Crowne Plaza

So here’s the story. Went to Milan on business and my travel agent really struggled to find me a hotel since it was the last week of the Expo and the MTV awards were taking place that week in Milan, so naturally all the hotels were full. At the last min he found the Crown Plaza.
Lets start with the location. It’s pretty far from the center of the city. The nearest metro station is a 10min walk followed by a 25 min metro ride to get to the Duomo area in Milan. It’s an hour away from the international airport and Expo. The upside is you won’t be bothered by outside noises like traffic and such because there is none. So if your in Milan for sightseeing, probably not the best place to stay as you’ll waste alot of time commuting.
Check-​in was fast and the staff were ok. The rooms are the usual European sizes (kinda small). I have no complaints about the cleanliness of the hotel, however there was a dirty wet towel under the sink in the bathroom (which wasn’t pleasent of course) but sure it was overlooked by the cleaning staff since everything else was spotless. Breakfast was fine, nothing special.
What about the internet? Well for starters internet is not free. It’s 10 € for 24hours. Add to that, when you buy it, you can only use it on one device. Meaning if you have your phone and a laptop or iPad you have to pay for each device separately. And for a hotel that’s marketed as a business hotel, that’s disappointing. I kept losing connection and it was really slow! Very frustrating.
All in all my experience was fine. I would stay there again if I was on business. Would just have to figure something out for the internet.

Pour avoir passé une nuit au Crowne Plaza mon avis sur l’endroit sera très court… mais tout de même. Ayant pris la peine de dormir, boire un verre au bar, dîner au soir et pris un petit déjeuner, il est possible d’en écrire quelques lignes.
Propreté et service impeccable!!!
Un mini buffet de dégustations milanaise pour l’apéritif et du vin de bonne qualité.
Ce qui a coincé c’est la partie restaurant au soir.
Une carte «tape à l’oeil» (voir photos) pour pas grand chose au niveau qualité.
Un risotto qui semble être du riz et des pâtes assez peu cuites. On note une différence entres pâtes «Al dente» et pâtes pas assez cuites! :-)
Pour 200 € la nuit j’aurais aimé une restauration d’un niveau plus élevé qu’une cantine scolaire… prochaine fois je sortirais pour manger dans un restaurant, un vrai!
Ps: né demandez pas au serveur la suggestion du vin car sinon il vous apportera toute une bouteille et vous servira sans vous consulter… Et de plus si vous lui demandez de qualifier le vin, la réponse sera «bene»… ce qui vous fera bien rire (en tout cas moi j’ai bien rigolé de sa réponse hehe)

I was in need of a hotel located close to Linate airport both for a late arrival and then for a very early departure. I was deciding between the Novotel or the Crowne Plaza and opted for the Crowne Plaza and I slightly regretted my choice. The hotel is not located very close to the airport (it is a about a 10 minute drive). It is also very difficult to find if you decide to drive there (I used a GPS and like some previous reviewers also found it difficult to find). There is a free shuttle to and from the airport but do note that it is note available for early mornings. I was going to use it for my morning flight (had then already returned the rental car by then) but it had not started its service then so I had to grab a cab for € 20.
Inside the hotel everything is clean but it is apparent that the hotel was built a while back. The furniture is a bit dated and it feels like the hotel has seen better days. The front desk staff were mostly helpful and reasonably service-​minded (I am then comparing to what I expect in Italy and not to the level of service I would expect in the US or the UK).
I was upgraded upon check-​in (not sure why) but I still felt that the room was a bit cramped with furniture. The room had the same feeling that the rest of the hotel — it had probably been very nice when it was built but now everything felt out-​dated. The bed was ok not more. I am usually not bothered by noise but I felt that the air-​con was very loud as well as the noise from the high-​way (doubt that it was proper double-​glass windows). It did not prevent my from sleeping well but I could not fall asleep right away.
There was a desk where it was possible to sit down and do some work. The Internet was ridiculously overpriced but it functioned well. A mini-​bar was in the room and a plus for the coffee and tea-​making facilities as well as a complimentary bottle of water.
The bathroom was nice and all the standard toiletries where provided and an extra plus for providing mouth wash in a small travel sized bottle.
Do avoid eating anything at the hotel. I had the breakfast buffet and the hot food was appalling. The cold food was just plain boring (dry bread, and some strange tasting ham). The coffee was not very good but I have come to expect that from Italian hotels. For dinner I was intending on going somewhere else but it was a bit late for that when I was ready for dinner so I was going to try out the a la carte restaurant but it was of course closed for summer — had to