The Malmaison, Birmingham

For your anniversary, you want to stay somewhere nice, relaxed and somewhat romantic. We found just that place at the Malmaison hotel in Birmingham. There's many of this hotel scattered around the country, but from where we wanted to get the train to London the following morning, this location was perfect - just a five minute walk to Birmingham New Street station.

The hotel was reasonably priced for the room that you will be accommodating - we paid £85 for the night to stay in the 'Mal Club' room, which included; a queen sized bed, mini bar, snacks and goodies, your own dressing gown, sky on the television and a huge bathroom. Make sure you check the prices regularly as after we booked, the price rocketed to £175 for the night... for the same room.

Entering the building, it's extremely well kept and looks high end. The staff greeting us were friendly and accommodating, which is what any customer service should be like - greeted with a smile. After getting directions to our room on the fifth floor, we made our way there.

The room was excellent, spacious and inviting. Seeing a queen sized bed was great - realising you can both starfish all night without bothering the other! It was comfortable, not like some beds that are lumpy or you can feel the springs digging in, along with a super soft blanket (I now would like one) The décor was classy and different, which is what drew me to this hotel room - as it's not like any others that I've seen before. There was (fake) wooden panels up the walls, along with a grey and black patterned carpet and lights that were unique and gave a lovely atmosphere. Of course, no room is complete without a television to have as background noise... or in this case - to watch forty minutes of live cricket as it came with sky sports - a good one for all of you men. Be careful when you walk in and see this stash of goodies on the side, as our room didn't have a price list - I googled and found out before anything was consumed. Each item is around £3 a pop, including 'proper corn', fancy crisps, nuts and various chocolate or breakfast bars. This is the same for the mini-bar which contained some vodka cranberry cans,
a small bottle of champagne, beer, water and coke. Again, reasonably priced with the cans of coke at £2 (which is what you'd expect from a hotel mini-bar. Believe it or not, there was a dolce gusto coffee machine which was free to use and sadly I didn't get to test it out - so I'll stick with my tassimo machine. The thing I found amusing about the bathroom, is that there were toilet roll holders on both sides - perfect for any left or right handers! There was freebie shower gel, along with shampoo and conditioner which smelt divine. For all of you that like/need to iron, there was an iron, along with a separate kettle and coffee/tea bags for those that didn't want to use the dolce gusto machine... and a complimentary biscuit. Towels were provided (which is always useful) along with a heated towel rail for those that want to keep the warmth after a shower or bath. Don't forget the dressing gowns!

As we arrived later on (around 8pm) check in is usually 3pm and check out, 12pm - or if you stay in the Mal Club room or any higher, it's 1pm. So, we wanted some food and didn't really want to move. Plus we presumed most of the people in the bar or restaurant would be in suits. We weren't dressed for that! Room service it was, we ordered; Thai chicken lollipops (£8.5), battered king prawns, calamari and courgette (£8), a selection of bread with oil/balsamic vinegar (£3.5), hand cut pommes frites (£4) and onion rings (£4) and they were all beautiful. My favourite was the Thai lollipops, the sauce the chicken was coated in was to die for. I can well and truly say that I was ready to pop afterwards.

All in all, I would definitely stay in The Malmaison hotel again and make full use of the free facilities, such as the gym and spa. But of course, keep checking the prices so you're not met with a £175 per night bill instead of what we paid of £85.

Highly recommend.