Malmaison - Oxford Castle

[Bbbananas]

Has anyone been here? I've just booked my BF and I in here for bank holiday. It is the old castle in central Oxford that has been renovated and titivated by the Malmaison chain into a luxury boutique hotel.

Quite pricey, though I have managed to get a deal, and the rooms are all converted cells - sounds horrendous but apparently it's done very well. It will be an experience. Maybe I should take my handcuffs?

[jd_here]

Too much information SB!

[Bbbananas]

No seriously, I have just booked us in there. I am on a hen weekend in Dorset on the royal wedding day and the next, so the sunday & monday I thought I would need some recovery time, so I plan to meet up with the BF in Oxford, about halfway home, and surprise him with this ex-prison now-hotel treat!!!

It has very good reviews by the Times and TripAdvisor, so am looking forward to it - so long as I'm not suffering too many after effects from the hen weekend.

[EcclesCake]

I've stayed at a few other Malmaisons but not this one.

Always found them to be OK, although the bar and reception area of the London one did make me think I'd walked into a brothel!

They are good for having menus created by the resident chef drawing on local produce rather than serving what Head Office dictates.

When I checked into the Glasgow one Ben Fogel was ahead of me in the queue.

[LDC134]

I have stayed there but not all rooms are cells - I thought I had booked a cell but turned out I had not and just had a standard room - although the standard was high, but I was really disappointed not to be in a cell. The upstairs bar is impressive in a dark, library kind of way and although we had a bad meal in the restaurant, the staff went out of their way to fix it so I wouldn't mark them down too much on that. Overall I was disappointed but mainly because I thought I was staying in a cell, so it might be worth a quick double check with the hotel, and definitely take your handcuffs ;)

[bednobs]

i just had a look on their website (used to live in oxford so know whaere it is but never stayed there). Their website is rubbish! so dark and uninviting. from what i remember of the hotel (when it was in "Lewis" lol) it was lovely looking, but you can't even see pictures of it on there!