Moxy Birmingham NEC

I selected the Moxy for the Halestorm concert at the NEC this weekend through Booking.com, as it's only a stone's throw from the arena. You can literally see the Premium entrance from the bar window, and as a lone female, proximity (and ergo, the safety) is pretty important to me.

Before my stay, Marriott pushed the Bonvoy membership scheme to an offputting level. A pre-stay email, drenched in branding, instructs you to download the app to check in. Don't panic, you can check in with the staff 'traditionally' but the insistence from Marriott came over so strong that I had to check TripAdvisor reviews for reassurance they had a customer service desk. You also can't use the wifi unless you sign up to this scheme, which was sidestepped by reception who just told guests there "wasn't a password". I get all businesses want your repeat custom (and I work in IT for my sins) but in this day and age we're drowning in apps and memberships! We're already paying over £100 per night, the least an international hotel chain could do is let their guests hop on some basic wifi without extra faff.

Anyway - once I got off the train, I didn't need to look far to find the Moxy as it's directly outside Birmingham International. The check-in area is open-plan alongside the restaurant and bar, which was a mix of comfy chairs and tables with seating. I was handed my key-card, paid £13 for access to the breakfast buffet (which is in line with other hotel franchises) and sent on my way.

Arriving at the room, I got to unpacking. I liked the mood lighting, but it would have been nice to have a bit more functional storage. No work-desk, but there was a cute plush bench by the bed which was pleasant to sit and read in before heading out. The tea station was well stocked with Tetley tea and Walker's shortbread. The view from the room was pretty: it was facing out onto the lake, the fountain and the Resorts World complex in all their glory.

The bathroom was modern with a large walk-in shower and plenty of towels provided. There are water glasses, a box of tissues plus a discreet sanitary-bag dispenser under the sink.

On the mirror, there was a lovely handwritten welcome... for the previous guest. Reception did apologise when I told them, as after the initial amusement I was then concerned I had been given someone else's room. As the room was spotless otherwise it was easy to shrug off once the confusion had been resolved. There was also a voucher for a free drink in the card sleeve with my key-card that I hadn't noticed nor been told about - thankfully the barmaid informed me that one should be in the sleeve before I paid full price. Neither of these are world-ending problems of course (plus she recommended a gorgeous mocktail to spend my voucher on) but as they're meant to be part of the Moxy welcome it's a shame the mark was missed. Seeing Halestorm was a special night for me and those little touches would've been chef's-kiss.

Overnight, I didn't get a lot of outdoor noise at all, which is great as we're very close to the airport. However, you can still hear movement from the guests upstairs and the corridors - no biggie for me, but if you're sensitive to that, it's worth packing your Loops. Breakfast was a relaxed affair, I went downstairs later than most so missed the rush although my details weren't checked to ensure I'd paid for it.

I explained all this to the team leader when he asked me for feedback during check-out. He was very polite and said he'd pass it on to the team for improvements which was appreciated. To be fair to the staff they were professional and attentive when I spoke with them. Overall I can't fault how close Moxy is to the NEC and that was my main reason for choosing it, so it certainly did its job in that respect.

3/5

A lovely hotel with really friendly staff. We always enjoy staying here.
Bar area is really nice & a free welcome drink is included.
Breakfast has a great selection if a little chaotic.

Great place rooms are cosy and comfortable, spotlessly clean, staff are great. Perfect location for nec, enjoyed the cocktails after a day out

A pleasant stay at the Moxy NEC . The rooms are basic and clean.
The food available is good especially the large choice buffet breakfast.
Ideal location for the NECBirmingham airport and the Birmingham international rail station.

Love the Moxy, only hotel I know which smells lovely from the moment you enter. Great rooms, enough storage, plugs where you need them, mirror where you need it. Fab powerful shower comfy bed, great breakfast with a lot of choice. Staff is great, really nice, love it all

Great one night stay for an NEC event. Literally 100m away. Staff all great and the breakfast among the best that I’ve ever had the rooms were very clean while appointed and the showers were lovely.

Pros: The staff were friendly and helpful. The location is extremely convenient (we were attending an event in the NEC). The breakfast was great, a brilliant range of food on offer which was kept topped up. The room was nice and clean.

Cons: the room does not have any wardrobe or shelves - just a hanging space and some hooks so there is nowhere to put things like underwear! The main drawback was the climate control system - you cannot set the temperature in your room. Instead each night a decision is made by staff about whether the rooms should be heated or cooled. During our stay the nights the heating was on were way too hot (it reached 27 degrees in our room at one point!), even with the heating turned completely off and the (small) window open. It’s not ideal to have the window open as it’s quite noisy outside (which isn’t a problem with the window closed as they’re quite soundproof) and there is a very bright billboard right outside which makes it hard to sleep if you have to keep the blackout curtains open. So essentially you have to choose between being very hot or having lots of light and noise from outside. A shame as otherwise the hotel was brilliant

Perfect for our day at HOYS. Breakfast was nice. Staff were friendly and helpful.

Excellent hotel.

Building work on the roof happening during the night and not the day, even on floor two this was heard I dread to think about those higher up. No Individual way to warm the room up. Stayed 5 nights and bed sheets not changed once. But still a nice hotel just overpriced for the service provided.

Close to nec halls

Excellent overnight stay, whilst attending a conference, staff are great, with a bright and busy communal area including the bar. Rooms have all amenities, required for a short stay. The main attraction is its location with a 2-minute walk to the NEC main entrance. Only downside is the parking is a 10-minute walk away with no shuttle service and could problematic in inclement weather. Please check with the conference as some include car parking even with the hotel discount it will still cost you £20 per night.

All the staff were super friendly. Rooms were comfortable, small bathroom as with all Moxys but everything you need was there. The only one thing that wasn't so great was the tiny gym. It's pretty much full if 2-3 people are using it but apart from that everything was great.

Returning visit to this hotel, good comfy, clean hotel. Stayed 2 nights, on second night never got my tea/ milk replenished or tissues in the tissue box empty! These things matter! For that reason I reduced a star

Would not recommend. Biggest problem was parking. Car park is 10 minutes walk away on other side of lake and costs £39 per night. They claim to be able to discount this to £12 a night if you give them your number plate but the separate NEC parking who run it will not honour this and just send you back to hotel who's staff will do likewise, show no interest and send you back to the car park until you have no choice but to just pay and leave after 30 minutes of walking backwards and forwards.
Hotel is decent enough enough. Bit if an annoying trying to be cool vibe and staff more interested in socialising with themselves than serving customers but otherwise all good. If arriving by public transport would be fine.

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Lovely hotel ideal location, friendly staff

Absolutely loved this hotel! loved the quirkiness. The room and bathroom had every thing we could possibly want. Breakfast was good, loads of choice. And the Staff were amazing, from the lovely reception staff (James and Miguel) to the cooks, waitresses and bar staff. nothing was too much trouble

Great hotel & easy acces

Stayed for one night as a pitstop with my son. It is a good 10 min walk from the car park to the hotel but it is quite a nice walk around the lake. Check in was friendly but took forever, with the check-in team member needing help from a colleague a couple of times. The hotel is your typical Moxy, clean, modern, small room. We had a twin room, the beds were tiny - I don't remember single beds being this small. That wasn't the main issue though. There was the worst sewerage small coming out of the bathroom. It was truly revolting. We arrived so late and had an early start the next day, that we just closed the bathroom door to get some sleep and an early start. We both felt nauseous the next morning from the smell. The hotel team did respond to a message from me saying they would shift rooms but it was so late and my son was already half asleep. My point to the hotel was why use this room with a smell like that, surely anyone from a cleaning team would have smelt it. We shall not be using this hotel in the future - plenty of other options. The Crown Plaza next door looks like a better option for anyone in the area and closer to the car park too.