We stayed in the Governors Suite which, although pricey, was absolutely fabulous. A lovely big bed, cinema room and raised area, all very plush and your total needs catered for. Beautiful toiletries which you are encouraged to keep, a refreshing change from the usual rubbish you are presented with at most hotels. Its a strange theme, being an ex prison, but it works well. The hotel is quite dark in decor throughout but this gives a brilliantly eerie but comfortable feel... hard to explain. The restaurant has a good menu, nicely cooked food and a brilliant wine list. The bar is a huge room, it was lively the night we stayed as there was a large group of business colleagues staying and drinking, but this wasn't a problem due to the size if the room, it can accommodate plenty of guests. Outside of the hotel is the castle complex, a really trendy area with bars, restaurants, etc. A really nice spot for an evening out. Its well worth a stay, shame its so expensive but then you get what you pay for!

Read all the glowing and negative reviews. Having been I understand both: - Good reviews; suites or room facing the exercise yard - Bad review; rooms facing the outside restaurants and bars. So beware booking rooms you dont know the location of, you get what you pay for !!!!! we had a room in the cells facing the exercise yard and it was excellent. Ate in the brasserie, atmosphere good, basic menu, good food but pricey.

Malmaison calls itself an independent hotel, however everything about it is simply corporate and impersonal. I stayed there quite a few times. First time was absolutelly lovely- service, atmosphere, price. With the time however the quality has dropped dramatically. My friend booked a suite for girls to stay prior to her wedding: the suite was twice the price of the standard room for absolutelly no reason- it was not any larger- same size as normal room but split into 2 floors: everything you touch, you have to pay for- there were no CDs to listen, we ordered some wine to the room later and the hotel charged us 25% just to bring it to the door. When you are paying in a region of ?300 you expect that at least you might get a toast or croisant in the morning. Nope. You don't. The special deals you see on the site never seem to work either. It is a shame because potentially it could be a lovely place, but more and more it's looking like a corporate themed hotel than a tastful and magical place.

My husband and I spent a couple of nights in this hotel earlier this month and loved it. The main reason for going was that I have always had a bit of a thing for prisons (not that I have ever spent time in one). I love the idea of a prison (only closed in 1996) being converted into a hotel and if you also want a bit of luxury then you cannot go wrong with a stay here. The hotel building is steeped in history and inside still has character but with a modern twist. The standard rooms in the main prison are actually 3 cells knocked together and some even have the original cell door. The shower in the bathroom was huge and they encourage you to take the soaps etc home with you. The hotel definately has character and atmosphere We found the service to be wonderful and most of the staff bent over backwards to make sure we had a nice stay, especially Elizabeth who works at the basement bar. Food and drinks are quite expensive but then that is normal in a hotel like this. If you prefer to leave the hotel to eat then you have the following within the castle complex and seconds from the hotel: Prezzo, Krispy Kreme, Pizza Express, La Tasca and a few more that I cannot remember. You are also about a 3 min walk from the main shops in Oxford. Overall this hotel was one of the best I have stayed at in the UK but you do need to watch the pennies. If you have any questions I'll be happy to answer them

We stayed here for our wedding. The rooms and building are absolutely amazing (although I only saw the top suite where we stayed and one of the higher-priced standard rooms). The service wasn't exactly top notch however. We had about six or seven rooms booked for various people who arrived at different times, and it took about 20-30 minutes for each check-in. Contacting reception by phone was generally fine, but I dreaded everytime I had to speak to them directly as it alwasy took forever and I didn't have a feeling of confidence in them. They managed to lose the car keys of one of our party claiming that they hadn't been given, before eventually finding them the next day. The cleaners also threw away the jewellery box that my necklace came in, the box my tiara came in and the wrapper for my wedding dress even though they weren't in the bin. Given the amount of money that we were giving the hotel with that number of rooms booked including the main suite for two nights, I also felt they could have made a bit more of a fuss of us! We had part of the wedding reception at The Randolph and I did look jealously as I saw somebody there whisked through check-in about ten seconds. However, I think it was still worth staying at the Malmaison for the fabulousness of the rooms. One word of warning: the hotel is very difficult to find by car and you have to give the valet parking quite a lot of notice to have access to your car.