This stay in Bordeaux was not only an opportunity to eat the most expensive Medoc vine shoots in history as you could read on my review of the flight that brought me here but especially to test the Moxy Bordeaux hotel after having already stayed twice at Renaissance Bordeaux located next door.

The opportunity to check if this chain that we appreciate so much still keeps its promises.

Booking

I booked about ten days before my stay in a Moxy room (the standard room) for 90 euros a night. The hotel doesn’t have suites per se but I use my Suite Night Awards to request an upgrade to the “Mega Moxy Room with rooftop access”, a much larger room with a real lounge area and a large terrace.

Location

The hotel is therefore located right next to the Renaissance Bordeaux, in the Bassin à flot district, near the Cité du Vin. On a map it may look off-center, but you’ll be in the center of town in 30 minutes on foot, taking advantage of the superb walk along the quays of Bordeaux. For the less courageous it is 10 minutes by streetcar.

So there is nothing prohibitive and I appreciate to see this district so well rehabilitated whereas it was only a gloomy cut-throat at the time when I used to live in Bordeaux.

From the airport I won’t venture to give any figures. Anyone who knows the traffic in Bordeaux knows that it is even worse than in Paris so… But if you take a hotel in the hyper center know that it will be even worse.

Arrival at the hotel and check-in

I arrive by Uber from Merignac airport in the middle of the morning. I had previously checked in online and indicated an early arrival knowing that I was going to need my room early for work (check-in is theoretically at 3pm).

In the meantime my request for an upgrade will have been declined and for good reason. While checking the inventory of the hotel I realize that it does not have any more available room.

As always at Moxy the hotel lobby is a large living space organized around an island that includes the bar and the reception since the same people are in charge of both.

The staff is as always young and rather nice. The formalities are quickly carried out and I am promised that my room will be ready at 11 am. Better than I expected.

I am told that the hotel is full because of a business seminar and that if I had arrived the next day there would have been plenty of room for a nice upgrade. Too bad it will be for another time.

However, I was assigned a “larger” room. I’m waiting to see.

While waiting I make a tour of the property and take a tea on the terrace.

The lobby is totally in the Moxy spirit: a place to live, relax and even work, modern, without fuss, pretty and comfortable.

So I go on the terrace to enjoy this spring sun.

The disused grain silos that make up the Renaissance reception area are clearly visible.

At 11 am my room is ready and I go to settle in.

La chambre Moxy

I take the elevator and the “Moxy culture” is immediately reminded of me. It’s a young chain with a quirky tone that likes its customers to take ownership of the place, the concept, and put themselves on stage on social networks or elsewhere. The evidence…

Let’s move on, I’m in a hurry to get settled.

It is often said that once you’ve seen one Moxy, you’ve seen them all…making a concept that is both lifestyle and affordable does indeed require extreme standardization. If a lot of efforts are made in the common areas of each hotel, the rooms are hyper standardized, which does not mean that they lack personality.

And so here is the room. As in Lisbon recently, I find it hard to see how it could be “bigger” than a standard room but I do get a King bed instead of a Queen.

As expected it is pretty but very simple.

You will immediately notice, as is often the case at Moxy, the more than minimalist desk area. That’s one thing I don’t understand: we’re in 2022, in a chain that caters more and more to nomadic workers, and this is the work comfort offered.

It lacks space, you can hardly put down a computer and spending several hours on this stool is anything but easy. I had the same thought at the Moxy Lisbon and even at the Moxy Copenhagen. But today even chains more oriented towards business travel are doing the same and it is starting to get on my nerves. Anyway.

The bathroom is…the same as in any Moxy. Sober, successful and rather warm.

The bedding is of good quality, one sleeps well even if you can suspect that it is not at the level of a 5*! But it is in any case comfortable.

It will prove to be very pleasant and comfortable, modulo my remark about the desk. Otherwise it’s typical Moxy: it’s simple, rather pretty but without frills and well worth the price.

If you want to see a Moxy that is off the beaten track, it will be in a few months but I’ll keep the suspense going…

Catering

There is no restaurant at Moxy, just a fairly good quality snack service at the bar in my experience but I won’t test it here.

Just a drink at the bar at the aperitif. Nice atmosphere, pleasant staff, warm setting and ambiance, what more could you ask for?

Hotel facilities

It will be relatively quick since the hotel has no facilities. Even if Moxy is not a “full service” chain, there is usually a gym (even a minimalist one) and sometimes a swimming pool when the place and the destination are suitable.

Not here.

It’s a pity because again, given the clientele I think that the gym is really an expected service. In addition, they could have given access to the Renaissance gym, as is often done, knowing that it is the same complex.

In short, disappointing.

Staff and service

In a hotel that is not full service the interactions and expectations are limited. What to say here? That everything that had to be done (check-in, bar…) was done, was done well, and with a big smile and an excellent relationship with the customer.

Check-out

I’ll check out on the Marriott mobile app and head out to pick up my Uber to the airport without having to go through the front desk again. Simple and very effective.

Bottom line

An uneventful stay and the Moxy promise is kept in a very pleasant property. I will however regret the absence of a gym and the lack of a proper work space in the room (this may be what will make me choose another hotel for a next stay if I know I have to work, which is often the case).

But at 90 euros a night I say yes right away.

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