The Hotel Indigo Warsaw Nowy Świat is a four-star boutique hotel located next to the old town of Warsaw, Poland. What formerly known as the Branicki Residential House – Smolna 40, the building can be dated back to 1903. Through turmoils during the war, the residence building was developed by BUDIZOL Property to open as an Indigo hotel in May 2017.

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How I Got There

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The hotel is centrally located, so you may get there by many means of public transportation, but Uber is also extremly cheap in Poland, so the ride-sharing app has been my go-to method of communting around the city.

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I arrived at the hotel site around 2 PM, and I was immediately impressed by the architecture itself. The hotel doesn’t look busy at all, in fact, it was a bit too quiet, I guess that’s why they called themselves a boutique hotel.

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Check-In

The hotel lobby is mesmerizing, the art installation was majestic and beautiful. Since I booked the stay with IHG rewards points, so I wasn’t expecting anything over and beyond from the hotel; however, to my surprsie, I noticed in the app that room has been upgraded to a suite in advance.

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The lady who checked me in was happy to see someone finally showed up when I entered the lobby, she welcomed me with a warm greeting and thanked me for my royalty with IHG rewards, she told me that they’ve upgraded me to their only king suite of the hotel, and she called the housekeeping to check again whether everything was ready before making the room key cards for me.

She mentioned nothing about breakfast and I ended up not waking up early enough to find out anyway.

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The entire hotel is trying to be sustainable, so the hallway light will only switch on if you make a clear sound, which can be creepy at times.

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Practical Info

• Length: One night Stay
• Booked Room Category: Standard 1 Queen NS
• Upgraded Room Category: Suite 1 King NS
• Booking Made: IHG App
• IHG Rewards Tier: Spire Elite
• Booking Through: Point Breaks Redemption (15,000 Points)
• Room Number: 409

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The Suite

Upon entering, the suite looked bright and open, I felt the openness within the enclosed space avaliable, as stated on their website, the suite is only 44 sqm.

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The interior is elegant and chic, I liked the strong contrast between the furniture and the plain white wall.

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The suite has dedicated space for your luggage and decent closet space for all your other belongings.

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The most dazzling thing about the living room would be the window, not only was it up to the ceilings, but the painted window frames made it even more chic and elegant.

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The elevated seating space made it even more exquisite, you can just imagine yourself sitting there with a glass of wine and looking out to the window as you are taking everything in with light music playing in the background. (I actually did that.)

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With different seating sofas together, you can also have an enjoyable time with friends and families.

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Overall the living room layout is decent and nothing is compromised here in order to make up for the seating space.

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I’ve chosen the welcome points during check in, but the hotel went out of their way and left a welcome letter with a glas of red wine for me in the room, too. I certainly felt very welcome by this kind gesture.

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With the suite upgrade, I was also able to enjoy free soft drinks & snacks as part of their free in-suite offerings.

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The counter under the TV is fully equipped with all the glassware and tea sets.

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The mini bar has a decent selection of liquor options in addition to the free soft drinks.

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One thing I found out during the stay was the scale formed inside the water kettle, that’s very unpleasant to encounter as it feels like the housekeeping lacks some attention to details here.

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Behind the sofa sets, you can find a simple desk where you can work on. The desk & chair itself is decent but nothing revolutionary, but the smart appliances will surprise you.

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The lamp had a charging head for iPhone and the smart telephone comes with google maps and internet browser, plus many other apps. In my opinion, these small gadgets are huge enhancements to a hotel’s hard product offerings nowadays.

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The sky-light ceiling adds another key selling point to the room, it makes you feel the visual extention to the environment outdoor so for a moment I felt like standing under the glass roof of a French museum.

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The Bedroom

The bedroom is relatively simple, the design is modern as always, but it’s not the same size as a normal guestroom, in fact it’s smaller.

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The bed and pillows are clean and comfortable, the bed the hotel referred to as a king bed is of decent size, but not the biggest I’ve seen, the headboard is elastic and it’s great to lean on.

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The hotel offers in-room handy phone which you can take out with you for internet coverage and make phone calls to a dozen different countries free of charge.

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The Bathroom

The bathroom went for a black & white decor which brings out the contrast between the chequerboard tiles and other interiors.

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The oval bathtub is elegantly designed and looked very chic.

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The shower amenities being offered was from the German sport luxury brand Bogner. It was okay to use but personally I didn’t feel anything extraordinary while using it.

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Another smart solution they had with the suite was, with a push of a bottom, you may switch clear or opaque the smart glass they’ve installed between the bathroom and the bedroom.

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Fitness & Sauna

Although the hotel only has 60 rooms, it has a 24 hours fitness center equipped with a small sauna facility.

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It’s not the most well-equipped gym but you can get a work out done without much problem.

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The staff reminded me that it take some time to heat up the sauna, so if you are thinking of using it, you would have to call them in advance so they can heat it up for you.

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Bottom Line

This IHG property gives great recognition to its elite members, that something may look favorably upon. It has a great location in central Warsaw, while the hotel itself is very quiet and peaceful, so it’s highly recommended that you spend some days with them. The staff doesn’t have to deal with a large flow of guests checking in and out everyday, so they definitely have a lot more time to ensure the quality of your stay experience; besides the hotel was opened 2017, so right now might be the perfect time to try it out.

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Ratings

Check-in Experience: 8.5/10

Staff Experience: 9/10

Status Recognition: 9.5/10

Room Comfortability: 8.5/10

Housekeeping Experience: 8.3/10

Overall Experience: 8.8/10

Thanks for reading this stay report, and are you planning to stay here soon? Leave a comment.

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Moxy hotels are Marriott’s new budget chain that has properties with very basic room categories, so with Marriott Rewards, you won’t be getting suite upgrades or lounge access as they practically don’t come with any, instead, it’s a nightclub-like hostel that are filled with flirty little details to discourage you from thinking about the price you are paying for those tiny rooms.

Moxy Frankfurt East is not conveniently located near Frankfurt Central railway station, but it’s definitely not far from it; you may reach the hotel with the city tram which will drop you one block away from it.

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Practical Info:

• Length: One night stay (late check-in)

• Booked Room Category:  One Standard Room

• Upgrades: No Upgrades

• Booking Made: Marriott App

• Marriott Rewards Tier: Platinum Premier Elite

• Welcome Amenities Choice: 500 Marriott Reward Points

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Check-In:

Moxy is offering a bar alike check-in experience, as the counter area staff are also bartenders who sell and make drinks. I arrived at the hotel around 12 PM in the middle of the night. I supposed the lady who checked me in was already tired of her shift, also I didn’t have too much expectation from Moxy to start with, she used a lazy tone and informed me that she will just credited me the 500 points and carded me a room on the first floor. I then asked for a higher floor, only to be told the hotel is fully booked. K…

Apart from the nightclub business at night, the lobby decor feels like some trendy café during the day.

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The Room:

This Moxy property only has three room categories, and I was given one at the most basic level at the most basic floor.

The room is tiny, as you would expect from a hostel, but it has tried its best to offer everything a standard hotel room could give. It has a IKEA style minimalistic furnishing and everything is of miniature size. Except the TV, the TV is huge compared to everything else in the room.

As the Moxy brand is a quiet new, they are able to offer a lot of innovative smart solutions. Even for hotels like JW Marriott Hong Kong, their top notch service doesn’t include a high resolution TV.

In addition to TV and radios; the TV also offers internet browsing, personal device connection and weirdly enough – ASMR bedtime stories. Young people today would love these and it’s still very new. So, good job, Marriott.

I do think the nightclub alike touches could attract a younger crowd than normal; and just maybe Marriott could win them over when their younger targets become business travellers one day. Not bad.

The bed and linens are well, not so comfortable, it’s close to hostel qualities and it’s far from the good ones.

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The Bathroom:

The bathroom is not big either, but you wouldn’t be having a problem to have a good shower.

The towels are thin and shower amenities like soap and shampoo are in dispensers only. Nothing much to complain here, as for a brand like Moxy, it will never get better.

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Breakfast:

After the introduction of the new Marriott program since August, Courtyard, AC Hotels, Protea and Moxy will stop offering free breakfast for elite members. Instead you get a 10 USD credit. Breakfast cost 10 Euros at Moxy Frankfurt East, and I am not sure it’s worth what you are paying for.

Here’s what I’ve chosen to eat. Not something I would expected to be eating at a hotel normally.

The only two hot plate offerings are just eggs, boiled and fried.

They offer a decent selection of cereals though, I am uncertain whether it’s a Moxy thing or a German thing, or a pop-culture reference; maybe a little bit of everything then. But the word for the hotel is – cost-saving.

Another IKEA alike feature is that you might be expected to return your tray after you are done with your breakfast. It’s quiet common for young people today to do this self-willingly.

Another notable feature is their coffee machine that freaking offers more than 20 different choices. Impressed.

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The Gym:

The gym area is located at the lobby as well. It’s a square-shaped room with all the necessary facilities. Nothing to complain about.

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Other Amenities:

The lobby area is a cool place to explore as they combine everything at a business-oriented hotel all within the same place.

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Conclusion:

I’ve paid more than 100 Euros for my one night stay which could get you some decent full service brands instead, I would only consider staying here if I am able to score a deal around 60 Euros in the future. Other than paying for breakfast, I wouldn’t mind recommending you staying here for a special experience and if you are into getting some instagramable pictures taken.