Meliá Maputo Sky

This is supposedly a four star hotel, but staying in it you wouldn’t know. The worst value for money of any hotel I’ve ever stayed in. On the surface everything looks fine, even posh, but scratch slightly and this place is rubbish. A short list of everything wrong with it: 1) I found a bloodstain on my pillow - they had put a clean pillowcase over it to hide the stain; 2) found a bloodstain on the sheet; 3) the sheets were rough, poor quality, and clearly cheap; 4) the bed itself was hard as a rock; 5) the bathroom had a weird smell; 6) the towels were thin, small and cheap - one bath mat was threadbare and had a hole in it; 7) the wifi was abysmal - slow and unreliable; 8) the light switches are all finicky, but in my room, the one for the bedside light was falling out of the wall; 9) weird stains in the carpet; 10) furniture in the rooms of poor quality - the faux leather of the desk chair was disintegrating and got all over my clothes; 11) the breakfast was foul - the very few choices included: stale pastry, rubbery chicken sausage, gritty scrambled eggs, tasteless fruit, burnt coffee, etc.; 12) the rooftop bar was disappointing - nice view but the drinks were sweet and of low quality and the burger they brought was dry, cold and covered in plasticky cheese with no sauce; 13) turns out the “health club” is the gym next door that you have to buy a voucher to use (about £25); 14) you’re only permitted one 500ml bottle of cheap water per day - when I ran out and asked for more water, they sent me a 1L bottle through room service and charged me 600mzn (£7.4)!!! 15) standard business hotel toiletries weren’t available including shower caps or shoe mitts; 16) no iron or ironing board available The staff were perfectly pleasant, but this place is clearly being mismanaged. Stay anywhere else in Maputo. I’ve stayed at other places in the city that are half the price but twice as nice.

We had booked this before colleagues of mine in Maputo recommended other hotels. The hotel is clean, secure, and quiet, and the front desk staff were great. Location is reasonably close to the business districts and there is a grocery store next door. The rooftop bar is OK, though in a city with a lot of great views, it is nothing special. The breakfast was pretty dismal, and given how difficult transportation can be in Maputo if you don't have a driver, the staff could have been more helpful in that regard: they called a driver to take us to dinner but then left us to negotiate the price. In Portuguese. If your transportation is covered and this place is cheap, go ahead, but otherwise there are better places in town.