I would highly recommend this hotel but only if you can get a substantially reduced rate. It's at Munich's exhibition centre so if there are no large events taking place, you can get a good deal. I booked through the hotel's own website and stayed 6 nights for an average price of €64 a night. Hotels in Munich tend to be expensive and this one offered very comfortable accommodation at much less than I would have paid for similar in the city centre.

The subway station is right outside the hotel and there's a lift from the platform if you have heavy luggage. The journey into the city centre takes about 20 minutes and the service is very frequent (about every 10 mins) until the early hours of the morning. Tickets can be bought at machines in the station or from the hotel reception.

My room was large, comfortable and equipped with everything I needed, including coffee & tea making facilities, a minibar, an electronic safe big enough to house my laptop, a large desk with handy power points and nice lighting which created a cosy atmosphere. The bathroom was sparkling and although it didn't have a bath, there was a nice shower cubicle.

Breakfast in the hotel was expensive (€17) but there's a large shopping centre just yards away where a food hall offers a wide range of options at much more reasonable prices.

Dinner in the hotel was nice and the staff were friendly and efficient but again, it was too expensive. The shopping centre closes at 8.30pm but a couple of restaurants stay open all evening and offer much better value.

There is a free Internet terminal in the hotel's reception or you can pay for WiFi access in your room. The cost was €5.95 for 30 mins, €12.95 for 2 hours or €29.95 for 24 hours. Although expensive, it's not as bad as some other business hotels I've stayed in.

The hotel staff were helpful and friendly and I felt totally safe as a single traveller. All in all, it made an ideal base for my trip and I would happily return, provided I could get another good deal.

Not much to say for once, a good Novotel, nice design (and tons of pictures from the old airport era).

The rooms are nice, the bathroom a bit small and not too well organized (you've to close the toilets to push the flush). Internet is overly expensive, it seems this is quite common in the Dorint hotels lately (see my other recent reviews).

Breakfast was quite OK, food was average (I've had better food, and the buffet plates seem to be prepared long time in advance as colors gets darker on the exposed parts).

Not really close to the airport (30-45 mins, 50-65 EUR).

Firstly, this hotel is located west of Munich in an area called Messestadt West (meaning Fair City West).

The hotel is surrounded by an exhibition centre (ICM) and is located on what used to be Munich's old airport. The hotel displays photo's of the airport as it was back in its heyday all over the place. The U-Bahn and a shopping mall are directly outside the hotel and you can eat well and cheaply in the mall. The U-Bahn gets you in the city centre (Marianplatz) in about 15-20 mins and costs 8.50 euros per day for a Partner Card which allows two persons to travel in the 'inner zone' which includes Messestadt West & East. The outside of the hotel itself is very modern German or non-descript basically....clean lines and unimaginative.

Inside the rooms are nice, no longer brand new, but nice. Orange covered chairs and sofa's. The beds are comfortable but only have one small pillow per person. The bathrooms are very presentable. The first room we were presented with was a good size with a huge bathroom (we booked a superior room), however it only had one small window and an adjoining door which dominated the room. As there was not enough light, we asked to move from this third floor room and were told at first that all the rooms had the same size window. However as I happened to be lookking out the window at the building while on the phone to reception I was able to tell them that this was not the case and got moved to a room on the fifth floor with four times the amount of light (room 560). This room was the largest on the fifth floor with a nice if smallish bathroom. Room 60 on each floor is the largest. However in room 560 you can hear the lifts grinding at night as the lift shaft is not far away. Rooms were cleaned daily and done very well. The first drink from your minibar is free per stay, nice touch.

The bar is small and intimate, fairly priced and smart looking. The reception has a terminal for free internet access and a printer but it is a slow connection and only one person can use it at a time.

20 mins from town centre, however this gets tedious if you are there more than two days and I would pay the extra to stay centrally next time and save on the U-Bahn fares too.

It is a bit of an operation getting from the airport to the hotel outside of Exhibiton Times, as you have to take the S8 train from the airport, change to the U5 at Ostbahnhof Station, and then connect later with the U2 line for delivery to Messestadt West. In exhibiton time, there is a shuttle bus from the airport to exhibition centre beside the hotel and I would recommend this to save all the messing around.

I had previously stayed at the Novotel Zoolander in Berlin and the Messestadt West hotel could not touch it on any level. Basically this is a hotel from a really good hotel chain, but this is a slight backwater level compared to the Berlin operation. The rates were very good though, and if you're there on business or are aged 50+ then this is a great deal. Being in my thirties though, I would have preferred a more central location with less commute.

Furthermore, if you are looking to city break in Germany and are not particularly hung up on which city, I would by far recommend Berlin over Munich as there is more to see and do, its cheaper in Berlin and there is much more variety of everything.

Enjoy your trip :)

My wife and I stayed at this hotel in Feb 2007 for 3 nights. It is a very modern and comfortable hotel with good amenities and is close to a shopping mall. The tube station is just outside which makes this a good base for exploring Munich (and makes it cheaper than the inner city hotels). We did not eat in, prefering to explore the surrounding eateries or dinng in Munich.
I would highly recommend booking early using the Novotel website in order to secure a good rate.
In summary, this is a good quality hotel with friendly staff and superior amenities and is in a good position to do the tourist thing in Munich.