Given the high ratings Mariam Hotel has gotten, I expected a bit more. What you get with Mariam -- for a pretty good price to be sure -- is a basic hotel room. Not particularly comfortable or particularly good in service or anything else. The front desk was always so busy we had to wait around a long time to check in, check out, or ask a question. Importantly (for those going in the summer) there is no A/C in the rooms, so they can be uncomfortably hot ! Also the pool was sort of a green color so we didn't venture inside. And the breakfast was very basic, just bread and butter, etc . . they wouldn't even give us a bottle of water with our breakfast (this cost sextra). The hotel is a short cab ride from Madaba city center. There really aren't any shopping or eating options around the hotel.

We stayed at the Mariam Hotel for a few days in December '07 and January '08. It was a very good choice indeed.. The hotel is simple, but very clean, staff friendly, you have everything that you want, even a pool if you want.

The breakfast was sustantial. They organise the taxis to make all the trip to the north of Jordan, i.e. dead sea, Hamamat Ma'in spring hots, Jerash, etc.
Also they have a small bus that goes to Wadi Mousa (Petra) using the Kingshighway, which is very scenic.

This was our best hotel in Jordan and we will be back.

Cheers
Juan

We stayed at the Mariam Hotel for 2 days in January 2008 and really enjoyed our stay here. Compared to the other hotels we have stayed at in Jordan, it was excellent value for excellent price (27 JD per night for a double room). We would definitely recommend it to our friends

Pros:
- Great price. We paid more than double when we were staying in Amman for a similar room
- Close to airport, much closer than Amman
- Friendly and helpful staff
- Walking distance to restaurants, shops, main attractions
- Hotel arranges tours to various sites in Jordan
- Airport pickup and dropoff at great prices
- Rooms are clean and nicely decroated
- Great location, from Madaba you can easily visit most of the attractions of Jordan


Cons:
- The heater in our room did not always work
- The hot water was not working when we arrived but after we informed we desk they did fix it
- The internet in the lobby was extremely slow to the point of not working

Overall we thoroughly enjoyed our stay in Mariam Hotel and were glad that we decided to stay there instead of going back to Amman

We chose this hotel on advice from Ruth who has written about Jordan in Jordanjubilee. It is located a few minutes walk from Madaba centre where there are shops and the attraction of St George's church.
The hotel was very clean and comfortable to stay in, with good service, a simple but effective restaurant, and a clean swimming pool. Internet is available as is satellite TV, office staff are courteous and helpful.
It is worth knowing that you are 30km SW of Amman, so trips north to say Jerash will be more costly; but the hotel arranges (commission free) private taxi services to many sites of interest at reasonable rates.
Scott and Liz, South Australia