They finally checked us in around 3:20, only we had requested a room with 2 beds and they put us in a room with one. We then had to switch rooms, to a sub-par room on the 1st floor. On the first morning of our stay the fire alarm went off for no reason.

We had asked Sylvia at the concierge to get us bus tickets to Foxtown for the following day. She was very rushed the entire time, and we didn't realize until right before the departure that she had gotten us tickets to the Serravalle outlet. By that point it was too late to do anything so we just ended up going. She also was not clear on where the bus would depart from -- she simply directed us to the train station and no one at the information booth knew where the bus would be. It took us 15 minutes of asking around to figure it out.

The evening we got back from the outlets the bathroom door broke. Then, at night, a loud, smoke-filled party took place on our floor. At around 11 we called the front desk -- it seemed they were aware a party would be happening and that we shouldn't have received a room on that floor. The only solution was to move us into a different room. So at 11pm we packed our bags up and moved to a new room (admittedly, a better one).

At 7:30 in the morning the alarm went off, apparently they hadn't reset it after the previous guests.

We were appalled by this supposed 5-star hotel. The communication is awful. Aside from the specific issues that cropped up on our trip, other things I'd like to note are:

The use of a smart screen for the lights is unnecessary and annoying in my opinion. If turning on the lights requires an explanatory note, then it's poor design. Lights in the rooms frequently flicker.

The main positive of the hotel was the friendly doorman. Other than that, I've had better service at other (less expensive) hotels and you would be wise to spend your...

I would have liked to give Me Milan - II Duca 5 stars, but unfortunately my experience was tainted by poor customer service related to a unforseen circumstance. The day of my planned arrival, TrenItalia train service was suspended due to a labor strike (Nov 30 -- see news articles to support) which made it impossible for me to travel to Milan from Rome. I called the hotel to explain the circumstance upon my arrival to Rome and requested they waive the cancellation fee due the impossible situation and the additional personal impacts such as loss of money spent on the train reservation to Milan and unexpected cost of a hotel stay for a night in Rome until we could travel the next day. I was informed they would look into the matter.

I requested the status upon arrival to the hotel. The front desk supervisor, Gina, seemed understanding, but stated she was advised the reservation department denied my request to waive the cancellation policy and would be charging us the FULL cost of the night we did NOT stay at the hotel. I re-explained the matter in detail in hopes that waiving a one night's stay in this circumstance would be aligned with their customer service practices. Instead I was offered a few words of empathy and a room upgrade, and a promise to look into the matter further. Upon checkout, I was told there was no resolution and prompted to pay the full cost of the stay. It was extremely disappointing that a billion dollar global hospitality group, Melia Hotels International, who own ME Milan would not simply waive a cancellation policy for a single night's stay to invest in long-term customer retention. Although the front desk staff and concierge were warm and attentive, I will not be staying this hotel or any other brand under Melia Hotels International in the future, nor recommending their properties to anyone. Furthermore, I will continue to share my experience to caution other travelers. Note, as they advised, I also called their reservation customer service line to escalate my complaint and...

I’m actually about to check out of this hotel. I’m here for work. Our company usually books the mandarin oriental but because of fashion week, we had to find an alternative. The hotel is clean but a little bit of a night club vibe for a work trip. The front desk staff is great.

Some of the add-ons need a bit of work. I didn’t have breakfast included in my stay so I’ve been coming upstairs to eat and giving my room number. The woman behind the bar insisted on stopping me mid-cappuccino order to tell me that breakfast is not included in my room rate. I thought it was kind of weird because I had just given my room number so just charge it to the room? She wouldn’t let it go and kept announcing that I had to either select the buffet or ala cart… the whole interaction was so weird.

Another weird thing was upon arrival, I was told I could get one item of clothing pressed per day per person for free. I didn’t absolutely need the service but I had been traveling all week (Milan was the last stop on a ten day work trip), so definitely needed to iron stuff myself. I was going out to dinner so I asked if it would be possible to press a few items prior to our dinner reservation (three hours later). They did it and did a great job but charged a large rush fee? I wish they had told me they would do that bc I would have just ironed my stuff myself. I just thought it was a nice perk to take advantage of.

The hotel restaurant is also STK which is a chain we also have where I live so I ended up going to the hotel next door for a more unique dining experience.

The rooms are nice and modern. I had a suite so I had a separate room to work which was great but no designated desk. One of the sinks also kept backing up but not a huge deal because I had two sinks so used the other one.

Overall, if you need a hotel where you can walk downtown and Armani and Mandarin are booked, this one will work. Just don’t expect the same...