Magnolia Hotel, Omaha

For starters there is no awful smell to the hotel. The review that said it smelled awful is half right, I have a friend that was doing a wedding reception that weekend and it was a burst pipe that had the whole block smelling like that so there was nothing they could do. Moving on, there are only 2 knocks I have against the hotel. #1 the king room we had, bu the time you put in a bed, chair, desk with a chair, and a tv, there wasn't a whole lot of room to move around but unless you're a family of four planing to live there for a week you don't need alot of room to move, you're there to sleep so it's no big deal. #2 the shower is strangely narrow and small, that is my only real knock on the hotel. The good, the staff is very friendly and helpful. Free rides to where ever you want to go downtown. From 5:30 to 6:30 free house wine and draft beer along with free pop. Free breakfast buffet in the morning. Free cookie bar at night, didn't get in on that one though. Valet parking is $12 but your vehicle is safe and secure. It's a beautiful hotel outside and in, overall we'd stay there again in a heartbeat.

I recently stayed here and spent over 200.00 on a room which had missig items like bathroom door latches and was not clean. The hall to our "Suite" was smelly and they had a cheap wall plug in to try to cover the smell. The hall way had some drywall cut out and was not finished, and the hotel had very out dated decor. If your going to stay in a down town hotel this is not the one for you, choose something newer or a better hotel chain. Very sorry I spent this kind of money on the room I got here.

In my search for an Omaha venue for my wedding and reception, I stumbled across the magnolia hotel. It was beautiful, just what I was looking for. Even the pricing looked good. The wedding coordinator seemed nice enough. They even had a date in May available for me. I was excited and asked the coordinator to send me the contract so I could book. After waiting well over a week, I called again and asked again for the contract. When I got it, I was quite dismayed by some important information that had never been disclosed to me. So I want to warn everyone in advance. THERE IS AN $11,000 FOOD AND BEVERAGE MINIMUM SPEND!!!!! So if you want to go with their $40 per person package, and you are only having 200 people at your wedding, you are still $3,000 short of the minimum.

Our Magnolia Hotel experience was AWESOME the staff is really friendly and experts on hot spots in Old Market. During our stay we had free valet parking, free rides to anywhere in their ESCALADE, free breakfast, and a free cookie buffet. We had a fabulous time and will visit again, the staff at the Magnolia Hotel made our stay pleasant.

We were pleasantly surprised with our first visit. Hotel staff was friendly and helpful. Our room had an attractive fireplace and new decor throughout. The bedding was heavenly. The cookie and milk bar before bedtime was a special treat.

My husband and I went here for our honeymoon and paid more than $200/night for a jacuzzi suite. While the suite was fine, it wasn't what we expected for that price. You should know there are no fridges or microwaves in these rooms, which goes against the Magnolia's web site proclamation that all rooms should have these items. When we asked about room service, no menus could be found, and when one was finally located, it was out of date. The hallways and the bathroom both had a bad odor, so we really expected more from our stay.

I would not stay here, but feel free to read about my experience. The hotel said it was newly renovated, and that is partially true. Some portions are renovated, but much of the hotel is still under construction. For the price and quality you would do much better to stay at the nearby Marriott Courtyard or similar hotels. There is a parking charge which immediately puts you at about the same price and the internet charge puts you over the Marriott price. Additionally, there is not a bathtub, a bottle of water costs $5, there are only 33 tv stations and no movie channels, movie rentals start at $9 for old movies, one of the beds in my room was missing a sheet, and the whole hotel had an odd odor that could best be described as vaguely similar to sewage. In my room the heat was not working and I had to call an engineer, who knew of the problem but hadn't gotten to the room earlier in the day. This hotel could have been very nice, but they didn't spend the time on details that make an old hotel have character. For what you get, I would look elsewhere.

Our first impression of the hotel was the lack of parking. The requirement of guests is to vallet for $12/day or park on the street. The hotel is right across from a Greyhound bus station and when you go out to stretch your legs, you'd best go in the right direction, otherwise the streets are filthy, buildings abandon and those aren't business people hanging out on the street corners on the weekends. Our room was nice and beds were comfortable. We booked a room for 2 adults and 2 children. It was not until the morning that we found out we were given only two bath towels. I later found out that two was a blessing, another in our party staying in a different room had none. Still another group had reserved a room that was not ready when they got there (still being painted and w/o beds) and had to scramble to find appropriate accomodations for 6. If you don't mind sirens while you sleep, you'll sleep comfortably - no really, both nights - sirens. Its a pretty building and they are trying to do it right...but currently failing.

Yes, the hotel has been completely remodeled and it looks very cool--great colors, decor, etc.--but that doesn't necessarily translate into a good thing. The bathroom in our room was just funky. A weird shower that you stepped up to, and it was very narrow. I can't see any large person being able to fit. The sink was "above ground" which was pretty, but left little room to put stuff. There were 2 of us, and just not enough room for anything. Also, the bathroom door was bizarre--a large piece of wood on gliders that loosely, and I do mean loosely covered the bathroom opening. And while I'm on the bathroom, two towels are not enough for two people. And since I used most of the hand lotion the first day, it should have been replaced the second day, but it wasn't and I found myself squeezing and tapping the little bottle with a vengeance trying to get enough product. It was very noisy as every door to every guest room slammed shut. This started about 6am every morning and felt like the noise came from your room. It wasn't until the last day that I figured out the "people running" noise I kept hearing came from the stairway close to our room. And the employees use walkie talkies to communicate with one another. You could hear every word that was shouted over these devices. It felt like you were at a crime scene or some such!! The location is just a little too far away from Old Town. It is a five block walk, which under pleasant weather would be welcome. But, it was 92-95 degrees with high humidity for our stay, and five blocks was unpleasant. And my last complaint is while there is free internet in the lobby, they charge $10 a day for internet in the room. This is tacky and falls under the nickel and dime syndrome. The room as $160 per night, internet should be free in the room. The good: The staff is very professional and friendly. They offer coffee and rolls in the morning in the lobby area, very nice, but the furniture in there is very uncomfortable, although it looks nice. The best thing is they offer transportation to/from the airport AND around town to pretty much wherever you want to go. This was great (as was the driver) but we did learn that all the downtown hotels offer this service.

The hotel is currently under construction, which they did not inform us of before our arrival. The only stairs in the hotel were completely blocked with ladders and a temporary wall for 2 days. Service was terrible on all fronts. To top it off, I walked out of the shower this morning to find a construction worker on a window washing platform outside my open 4th floor window! Right now I'm writing this from a dark room, as my windows are covered and taped on the outside for painting. My room phone doesn't work and my shower backs up into my sink. I've had better experiences in third world countries. Did I mention they're charging me full price?!?