This is a city centre hotel in what I guess is the mid-range priceband as I think standard rooms are approx £100 - £150 per night. The rooms are standard hotel rooms:-) I looked at a couple, but don't really have much to say about them! However the Malone Lodge also offers two bedroom apartments which is where I stayed, so what I'll review.

First of all, the Hotel itself is rather unpreposessing from the outside. It is just a couple of large town houses which look just like all the residential town houses along the rest of the road. This makes it not terribly easy to find! The apartments are next door but one (I'm not sure what the one is!) and have a separate entrance door. which makes it feel much more homely as you don't have to pass through reception every time you go in or out.

The first thing I noticed about the apartment was that it was big! Much bigger than I expected when I booked. It is only a few pounds more than a room, but so much more space! There were two good sized bedrooms - a double and a twin, a really large living room (we fitted in 7 adults and 5 kids into one without feeling crushed!) and a good enough kitchenette.

Breakfast is provided - cereal, milk (and sometimes orange jiuce - but not for us apparently), bread etc, and although we didn't use it, you could easily have cooked a reasonable meal there too. There was a fridge, freezer, oven, microwave etc.

The place was clean too, which is good. The furnishings were worn, but all in good condition. The heating was sweltering (we were there in June), and fortunately was controlled by the occupiers rather than centrally so we could turn it off once we had arrived.

The only down side was that the staff didn't seem too inclined to come over and sort minor things out (like our orange juice). Also, remembering that these will mostly be used by families, i was very concerned that the windows were all quite low, easily opened, opened fully out without a safety catch and had a sheer drop to concrete without any barriers or bars etc.

The location was great - just 10 mins brisk walk to the Botanical Gardens (or nearer to 30 mins with young chldren), and literally round the corner from plenty of shops and nightlife.

We were there for a wedding. I don't paticularly rate that - but couldn't say how much was to do with the hotel and how much to do with the couple's organisation:-) Although I was disappointed in the meal. the restaurant served very nice food according to others in our party, but the wedding meal was pretty poor, and the service wasn't great.

Overall, I would happily stay at the apartments again. Comfortable, clean and spacious