Stayed: February 2019

The hotel is very close to the airport (in fact, I saw part of the airport from my hotel room); it took the cab about 10 minutes to get there.

The building itself is actually quite unattractive from the outside, just a blockish-type of 12-story piece of concrete.

The worst part of the hotel is the location - it is on a „traffic island“ right next to a large hospital and across the road from another hospital. Thinking of strolling downtown in the evening? Think again - it is a good 3km away from the beginning of the old part of town. Also, just getting some walking in around the hotel really isn’t much of an option.
To go anywhere, you'll need to catch a cab. Luckily, there is usually a line of them waiting in front of the hotel. And because taking a cab is relatively inexpensive in Lisbon, it isn't much of an issue. The hotel doesn't offer a shuttle bus.

My room was on the 9th floor, facing the six-lane highway. Luckily, the glass to the outside is really good at dampening noise so this wasn't a problem. Oddly, while other main roads in and out of Lisbon are often packed with traffic, the one outside the hotel never was when I looked (which was during peak times in the morning and the evening). The room was clean and quite comfortable as well as being just large enough for one person (it had two double beds in it). It even offered a clothes iron and board, something you rarely have available in a room.

The bathroom showed a bit of age, but not in a bad way. Everything worked fine and was clean.

There are four (fast!) elevators and I never had a wait of more than perhaps a minute.

I had quite a number of meals in the hotel in the four days we were there, as the hotel was venue to a company meeting. Breakfast, lunch and dinner - all the food was fantastic. Well cooked and seasoned as well as a good variety with lots of vegetables and fruit. I have no idea how the pricing was, as everything was paid for by the company. Also, the hotel staff - no matter what position - were all very friendly and helpful.

All in all, a comfortable place to stay. I would award five stars if the hotel was in a different location (closer to downtown or at least closer to places you'd like to stroll or jog through). Keep in mind, though, that I did not see what the room or meals cost…

Stayed: September 2018

I don‘t have a lot of experience with Intercity Hotels, having only stayed in two before (one was in Augsburg, not sure where the other was). So far, my experience has been all good. I chose the hotel in Altona because it was just three stops away from the office I had meetings at and was centrally located right at the Altona train station.

I had a room to the street side (apparently quieter than to the train station side, which makes sense). Unfortunately, this Intercity hotel was built quite differently from the ones I‘d been in before, with the wall thickness comparable to cheapo mediterranean hotels - it sounded like they were very thin.

Having stayed in a variety of Motel One hotels with nearly soundproof windows, I can also say that soundproofing can be done better than here.

The room size was as expected (I think the rooms are all the same in this hotel chain) and it was very clean. The mattresses, however, were hard as a board - I tend to like my mattress harder rather than softer, but this was rediculous. Sure, hard mattresses last longer than soft ones, but if you don‘t sleep well, then someone in purchasing made a bad decision!

Also, despite being fitted with a thermostat control (set your temperature and it should hold it), the shower temperature had frequent hot or cold „swings“ that were so quick that you didn‘t have time to get out from under the spray.

I didn‘t have breakfast, so I can‘t judge that.

You do get a free pass for riding the local public transit (including ferries), so that is a plus.

All in all, if you don‘t mind sleeping on logs and have to take an S-Bahn to somewhere else in Hamburg, the location is great (Altona is a really nice borough). If you have an issue with hard mattresses, look elsewhere!

Tags: Hamburg

Stayed: Sept. 2018

The hotel is right across from the theater (nomen est omen) and quite centrally located in the city, despite being more on the rim.
The bed was very comfortable and I don‘t remember ever having a larger television in a hotel room than here. The room seemed to have been renovated recently, everything looked quite modern and new. The bathroom was done up new as well and quite functional despite it being rather small.
 
Negative aspect here: the windows! These looked like they were from the 70‘s. I wasn‘t able to close them all the way, so they leaked in cold air and noise from outside (of which there was plenty, apparently the street the hotel on - despite being a side street - is quite popular.
 
It would have been really nice of the staff to turn on the heating, too - I came into a freezing room and was happy to find out that the heating worked quite well.
 
Breakfast was relatively simple but with plenty of choices of cold foods - no warm food, unfortunately.
 
All in all the stay - with the exception of the windows which need to be replaced quite desperately - was ok, especially for the price (€80 including breakfast).

Tags: Münster

If you read my review from last week‘s stay at London Bridge Hotel, then you know that this week I stayed there again. Due to their standard rooms being booked, I took a category up, which they call „Superior Room“.
 
So I‘ll just go into the differences to the standard room - please read my review of that first.
 
The room was to the rear of the hotel and on the top (5th) floor. I‘d requested a rear room before checking out the week before, because the street noise was surprisingly high in the front.
 
This room seemed a bit larger than the standard room, but not to the point where I would call it a major upgrade. The bathroom was identical, with all the caveats - especially setting the shower to the right temperature was annoying, but I had learned form the previous week.
 
The view was of rooftops and a huge metal exhaust stack to the right (I was in room 502). I learned quickly what this exhaust is when I returned after dinner, having turned off the AC on my way out (no need to burn energy keeping it running): it is the exhaust from the restaurant. Turning off the AC apparently removed the overpressurization from the room, as it smelled of food quite badly when I returned. I ended up leaving the AC on the rest of my stay.
 
The TV was a different (likely newer) model without the glaring blue LED clock in the standard room. Good thing, too, as it was mounted on the wall and would have been difficult if not impossible to cover up at night.
 
I didn‘t have breakfast this time round either, so I can‘t comment on that.
 
All in all, the comfort level - even in the superior room - just doesn‘t match the very high cost of this hotel.

Tags: London

Stayed: June 2018

The hotel is located right in the vicinity of both London Bridge Station and the Tube station by the same name. It isn‘t very far from the Thames. The vicinity to the train and tube stations has a negative aspect: you do get train noise, at least if you have a room towards the front (as I did).

The room was a standard room but was still quite comfortable with a queen size bed and a large screen TV. The bathroom was on the smallish side - definitively only for one person at a time.
Unfortunately, despite the price of the room (259 GBP standard - I paid a corporate rate), all wasn‘t as expected or hoped for.
 
The hotel advertises free Wifi, but this comes at a price: you have to set up a profile with your name and email address. As a tip: if you don‘t care about resetting your password, you can enter just about any legal email address - you don‘t have to verify it at any point; had I known, I would have done just that. It‘ll be interesting to see how many emails I get in the future addressed to a Mr. Noneof Yourbusiness! What was really annoying is the wait for the login screen to come up after connecting to the Wifi using iOS devices - since my PC was much quicker, it must me some compatibility issue. Wifi speed was ok but not spectacular.
 
The second annoyance was the faucet in the bathtub/shower. I‘d read in some reviews on this hotel that people had issues getting warm water. This was the case on my first morning as well, until I turned the temperature dial of the thermostat all the way up - then, the water turned tepid. No hot showers here!
 
The thermostat for the AC only gives you a scale from -3 to +3 … something. There is a „K“ at the bottom, maybe it‘s in Kelvin, I don‘t know. You‘ll have to experiment, „0“ was too cold for me.
 
You get a surprising amount of noise from the street below if you‘re to the front - anything from yelling people to cars screeching their tires or with their radios turned all the way up. Considering that the road is simply a drop-off road for the train station, this was surprising and annoying.
 
Even more annoying was the silly noises coming from the room above me (at least that is what it sounded like) on both nights at right around 23:30h. It sounded like someone was dragging furniture around - not sure if there was a storage room above me or what, but I can‘t recommend room 117 for that reason!
 
The bed was completely inundated with pillows, each side had two regular white pillows, a large rough-covered one and a small decorative pillow. I‘m absolutely not a fan of this trend to „lux up“ rooms by dumping pillows on the bed - I only need one, anything more is too much. The issue is: where do you put them at night?
 
The TV was a pain, as well. For one thing, it had a bright blue LED digital clock that was just completely too bright. I found that the small pillows were just the right size to cover it up at night. Also, there was a complete column of pixels that was black - almost down the center of the picture.
 
For the positive, the closet hat plenty of hangers (though not so much space for longer clothes) and an iron with board (didn‘t need it).
 
I didn‘t have breakfast at the hotel, so I can‘t comment on that.
 
I will stay here again next week, so look for an update on this review as I‘m in a superior room (regular rooms were booked). I‘ll likely have breakfast on one of the two mornings as well.

Tags: London

Stayed: June 2018

This is a very rustic and historic hotel on the Alster not too far from the Kennedy bridge and with the bar and restaurant section of St. Georg just behind it. It is about 15 minutes walk from the central train station, but there is no public transport (at least none I could see) very near it.
 
My room seemed ancient. I have no idea when the building was constructed (1800‘s?) but the floor seemed original. It creaked with every step and I felt very sorry for the people below me, especially after getting in quite late one night.
 
The room looked over the Alster (well mostly over trees in front of the Alster) and the windows were really well soundproofed - the street between the hotel and the Alster is very busy, but it wasn‘t a problem. What was a problem was the lack of A/C, so unless the room service shut the drapes against the afternoon sun (they didn‘t!) it was baking. The windows had insect screening, so getting fresh air in wasn’t a problem - just not over night.
 
Breakfast was quite good but extremely full on both days - on the first day my colleague and I actually had to request for a second dining room to be opened, as the regular one was overfilled with guests.
 
All in all, I felt the price of the room was too high for what you get (around 160€ per night).

Tags: Hamburg

Stayed: June 2018

The room was booked via HRS for two nights - about 1/2 hour after booking, I received an email from the hotel (in German) to the effect that „as I had been informed on the booking platform, there was some construction going on at the hotel, but only between 7AM and 5PM“. Surprised, I re-checked HRS and was able to confirm that no such notice had been posted in hotel entry there.
The entire hotel is encased in scaffolding - both on the street side as well as in the back. The front is so closed up you feel like you‘re walking into a cave.
 
My room, No. 6, was on the „ground“ floor (this is several steps up from the street) in the back. It was a very small room, with a tiny closet and an even tinier bathroom. The bed was comfortable, so I slept well, but luckily I spent most of my time outside the room.
The bathroom was a tiny thing off the side, with no door to keep any smells out of the sleeping area. No A/C was available, by the way, but this wasn‘t much of a problem despite high temperatures outside during the day.
 
The sink in the bathroom was likely the smallest sink I have seen in my life, even smaller than the tiny thing we have in the guest toilet in our house. Using it was a bit of a challenge. Even more of a challenge was the toilet, as the TP holder had been positioned (unnecessarily) exactly in knee height, which made straight sitting on it impossible. The ultimately rediculous instrument was the shower.  It was a corner thing (see picture) flattened at the front, which left a triangle of about 70x70cm to stand in. The rather large mixing battery stuck straight in my back, so „adjusting“ the handle both in water quantity and temperature was unavoidable. To make matters worse, the soap dispenser had - for whatever bizarre reason - been mounted exactly in head height… anyone with more than 20kg too much on their ribs will not be taking a shower here.
Also, while the entire back of the room was taken up by ceiling-high windows, with a nice view into the rather large park behind the building (and the not-so-nice scaffolding attached to it) it also meant that you absolutely needed to let down the inside window covering to prevent prying eyes from watching you.
 
Enough complaining about the room, especially because I was told that it would be completely rebuilt, taking a part of the hallway leading to it to create a larger double room.
 
Breakfast was quite nice with yoghurt, fruit, cereal, rolls, meats/cheese, some hot foods, etc. Nothing missing there, except for spoons which I had to request on both mornings.
 
The hotel is not located close to anything relevant, unless you‘re willing to do some walking. „Downtown“ is quite some distance away - even St. Georg is a trek. I didn‘t have my car in Hamburg, so I don‘t know if they offer parking somewhere, but likely not. You‘ll probably be taking a lot of taxis if you stay here.
 
I‘m unable to comment on the other - probably quite a bit bigger - rooms, but they are likely as ancient looking as the one I stayed in. The door to my room was probably as old as the house (1800‘s?) - optically nice, of course, but just not very practical. I did notice while re-checking for the supposed construction warning that regular rooms were quite expensive (around 140€ per night), which I find to be too much for what you get. Yes, you are right across the (busy) street from the Alster, but so what?

Tags: Hamburg

The hotel is three blocks from the Munich central train station, so if you are good on foot, you can walk there in approximately 12-15 minutes. The advantage of the location is the relative lower level of traffic as compared to the first two blocks of Goethe street.
 
Reception is one floor up from the ground, but there is an elevator that covers all four floors of the hotel. Staff is very friendly and I was very happy to have a room to the back, as this is usually quieter than the street side. The room is mid-size with a desk and chair combination and - in this particular room (45) - two separate single beds.
 
The bathroom was clean but - considering the hotel was apparently renovated in 2010 - rather bland. The shower tap, unfortunately, was pretty much a nightmare as the right temperature was impossible to find and just nudging over the handle would give you either scalding hot or freezing cold.
 
The room had no A/C and, since it doesn't have an external shutter either, probably gets quite warm in the summer. The bed wasn't great as far as comfort goes, but bearable. The desk didn't have a lamp on it, which I found strange, making work and especially Facetime pretty gloomy.
 
The Wifi is spotty - sometimes it was quite fast and sometimes nothing seemed to move. After about an hour of YouTube streaming, they apparently cut me off (since neither available access point gave me any traffic, yet my iPhone still worked). Not very nice.
 
Breakfast was quite an amazing sight - likely the largest and most varied breakfast buffet I've ever seen in a hotel this size. They even had Weisswurst with Pretzel and sweet mustard, a Bavarian specialty. Very impressive.
 
All in all this is certainly a hotel you can book, though no guarantees on the room temperature in the summer. It isn't anywhere near a tram or S-Bahn station, so you'll need to walk about 15 minutes either direction to get on public transport.
 
Be aware that at my time of stay, there was a giant construction site that looks like they tore down half a block just on the other side of the hotel (about 50m away). They start work pretty early (7:00h).

Tags: Munich

This is a great little hotel within walking distance of Düsseldorf's main train station (about 7 minutes walk, not counting traffic lights). It is on a street crossing, but since I had a room to the rear of the building, I had no noise issues at night. I don't think the streets the hotel is on are very busy at night anyway, so you'll probably be ok in front as well.

Very clean, nice and modern room. Personnel is very friendly. Didn't check for A/C, unfortunately. Price/Value absolutely top level.

Breakfast is pretty limited in selection, though they offer to make you eggs to order.

The only negative thing that I remember is the front door: the automatic closer apparently has an issue as it doesn't restrain the door in the last few centimeters, causing it to slam (loudly) every time someone comes in. That is a real issue at night, as you will wake up from it. Luckily, the hotel wasn't booked while I was there, so I only woke up once.

I would go stay here again!

Stayed: March, 2018

Tags: Düsseldorf

Stayed: March 2018

The hotel is right across the way from a huge shopping center (K-Center) and not so far from the main shopping streets of Kaiserslautern. While that might sound enticing to those not willing to walk far, be warned!
 
For one thing, the hotel doesn't have an elevator. I was put in a room at the very top, so that meant going up three levels of stairs. This room (number 8) seemed to be straight out of the 80's, with no renovation having taken place whatsoever. A/C is non-existent - I was there when it was cold out, so I can't say anything about how well the place is insolated, but I'm pretty sure it gets mighty warm up there in the summer.
 
To be fair, everything was very clean. This didn't help the flair of the room or the bathroom any, though. It just screamed "old" at you. The closet was missing a key, so to keep the doors from opening on their own you would have to switch back and forth with the single remaining key between the doors.
 
The bathroom had a reverse-flush toilet (that were popular back then), so you get to both admire and olfactorily process whatever you leave in it. There are holes in the tiles in many locations, from things that were fixed there previously. The tiles, however, are so hideous that the holes in them actually better their look. Ah, and apparently, some time (likely in the 90's) one of the valves of the tap on the sink had to be replaced. Now, both valves have a red dot, so you can only guess which is cold and which is hot. Tap with a mixer? Nope - not for the sink nor for the shower.
 
The bed (two single beds on each side of the room) was comfortable enough. Unfortunately, you can't close the drapes all the way, so you get spillage of some massive lighting from across the street (remember: there is a shopping mall there) into the room. If you need complete darkness to sleep properly, you're SOL.
 
Also, starting around 5:30 AM, delivery trucks start arriving. As the roof beneath the window flattened out, I wasn't able to see the street, but it sounded like they were right below me. Ear plugs are in order here.
 
Breakfast is simple but nice and the owners offer you different types of eggs to go with your breakfast.
 
To top things off, there is a price list in a glass case just outside the door to the hotel, advertising a much lower rate than I paid when booking via HRS. That took it from two to one star for me.

Tags: Kaiserslautern

The room was clean and modern, even the window opened a slit to let air in (unusual for a large hotel like this). The AC worked fine, the bed was comfortable.
One really annoying thing was the location of the water tap for the shower (see picture): this was - at least for me - exactly in knee hight so that I kept tapping against it accidentally, turning the water hotter. Not a good thing and for me worth taking half a star off the rating.

The only other thing that bothered me was that while breakfast had a pretty good selection, the scrambled eggs were so soggy that I didn't even bother putting them on my plate - quite clearly not cooked through. Another half star (I love scrambled eggs).

A bit odd was the elevator arrangement. There were three elevators next to one another - exactly evenly spaced. The right one, as it turned out, was for "personnel only" (something that you'll usually find at a different location in most hotels). The only thing that told me this was a small sign next to the elevator; the call button looked exactly like the one between the other two doors and it took me a while to figure out that even though I'd pressed the call button, the elevator wouldn't be coming for me. Ergonomics gone out the window.

Since I didn't pay for the room (nor even found out what it cost), I can't comment on the price/performance ratio, but I can certainly recommend the hotel based on a qualitative decision.

Tags: Verona

Stayed: August 2017

One always happy to try something new, I opted to stay at the Motel One at Potsdamer Platz during my last Berlin visit.

This Motel One is a bit different from others I've stayed at, as only the reception area and the elevators are at the ground floor - the rest of the hotel starts on the 3rd floor. The entire reception's back wall is one huge "movie screen" made up of a matrix of multi-color LEDs. I've seen this type of "screen" at other MotelOne hotels - usually behind the bar - but never anything this huge. It really is quite impressive.

The Hotel is part of the Berlin Mall, a huge US-style shopping mall and my room was to the side of the hotel, looking over one of the main passageways in the mall. There is a large structure almost like a hallway separating the hotel rooms along this passageway and separated from it by fixed windows. You can open your window to this hallway, but it doesn't do you much good because I didn't get the feeling that there is fresh air circulating through it. There were even some painter's gear (ladder, pails, etc.) leaning against the hotel wall within this space.

Both the bar and the breakfast restaurant are also on the 3rd level. I'd kept breakfast optional when checking in and that was a good thing, as I had a look at around 8:00 AM and the place seemed solidly packed. I hadn't visited the bar the night before, so I can't comment on that.

The entire area around Potsdamer Platz was - though this likely depends on the time of year, completely overrun by tourists. You get used to tourists in Berlin, but this was rediculous. Having the mall right there probably doesn't help. Also, if you're looking for bars and restaurants that aren't tourist traps, you need to walk quite a ways out of the area.

While the room and the bathroom were typical MotelOne standard (which is just fine for me), I likely won't stay here again just to avoid the masses of people.
Subsequenly, I'm giving three stars not because the hotel isn't ok but because the area is pretty annoying (unless you're a shopaholic).

Room Tip: The rooms to the mall are - after closing hours - very quiet.

Tags: Berlin

Stayed: Feb. 2017

The Ibis in Münster is a typical Ibis hotel, which is fine since you know what you're getting (and what you're not getting).

The room was clean, I'd asked the lady at reception for a quiet room and she put me in 512, which faces to the rear (the street in front is medium busy) on the top floor. Thank you for that!
The only complaint I have is that the mattress was unnecessarily hard. Since I'm currently getting over some bruised ribs in my back, the night was not pleasant. Without pain, the bed is serviceable but I would prefer a softer mattress.

There is only one elevator, so during peak times be prepared to wait (or take the stairs).

I didn't have breakfast, as €11 seemed a bit steep, though I don't know what is on offer here. I've had breakfast at Ibis hotels before and never paid that much (nor would the offering have been worth it).

There is a free wifi connection available, albeit a slow one. It was fine for what I needed to get done (emails, calls on Skype) but if you're looking to stream video, you'll need to shell out €6 for the faster option.

The hotel is easily reached on foot from the central train station (5 min. walk) and isn't far from the start of the old city either. There seems to be a parking garage available, but as I was here by train, I can't say anything about it.

All in all a good place to stay in a town that doesn't offer much in hotels (or offers them at rates that make you think you're in a city on the level of London or NYC). I would stay again (once my ribs are back to normal).

Tags: Münster

Stayed January 2017

Booking and checking in
Our annual sales conference took place at the MGM this January. Booking the hotel was done via a website and the room type assigned was "run of the house" - likely this means that they will give you whatever cheapest room is available.
My room was on floor 22, number 328. The view was actually quite nice: it looked on the intersection of E. Tropicana Ave. and S. Las Vegas Boulevard, though the intersection itself was quite far away - the MGM is a big place.

Elevators are split into four sections, depending on which floor you need to go to and my elevators were designated to floors 21 and up. For some reason, these elevators seem to be the busiest - at times you had a relatively long line waiting to go up. While there were six elevators available for these floors, one apparently was broken for most of my stay.

We had been warned of long checkin lines and encouraged to use the mobile checkin. If you check in either with the special app or using the MGM website then you can go to one of a series of terminals that will read a barcode off your device (or printout) and spit out your room key. Unfortunately, the mobile check in system failed for me, as it wasn't able to find my reservation even after I'd verified it with guest services. Luckily, the line for manual check in wasn't very long when I arrived.

The Room
I'd requested a room far away from the elevators for two reasons: for one, I have had some really bad experiences with rooms near elevators due to constant noise (humming, bell sounds) 24h a day. For another, Las Vegas brings with it lots of people that stay out very late and tend to be loud coming back to their room. The farther away you are from the elevators, the fewer people you will have passing your room.

The room had two queen size beds in it and was large enough even for two people staying (I was on my own). Hangers in the closet and drawer space will be enough for two but if you're looking to save some bucks and share a room amongst four, you'll likely have a problem getting your clothes put away (depending on how many you bring, of course). There was a largish flat screen TV, a minibar (the annoying type that registers whatever you take out of it and charges your bill immediately) a desk with a lamp.

The room showed the age of the MGM quite clearly. There were scuff-marks and damage everywhere, in the bathroom, in the room, at the desk. It was clean, though, which is more important to me than wear and tear. And it didn't smell odd, which was a real plus.

Technology
The room was decidedly low tech, as well. Comparing the room at the Wynn I had at the conference last year (albeit an unfair comparison), lighting for example was all discretely switched. I.e. no central light control, not even a "put your room key in here to power up" box at the door! And yes, the room key was the very old-style magnetic stripe kind.

I'm going to estimate these lamps to be from the 80's, just by the switches used on them. The large, stand-up lamp in the corner was even more ridiculous: it had a twist switch right at the base of the bulb socket, so you had to twist your head down and look up to figure out where to put your hand. I never switched this lamp on again, it was just too annoying.

Really annoying as well was the "technology" used to darken the room. This consisted of roll-up blinds, one semi-transparent (what on earth for?) and one that cut off all light. The cleaning personnel put down the semi-transparent one at each cleaning and I would put it back up every evening when I came back from the conference. The windows are mirrored on the outside, so no one is going to be able to look into your room... the need for the semi-transparent blind is beyond me.
The annoying part of these blinds is that you pull them up and down using a chain pulley, which isn't easy and quite loud. Do this too early in the morning and you'll be waking up your neighbor.

Noise level
The worst part of the room was the noise coming in from outside. There was a long metal flap along the left window half that you could slide over and up - apparently, to let in outside air. With the (to be fair: well-working) A/C on, I'm not sure why you would want this, but in my opinion this venting system was the main cause of outside noise bleeding in. Since you're very close to the airport, you not only get abundant road noise (including frequent emergency sirens), but also airplane noise from McCarran Airport. To top it off, there are frequent helicopter fly-overs.

Bed
The bed turned out not to be very comfortable. I'm not sure what caused it - probably the mattress protector - but something caused multiple bumps to press into my back when I was lying flat, no mater where on the mattress I positioned myself. It may have been something to do with that particular bed (I didn't bother trying the other one), but it may be an issue with the age of the beds as well.

Bathroom
The bathroom had a clear 80's motif to it, functional but not pretty. The bathtub/shower has a double curtain, which surprisingly doesn't get sucked in. The drain is annoying enough - it is a metal disk with rubber gasket material around it that sits in the drain. To open the drain, you rotate it from flat with the floor to sticking up. The cleaning personnel alway closed this (no idea why) and you'd either have to bend way down to open this thing with your finger (yuck!) or finagle it open with your toe.

The shower head was quite ok, but getting the water to the right temperature was annoying. You only have one handle that you turn to get water flowing and to adjust the temperature. To get water to flow from the spigot into the tub up to the shower, you pull a lever, after which you get some massive air burps coming out of it before water flows freely.

The conference center
The hotel is huge and quite unfortunately, the conference center (where our sales conference was located) is at the very other end of the hotel. The walk was quite far, quickly getting something from your room generally wasn't an option as the walk there and back would easily take half an hour total.
The center is surprisingly well done - as is the case with most conferences, you have general sessions and breakout sessions and the latter weren't too far from the conference restaurant or the general session hall.
Some rooms had serious A/C issues, either they were much too warm or you had icy air falling on you depending where you sat. All breakout rooms seemed to have the same issue with lighting, however: lighting towards the front (where the screen was set up) was dimmed down, which caused the fluorescent bulbs to flicker constantly.

Summary
If you're in the market for a room in Las Vegas, then there are better (newer) hotels on or off the strip. Despite the (hopefully) deep discount my employer received for renting a large number of rooms, the room still came to 165$ per night. In my opinion, that is way too much for the quality of the room.
If you get lucky and you get a deal (apparently, there was a radio ad the day before I arrived that MGM was selling off rooms for $65), then you can certainly go for it. The MGM is positioned quite well on the "Strip" and has its own monorail station.

Tags: Las Vegas

The hotel is quite a ways up the hill from the town center of Bonn-Bad Godesberg.
I picked it because of an event at the Godesburg, which is about 5 minutes walk from the hotel.

The hotel is right across the road from a major construction site fitted with a huge crane, where they seem to be building a new house. Subsequently, the noise level starts to go up quite drastically at around 7AM. Throughout the night, noise from the street was relatively minor (not a lot of traffic).

The window however, looks just like the ones my grandmother had in her house, and those were from the 70’s. The noise abatement from the window is close to nil.

The bed is comfortable enough and you’re supplied a full-size and a half-size pillow, which is nice (I happen to be a fan of half-size pillows).

The bathroom is functional (no more!), though the drain in the shower was stopped up and quite obviously, no one had filled the siphon of the floor drain in a while, as the room reeked of sewage gas. Two glasses of water in the siphon and all was well. I always wonder just why on earth the guests always have to take care of something like that.

Breakfast is quite ok, with scrambled eggs as the “hot food”.

All in all, an ok place to stay, but at €75 (+€8 for breakfast) a couple of notches too expensive for the quality and the location.

Tags: Bonn

The reviews for the hotel seemed to indicate a good place to stay. As it seemed to be in a decent location for getting into the old part of the city, I booked it.

First impression from the outside: wow, what an ugly building. That partially has to do with the eminent architecture in the north of Germany: brick. If you’re not used to it and the masons didn’t put some twists into the design (i.e. Amsterdam style), brick buildings are all ugly. And: an ugly building doesn’t say anything about the hotel on the inside.

The location is quite decent - a short walk will take you to all the major sights in the old part of the city.

The gentleman at reception was nice enough, explaining everything and even proactively asking if one would like some tips on going for food - which, strangely enough, is pretty rare amongst hotel receptionists worldwide.

The room that was to be mine for the night (no. 27) was quite small, with a single bed. It smelled like spring cleaning of a college latrine, a smell that got worse when I went into the bathroom (which really could use renovation). The culprit was a huge dose of cleaning liquid on the “pan” of the toilet. Yep - you know, the type of toilet that lets you measure your success - with a ruler if necessary. The type of toilet I completely abhor. Mainly, because I never carry a ruler on travels.
Oh, and: shampoo from paper packages? Give me a break! Is it that expensive to put a soap thingie in the shower?

The window was difficult to open, mainly because the latch works differently than about 99% of all windows in Germany. The window is huge and looks quite old (I ventured a guess: 1970), but turned out to be from 1994, at least going by the date stamped on the metal between the two sheets of glass.

The area is relatively quiet - an advantage, as the closed window doesn’t seem to abate any noise from outside whatsoever.

Wifi is free for guests - unfortunately, I wasn’t able to connect at all: “Connection timeout”, no matter what I tried.

Breakfast was simple, with fruit salad from a can, some yoghurt, rolls, bread, jam, various sausage / meats and cheese. Unfortunately, the sausage / meats weren’t cooled, so even though we were quite early for breakfast, things were already starting to “cloud over”. No warm foods except for boiled eggs.

All in all ok for a night, though I don’t plan on staying here again.

Tags: Muenster

The Hotel is quite close to the high-speed train station (Kassel Wilhelmshoehe): 3 Tram stops.
The room is okay in size, clean and relatively modern. I had a room with two single beds that apparently were made for pushing together if desired.

Absolute highlight was breakfast. While quite pricy at €16, the buffet lacks almost nothing except perhaps a better selection of fresh (not canned) fruit. Excellent.

Less excellent was the shower - the fixture was impossible to operate to a decent temperature, it turned out either too hot or too cold, even when moving the lever only a few millimeters. Also, the showerhead didn’t stick properly in its holder, so it would turn to the side spontaneously (turn down the water pressure to reduce this problem).

All in all quite pricy (probably because the Documenta 13 is going on) but certainly comfortable and quiet.

Internet access via Telekom access point (great if you have an account, like I do).

Tags: Kassel

The hotel had relatively good reviews on HRS, and there aren’t that many hotels available in the area, so I booked it.

I had room 8, which I absolutely CANNOT recommend. There seems to be the compressor/condenser unit bolted to the outside wall of the room, which makes the wall vibrate at a continuously changing, low-frequency pitch. For me, that meant sleeping with ear plugs, though which the noise was still slightly audible!

The bathroom seems to be a relict of the 60’s, in a rather negative way. The window in the bathroom is a single-pane job, which means that it will likely be extremely uncomfortable on a cold, winter day.

The window of the room (to the street) was dual-pane but imprinted with a manufacturing date of 1992 - subsequently, noise from the rather busy street (even late at night) is only slightly abated.

The carpet in the room seemed to be from the same year as the window - while it wasn’t particularly dirty, it gave off an extremely used sheen, especially around the door.

Breakfast was okay, but the room was much too expensive.

Rooms to the back are likely quieter.

Tags: Bad Soden

The hotel is very near to Heathrow airport and extremely close to BancTec’s UK headquarters (just around the corner).

The area around the hotel is mostly apartment buildings and some industry. There is a pub with Thai food across the road and an Italian restaurant down the road. I’ve eaten twice at the pub - the food is quite good, though the term “haute cuisine” comes to mind when looking at the size of the portions.

Being so close to the airport, the overhead traffic is ridiculous, the nearer runway brings 747s and A380s thundering an estimated 200 meters right over the street. Despite this, the noise level in the room (my room was towards the road) is extremely abated, thanks to double windows. Unfortunately, the windows can’t be opened because of this, but during the airport’s operating hours, this isn’t to be recommended anyway.

The room was clean and quite spacious, with a handy clothes iron in a flat cabinet against one wall. As with many hotels, the availability of electrical outlets is a negative point. While there are outlets on the floor under the small desk (get on all fours, please), there are none at all on either side of the bed.

The bathroom is ok, the bathtub has a shower curtain (which I can’t stand), though to be fair, it was quite clean and not as clingy as some I’ve encountered.

Breakfast is pretty much a joke measured by continental Europe standards, but may be standard in the UK at this time. It is labelled “continental breakfast” which consists of bread (a toaster is supplied - but only one), some packaged cereals, some (fat-free) yoghurt, fruit and little packets of jam to spread on the bread. Some prepackaged muffins and croissant are also available, as well as (very strong) coffee. We were the only guests in the “restaurant”.

Tags: London

Two things really annoyed me about this hotel:
1) they don’t have non-smoking rooms
2) nomen non est omen - not sure if there ever was a park anywhere in the vicinity - there certainly isn’t now. The hotel is in a commercial area that has all the flair you can expect from concrete buildings with colorful advertising signs.

Regarding the missing non-smoking rooms, this is the plakard they likely have in every room:



What the heck does that solve? Keep your smoking to a minimum?

I had a chat with the lady at reception about it - after beating around the bush with exclamations like “what do you think smokers would do in a non-smoking room, not smoke?”, she admitted that they had no non-smoking rooms at all.

On the plus side, they put a high-tech looking ionization device in my stinky room for about half an hour after I left, which seemed to help quite a bit. And, luckily, no one to the left or right of me smoked at night (which tends to stink worse than when it happens in the same room).

Still, I cannot recommend this hotel to any non-smokers out there.

The bathroom was ok, with a thermostat in the shower. Even though the room faced the rather busy road, the windows did a fair job of keeping the noise out.

The next olfactory assault came about the next morning, when I distinctly smelled bacon and eggs - from bed!
That smell turned obnoxious as soon as I got to the hallway; apparently, the kitchen smells from breakfast drift straight up the stairs (I was on the 3rd and final floor), unimpeded by the fire doors as these were kept wide open, to collect in a smelly dinge at the very top of the building - which happened to be my hallway. Yikes!

Tags: Kerpen

There were three events going on in Augsburg, and I was unable to get a room in one of the hotels I usually stay in. The Jakoberhof was the last hotel in the city that had a room available on HRS.

It is an old hotel near the Fuggerei (but a ways from city center) that consists of a main building and two side buildings.
I was in building “37”, with the room facing the main building via the courtyard, but also the rather busy Pilgerhausstrasse, making for anything but the promised “quiet room”.

The room is ok in size, the furnishings are Ikea-quality, the bathroom seems refurbished within the last few years, and is seemingly clean. On second look, it shows its age, with this relic from the 70’s:


Also, this “hack” was the only way to sleep:


The door was so loose, that it clacked back and forth very loudly anytime someone opened or closed the front door.
Most likely, the door gasket was hardened, as the door also let through any and all noise from the corridor.

Breakfast was ok, they even had fresh fruit.

Tags: Augsburg

Sometime late 2010, I stayed in this hotel before, and seem to remember not being very happy with the choice.
This time, I’ve decided to document the stay immediately as a reminder to myself…

The hotel is located straight across from the train station, and subsequently very near our Augsburg offices. So far so good.
It also has a restaurant in the same building (run by the same company) that serves up very high quality German food.

Due to its vicinity to the train station and two very busy roads (that intersection very near the hotel), a room to the front is absolutely not to be recommended unless you are hard of hearing. Even to the back, the road noise is prevalent, mainly due to the ancient, no: antique windows. These are 1950’s style: two separate single-pane windows in separate frames, which are put together in a single unit. Needless to say, they don’t just keep noise out very badly, they are also an insulation nightmare.

The room I’m in is actually quite nice: number 401, top floor, under the roof. The bathroom contains everything you need, but quite clearly in dire need of renovation: tiles are cracked and pitted, the shower is “old-school” (a good 8” off the ground). The entire bathroom is lit by a single lamp above the sink. The grouting and silicon in the shower itself is ill-fitting or missing, which gives it a bit of a yuck-factor. The ultimate disaster in the bathroom has to be the shower tap, however. I personally prefer a thermostatic system, where you give it a temperature with one knob and vary the water volume with the other. While these are still relatively rare, the usual system is one with a ceramic cartridge where you vary volume and temperature by moving a lever up-down and left-right. The one in this bathroom must have been from 1940: just two knobs. One for hot, one for cold. To make things even worse, they opened in opposite directions! Imagine my confusion while desperately trying to make the cold shower warmer without setting it to scaldingly hot!

Also, there are no electrical outlets anywhere near the bed. If you want to charge your smartphone overnight and use it as an alarm, you’ll need to plug it into the outlet at the desk and get set to walk across the room to silence it. Wait: there are no free outlets at the desk! There is a 3-outlet strip floppily laying on top, but all three outlets are used (Refrigerator, TV, Lamp). Out go the fridge and TV to make room for the laptop and mobile phone chargers…

Wifi isn’t free, by the way, but it only costs €2 for 24 hours. Unfortunately, something was wrong with the internet connection when I stayed - while the connection to the hotspot (with a password for the network AND a password for the hotspot!) worked fine, there was nearly no traffic in or out.

Breakfast, included in the roomrate, is okay. Fresh fruit salad, yoghurt, various rolls, meats, cheese, scrambled egg, bacon, etc. Everything is there.

All in all, the room is okay, assuming you can get one to the back of the building in order to keep roadnoise to a minimum. However, the room rate is absolutely too much (€85 with breakfast) for what you get. If they offered the room for, say, €55, then I would come back. For the current rate, I will go elsewhere.

Tags: Augsburg

BancTec held the 2012 EMEA sales conference at this hotel in the center of Budapest, right around the corner of the Westend trainstation on the Pest side of the Donau.

The hotel is directly connected to the large Westend City Center (basically a huge shopping mall) - you can enter the center straight through the hotel’s “back door”.

The room was large enough and nicely appointed, however:
1) my room faced Vaci street, a very busy thoroughfare. Apparently, there is a hospital somewhere near, as the sound of ambulances passing was relatively frequent. Unfortunately, the windows are anything but sound blocking, which gives you a constant noise level throughout the night.

2) there was a distinct sewage smell in the bathroom. I tried getting rid of it by putting some water in all three siphons that might be dried out: sink, bathtub and shower - but to no avail. The smell stayed with me my entire stay. To be fair, I didn’t bother telling reception about it until I checked out, perhaps they would have fixed it immediately.

3) the shower door was distorted (I’m completely at a loss at how something like that can happen), leaving a large gap through which water got onto the floor. Not my problem, but annoying anyhow.

Also, while I did not have that issue in my room, some colleagues complained that they were unable to turn the heating off in their room. The term “sauna” fell more than once.

The conference area is nice enough, no complaints there. Breakfast is fantastic, we had one dinner on-site which was ok as well.

I have stayed in other hotels in Budapest (such as the Mariott) that are nicer and better “in shape”, but the Hilton is nice enough to get a recommendation.

Mind you, it is imperative to mention “Westend” multiple times to anyone wanting to visit you, as there is another Hilton on the Buda side that apparently is much better known to locals than the one I was at...

Tags: Budapest

The Intercity Hotel in Augsburg is right around the corner from the central train station.
The building complex isn’t what you would call attractive, but when you’re inside, all is well.
For some reason, this hotel is only rated 7.2 by people that booked via HRS and stayed here. I’m not really sure why. The rooms are large enough and quite clean. Yes, the bathroom fixtures probably should be renovated - I’ve had rooms with cracks in the sink, and most of the rooms I’ve had really needed a new shower head, but these little issues haven’t kept me from coming back.

Breakfast is really quite good, though it gets extremely hectic when there is a trade fair in Augsburg. Wether it is worth €14 to you is a personal decision, I’ve had certainly had similar breakfast buffets at a lower cost.

The hotel can be had for attractive rates when booking early - due to the prime location near the train station (and subsequently, not far from Munich, should the hotels in that city be full due to Oktoberfest or a trade fair). If you try to book it just a couple of days ahead, then it will generally cost more than €100. When I stay, I’m usually in the price range of €65-75.

While it is very close to the train station and subsequently, very close to my employer’s Augsburg office, it is a strong walk away from city center. A fast walker will make it there in 10-15 minutes on foot.

With your room key, you get a pass that allows you to use Augsburg-city public transport for free - and since the tram station is right in front of the entrance, this should alleviate the inconvenience of location for most people.

The street in front of the hotel is a main thoroughfare, subsequently I recommend you get a room to the back, if possible.

Tags: Augsburg

(Updates below)

A really pleasant hotel in the heart of Augsburg “downtown”. Clean and quaint. Very friendly front desk staff.

The breakfast is great, with a large selection of different foods.

I’ve had the luck so far to have a room towards the back - it is quite possible that the rooms to the front are a bit loud, as the hotel is on a main thoroughfare with quite a bit of car and tram traffic.

It takes about 5 minutes of quick walking to get to the train station and only about 3 minutes to get to the Rathausplatz.

I have booked the hotel via HRS as well as the hotel website.

The hotel has “regular” and “premium” rooms. I’ve had both (a free “Christmas gift” upgrade - thank you!) - the premium rooms are larger, other than that the regular rooms are just fine.

There is Wifi in the entire hotel, but it is run by T-Online, which means it isn’t free (unless you’re a member). There is free internet on a computer in the hotel lobby.

The hotel has a sauna, but I haven’t used it so far.

------------- Update March 20, 2012 ----------------

Stayed in the hotel again March 19-20 - this time I had a room to the front (room 20). While the noise level from the main street outside is actually acceptable (the windows seem to be noise abating), the condition of the room definitely was not. The bathroom could have used a bit more cleaning and the room itself was in a run-down state. The shower didn’t close properly (leaving a gap of nearly two cm), which ended up flooding a portion of the floor while showering.
It annoyed me so much, that I’ve taken the hotel from a 4* to a 3* rating.

Also, beware: the entire area around the hotel is a huge construction site. The Königsplatz is being torn apart, it is my understanding that the tram tracks will be put underground. When they work a section, they also do so at night, so you run the risk of having a major construction going on outside the hotel all night long.

------------ Update August 21, 2012 ----------------

Last night, I stayed at the Ost am Kö again, this time I had room 21 (right next to the one described in the update of March 20). Here, the window, while also triple-pane, certainly did not qualify for a noise-abating rating - and the Irish pub across the street (which, for a reason I can’t fathom, seems to have been open until 1AM), perhaps the frame was damaged and leaked sound. Also, the wall to room 20 was either quite thin or the guy next door had the TV blaring, for I could almost make out the program.
The worst, however, was the temperature - there is no A/C in these rooms (not sure if there is A/C anywhere in the hotel) and the room was blaringly hot.
Since I had to put my Fireplugs into my ears anyway, I opened up the window to let some air in; the desk fan just didn’t cut it. Taking the hotel down to two stars!
Not sure I’ll stay here again unless I can be guaranteed a room to the back.

Tags: Augsburg

Since I was just in Berlin again, staying in two different places, I wanted to make sure I put a review of the Park Inn at Alexanderplatz in here.

I stayed at the place twice, and each time my colleague and I had some very interesting experiences. To be quite clear up front: unless it is exceptionally cheap, I will not book a room in this hotel again. Read on.

Via a friend of my colleague, we were able to get rooms at the Park Inn for €75 including breakfast, which is really quite attractive from a pricing aspect.

I will say this: the rooms are really quite nice, breakfast is fantastic. But that is where it stops.

For one thing, you will rarely see the reception desk without a huge line waiting before it. Why is beyond me, there are usually plenty of people at the desk (which is quite large, obviously, to accommodate everyone). Don’t plan on getting checked out and out the door with bill in hand within the time you expect from a „normal” hotel. Very annoying.

The first room I had at the hotel was somewhere on the 23rd floor. Again, nicely renovated, spacious, nice bathroom, large bed, clean. Normally: a joy. Except for that high-pitched noise that kept coming on and going off, coming on and going off. At first I thought something in the room was making it, like the minibar refrigerator or the smoke detector. Not so - I followed the sound out the door into the hallway. Just so you understand: this was a sound that will not let any normal person sleep or even work in a concentrated way.

It turned out to be the motor driving one of the elevators. My guess is that its mounting isolated so poorly, that the high-frequency vibrations, probably from its modulation, went across a cement beam running over my room. Whatever, I asked to change the room.

Apparently, my request to change the room was so bizarre to the girl at reception that while she complied with my request, she apparently felt it was necessary to talk to her colleague about it right in front of me. Folks, if a guest wishes to change his room, then he has a reason for it - if you think it’s worth joking about to your colleagues, do so without the guest hearing - just a thought.

The next time we stayed there, we not only received different restaurant cards for breakfast (even though we’d booked at the same time), but apparently, there was a technical issue with the elevators in the section where my colleague had his room. Only one of the elevators ran, causing us to be about half an hour late for our appointment. He actually phoned me, to ask that I tell reception about it, but the guy at reception said that the elevators certainly were running („you stupid guest”). They weren’t though. While waiting for my colleague to finally arrive, I watched a bank of three elevators in that section of the hotel (not all the elevators go to all the floors). All three didn’t budge in the 15 minutes I stood there.

If you’re in Berlin, try to find a hotel that is smaller than the Park Inn. There are much better places to stay, also from a location perspective, for similar or lower pricing.

Tags: Berlin

Hotel Ansgar is located one street parallel to the rear of the central train station. If you stay there and come by train (from the airport, for example), you should know that there is a small and easily overlooked exit on that side of the station (by the luggage storage lockers) that will save you a lot of time and effort, dragging your luggage from the main exit all around the station to the hotel...

The hotel is quite okay, the rooms are tiny, however. I had a room with two single beds, quite obviously a double room. If the single bed rooms are any smaller, then they need to start measuring their guests to make sure you fit. Oddly enough, the room had a single, tiny desk crammed between the bathroom and one of the beds, but two chairs, stacked on top of one another.

Obviously, one can’t sit down this way, but I barely found room to put the second chair. I can’t, by the life of me, imagine two people staying in the room, each using a chair. Whatever.

My room was towards the street. Normally, this shouldn’t be a problem as there is very little traffic. Unfortunately - and of course one can’t blame the hotel for this - there is a large construction site within the house next door. I was up early anyway, but it would not have been possible to sleep past 7:30 AM. Or have a normal conversation for that matter.

The hotel is rated three stars, though by the life of me I can’t imagine what they are for. Of course, star ratings change from country to country, so perhaps one of the stars is for the elevator. This is quite a curious construction, as the doors for each floor are always offset by half a floor. I.e. you have to go up stairs to get to the elevator in the first place, and either go up or down stairs depending on wether you hit the button for your own floor or the one above it. Quite annoying if you have a lot, or heavy luggage, I would think.

Breakfast was okay, though the swaying floor of the breakfast room really psyched me out - I felt like my chair / table was on a waterbed. Whenever someone would walk to or from the buffet, things would start to shake.

I’ve seen worse hotels, I’ve seen better hotels. The price was - for Copenhagen center - quite okay with €85 including breakfast.

Tags: Copenhagen

I booked this hotel on HRS because it had a very high user rating, and because it was reasonably priced (considering how expensive Copenhagen is).

After booking, I checked into TripAdvisor on it - and was disconcerted by some of the entries. At that point, however, there was no going back (prepaid). Some people absolutely loved the hotel on that site, some found it to be horrible.

The most important thing to know: it apparently has nothing to do with what the frequent business traveller would normally associate with the name „Carlton”. The hotel operator is Guldsmeden; they operate other „different” hotels in Denmark, as well as on the Côte d’Azur and - of all places - Bali. Sounds to me like a financially independent whose hobby is small, private hotels.

The location is quite ok, it isn’t far (walking distance) from the „hip” places in Copenhagen and it is just down the road from Central station (I walked to the hotel from there with a big suitcase and a laptop backpack).

The room I had was 150, just under the roof and right next to the elevator (which, albeit, opens to the other side). Luckily, my initial tingling of fear (I’ve had some horrific room-next-to-elevator experiences) was unnecessary: I heard nothing of the elevator at all - in fact the room was very quiet in general.

It was clean, but really quite small. The angle of the ceiling (i.e. the roofline) didn’t help. It didn’t have a closet of any kind, so my clothes hung „in the open” on hangers suspended form hooks in the wall opposite the (small) bathroom.
Neither did it have much drawer space, making me deposit my socks and underwear in the small drawer of the bedside table and my folded garments (t-shirts, etc.) on top of the minibar cabinet. I personally prefer to have my clothes out of the way (of dust and prodding eyes), but that may be a personal paranoia.

The hotel offers everything as „biological”: the breakfast, the beers and - believe it or not - the shampoo / soap. I tried the beer (free „welcome” glass) which was good (but not extraordinary) as well as the shampoo and soap. Besides a very unusual (sticky) consistency, I didn’t lose and hair (or grow it in places I didn’t want), nor did I get a rash, so it seems to be ok.

Tags: Copenhagen

I booked this mainly due to its proximity to the Girona airport, but price was also a key consideration.
We stayed here with our two small kids, which worked out well. The room (and, it appears, most rooms) has a large (king size?) bed and a sofa that can be expanded into two single beds (basically, the two beds are sitting on top of one another and the top one gets pulled forward).

We paid 70€ for the room (without breakfast). The room was spacious enough, it had a door between the short piece of corridor leading to the toilet and room exit door and the rest of the room, with the door to the bathroom opening into the room. Subsequently, any noises from the hallway were drastically reduced.

On a negative note, the room had a strange, somewhat pungent smell. Luckily, it was possible to open the window; the smell disappeared quickly with fresh air coming in. When the window was closed, the smell was back just as quickly. We got „used” to it, but nonetheless it was a bit annoying.

The room has a mini bar and a TV (used neither) as well as a large flat surface along the entire one side, giving plenty of room to put stuff. The bathroom was in a rather poor shape, not dirty but very used. The shower temperature was difficult to control.

The hotel had been advertised to have a pool (which the kids would have appreciated), unfortunately, this was half empty, with the remaining „water” in a condition that raised an innate desire to stay away from it. The drive into town is quite lengthy (although it is apparently only 12 km) and costs about €27 per taxi.

Recommendation: if you’re looking for a good price and a hotel very near the airport (because you have an early morning flight out the next day), then this is a good choice. I would book in Girona (which I recommend to visit extensively - very pretty old town) otherwise.

Tags: Girona

What wasn’t very clear from the HRS description of the hotel: the address given is the office of a company that rents out apartments. You go to the office to pick up the key and instructions to the apartment they allocate to you. You then either walk or take some other transport to that address to get to your room(s).

I had booked two rooms, one for two adults and two kids, the other for two adults. Even though I had a confirmation from HRS, when I arrived at the office the second room wasn’t included in the apartment. While they would have charged for a single room only (still expensive at 140€), there wouldn’t have been enough room for all of us. Luckily, they had another apartment (further away) with enough beds and rooms.

The apartment was really quite exceptional - it had three bedrooms: two doubles and a single, as well as a sleeper couch in the living room. It sported a huge patio (enclosed), a TV (not used) and a full kitchen, as well as two full baths.


Recommendation: Seeing as hotels in Barcelona are incredibly expensive, the cost per room through Old Town Apartamentos is ok. The apartment we had was exceptional (I could easily have stayed in it for the entire vacation), but that isn’t a guarantee for others they offer. If you’re traveling in a group with lots of luggage and/or kids, you should consider sending someone from the group to fetch the key and map instructions instead of everyone going to the office and then to the apartment.

Tags: Barcelona

Very nicely located hotel - within easy walking distance of the south side of The Creek. The front is right across from the old Dubai Fort (which is now a museum). The street it is on is busy, but not annoyingly so.

I had a business room, which was - at least at the time I stayed (seasonal pricing) quite inexpensive for Dubai, and the room was indeed spectacular. In line with the general furnishings of the hotel, it had dark oak (?) paneling, a huge wooden bed and even a separate room with a couch + television, with a door separating the bedroom and the “living” room.
The view from the window - which was quite soundproof - was quite nice, see above.

I had some food in the English Pub in the hotel which was commendable - all in all a hotel I can recommend to visitors and business people alike.

Tags: Dubai

Currently, there is a major construction site next to the hotel, but so far it’s been relatively quiet.

Nice place with a super pool, excellent food and really good service.


I have to admit it: I’m not here for vacation - in fact, I don’t even want to be here, but it’s a heck of a lot better than most travelers stuck due to the biggest aviation disaster ever (see my travel blog for details); they are spending their time stuck in an airport, while I get to lounge in a nice vacation resort.

The place is really quite nice, about 30 minutes east of downtown Antalya and apparently only 12km from the airport. It is one hotel in a long row of hotels, some of these are quite spectacular. The Lara Beach Hotel doesn’t fall into that category, quite the contrary, it is relatively ugly from the outside. Not that this matters, but be aware of the fact that the hotels in the vicinity remind me of Las Vegas casinos whereas this one just looks, well, “useful”.

Subsequently, most of the hotels here seem much newer. The Lara Beach Hotel was built in 2005, which isn’t that long ago, but it has the flair of a refurbished 80’s hotel. But the room I am in is in very good shape and comfortable enough.
The hotel pool, garden, etc. are also very nice - no complaints. There is a huge (!) construction project next door, but you only hear it if your room - like mine - is in that direction and you have your window open. The closed windows absorb a lot of noise, they are double-paned.

The food is very good, something for everyone including a huge dessert buffet.
There is free Wifi in my room, I just had to enquire the connection password from reception. The speed is excellent, I had several (Video-) Skype sessions with very good throughput, one to the US and one to Germany.
The pool offers some nice water slides for adults, but they have separate slides (some quite challenging) in the kiddie section, so there shouldn’t be any complaints.

The beach is very nice, though I suspect that during high season it will be quite full, as it is relatively narrow.

Negative Aspects
What really surprised me: the hotel only has four non-smoking rooms! To be honest, I’m in a smoking room and really can’t tell, but for a country where smoking is not permitted in buildings, I can’t understand that they wouldn’t at least offer half of the rooms as non-smoking.
The air conditioning system was quite obviously switched off due to it being pre-season (and - most of the time - very pleasant temperature-wise); the system only blew same-temperature air into the room, room temperatures in other parts of the hotel were higher than I would have expected. This wasn’t a real problem (except for the early afternoon, when the outside temps peaked). It did mean opening my windows to let some fresh, cooler air in (which I’m fine with) and subsequently quite a bit of noise from the construction site next door.
The water temperature in the shower seemed oddly inconsistent. Not that I scalded myself, but it varied more than I felt comfortable with.
Last but not least, an issue for a business traveller: when I checked out at 6:00h in the morning, the guy at the reception desk was unable to generate a bill for me - this, apparently, can only be done by accounting - and they wouldn’t be there until 9:00h... I just hope I don’t have any issues getting a bill sent to me by email.

Tags: Antalya

Mallorca is - despite much of the bad press it has received in the years past, one of our favorite places to go for a quick holiday. If you stay away from Arenal - for me a place on the same “desirable” level as Alicante - the island has some truly incredible locations to offer.
Santa Ponça isn’t necessarily one of them - it does have a nice beach, but the surrounding infrastructure is 100% tourism. Its not a bad place to go either, though, especially if you have a rental car.

Our first Mallorca vacation was in a hotel in Santa Ponça, and it was quite a nice one. When we searched for a place to go for an end-of-season week (we’d originally wanted to go to Turkey, but the club that had been recommended by a business partner decided to close Nov. 1 due to lack of business), we came across Club Santa Ponça and thought - hey, we’ve been there before, lets go!

The place has - to be fair - probably the best location in the entire area. It is built on top of the hill at the northern end of the bay and has an incredible view into the bay. The buildings themselves are traditional spanish style, not the horrid bare-concrete structures you find in town.
But really, that is where the plus points end.

I could go on and on about what is wrong with this place, but I’ll keep the list succinct and to the point. We had a chat with some folks that had been to the club five years ago, and apparently back then, there was no all inclusive package available. The two (elderly) folks were completely flabbergasted by the development and its repercussions, and I understand why. It not only pulls in a completely different crowd, but also demotes the entire restaurant crew to pick-up-dirty-plates duty.

Here’s my list of reasons you should NOT book a vacation here, in order of (my) importance:

The food is atrocious. Really. Bland, overcooked, repeat.
The walls between apartments are paper thin - apparently more so than in other mediterranean hotels I have been in. When people next door walk into their room, you think they just walked into yours.
The crowd is, at least partially, one with the “I’ve booked AI and I will use it” mentality. We had an apartment directly across from the “Comedor”, next to the pool area and diagonally across from the bar. We suffered.
I’ve never come across a hotel of this size that will have days without room service (its not uncommon in family-run pensions to not have room service on Sunday), but two days without? Really annoying!
While relatively clean, the place is completely run down. Besides the wall paint, there are no signs of renovation EVER.
Our apartment was 603, with a separate bedroom, sleeping couches in the living / eating area and a huge terrace with an incredible view. The bathroom, however, was incredibly small full of edges to hit various body parts on. I would gladly have given some terrace space to make a bigger bath!
No broom to clean up little messes, no hooks to hang something ANYWHERE!
The kids animation program consisted of Mini Disco (thanks, Geertje!). Finito. No playground, no toys, no Mini Club. The place has an unheated (but covered!) pool, but our daughter only went in it once because it was clearly too cold.
The only available internet access is three pay-per-use terminals at reception. While the rate is ok (1€ for 15 minutes), it is quite inconvenient - there is often a wait because kids are playing internet games.

Oops - so much for a short list. I think you get the picture...
GO SOMEWHERE ELSE FOR VACATION on this beautiful island!

Tags: Mallorca

The hotel is quite a drive away from the airport, but seems to be pretty centrally located (I say that, because I saw nearly nothing of Ankara when I was there).

Internet access is free in the room.

Tags: Istanbul

Istanbul’s “Asian side” features some really neat sights and sounds. For example, there is a huge area in the Bostanci district that consists of rows of garages that work on cars from different manufacturers. I’ve been told that the mechanics are usually much better than at the official garages, so if your car breaks down in Istanbul, consider going here.

Where I would not recommend you go (or rather: stay) is the Green Park Hotel, which happens to be smack in the middle of this car-repair island.

To be fair: the area is relatively low-traffic at night, mainly because no one is working on cars at that time. Unfortunately, this makes the area very popular with stray dogs, which also prefer to “live” where there isn’t so much traffic.

I had a really tough time falling asleep here just from the dog barking. If you’re used to that sound, it probably won’t bother you, but it certainly irritated me. Especially, because one particular dog barked continuously for at least half an hour - I didn’t know this was physically possible (learned something new)!

The room was spacious enough but not particularly attractive. The hotel is apparently one of the first to be erected on the Asian side, and it shows. More annoying is, however, that the folks that work here are just plain unfriendly, something not at all common in Istanbul.

The price was okay at 90€ plus tax (Istanbul is expensive!) including breakfast. The latter was also quite good with a relatively large variety of food.

Our partner in Istanbul booked me at the Green Park due to the fact that the Marriott Asia was fully booked. If necessary, I would probably stay here again (instead of staying on the European side), but only if necessary.

www.thegreenpark.com

Tags: Istanbul

The hotel is located at the southern end of Olaya Street, conveniently within walking distance to our partner in Riyadh. Walking to the Olaya Computer Market or even Faisaliah Mall, for example, is no problem if it isn’t too hot out and you can deal with the kamikaze driving style popular in the city. There is a large supermarket one block down Olaya, as well as a few stores (luggage, home electronics) and several restaurants, other than that there isn’t much of interest around the hotel.

After staying at the Al Khozama Hotel in Riyadh for the last few visits to Saudi Arabia, I decided to try out the Hilton Garden Inn, as it came recommended by our partner here. The room rate is 500 Rial (plus tax) compared to the 700 Rial I’ve always paid at the Al Khozama, however the latter includes breakfast which costs 98 Rial at the Hilton (including tax), so it is not that much less expensive in total.

The rooms at the Hilton are larger and more comfortable than at the Al Khozama, as well as newer - no doubt. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the time to test the gym, but as it is in the hotel (at the Al Khozama it is in a different building that is part of the Khozama complex), it is much more conveniently located.

I only had breakfast at the hotel, so I can’t say anything about the quality of the food they serve for lunch or dinner, but breakfast was very good. Excellent mixture of Arabic and Western foods with eggs made to order, as well as a waffle iron with portioned dough for guest use. Superb collection of fruit juices and fresh fruit of different types. It certainly isn’t a “steal” at 98 Rial, but - compared to some of the breakfasts I’ve had in hotels - certainly worth the money.

The rooms are comfortable, two floors of non-smoking rooms are available. Even though I had explicitly requested confirmation of a non-smoking room reservation, I was at first given a smoking room. Luckily, the hotel wasn’t full so that I was able to change it without problems.

One negative experience was the airport pickup: I had ordered a car, which, at 120 Rial, is much more expensive even than at the Al Khozama (they charge 80 Rial). The driver was there with a sign, waiting for me. However, I wasn’t the only one he was waiting for - he asked me to wait and then got back in front of the arrivals exit to wait for another person from my flight. After about 25 minutes, two other gentlemen that had seen the sign and were also staying at the Hilton asked him if he could take them with him to the hotel. The end of the story was that there were three of us in a minibus, with my account being charged for the ride.
I mentioned the affair to our partner who immediately had the office manager file a complaint. In the end, my account was credited for the pickup.

Internet access is free in the room.

Tags: Riyadh

This hotel came recommended by an ex-customer (customer at a previous place of employment), as it is very close to their office (in Faisaliah Tower). It was certainly a step up from the Sheraton I stayed at the first time I came to Riyadh, and until this last trip I have stayed at the Al Khozama every time I came here.

The hotel is, if not THE first hotel in the area, certainly one of the first. It has that “old hotel atmosphere”, which I find very attractive. Unfortunately, the rooms are very small (even if you book a business room) with a single bed. The bathrooms are in desperate need of renovation - though they are clean. I always paid 700 Rial for the room including breakfast. An airport pickup runs a very attractive 80 Rial.

Breakfast (which is very important to me) is excellent, with a good mixture of Arabic and Western foods. Sometimes (but not every time I stayed), eggs are made to order. The quality of food is superb.

The hotel is within a short walking distance to Faisaliah Mall, which offers a large food court - subsequently, I’ve never had lunch or dinner at the hotel. The hotel does offer two pools, one is an outside pool that has always been full of leaves or other debris every time I looked, the other is in the health club and is quite good for doing some laps (length is probably about 20m). The Gym, also in the health club, is pretty good, with a row of treadmills as well as some weight machines and free weights. The negative aspect: the health club is in a building that is part of the Faisaliah complex, i.e. across a (non-busy) road from the hotel.

Should you book the hotel, be sure to demand a room towards the rear. The hotel is right on __, which is very busy day and night and will - unless you’re used to heavy city traffic - keep you up at night.

The hotel is absolutely okay, but there are better ones to be had, at a lower price (for example: Hilton Garden Inn).

Internet access is free in the room (wired) and in the lounge (wireless).

Tags: Riyadh

Probably due to booking off-season, I was able to get a room at the Novotel for a really reasonable rate of 459 AED (€89) including breakfast. The hotel seems to be quite new and is really quite nice. It has a very nice outside pool and a pleasant gym. Breakfast is okay, the food is good but the buffet isn’t amongst the larger ones I’ve seen.

What was incredibly annoying was the fact that despite the modern and spacious bathroom, I was unable to get any hot water. Being a frequent Sauna visitor, the cold shower on the first evening didn’t phase me very much - unfortunately, they were unable to fix this problem during the entirety of my 3-day stay. I would have changed rooms, but every evening, I was told that the problem had been fixed when it actually hadn’t but I didn’t find this out until the next morning.

The location of the hotel is okay, it is right across the road from Deira City Center Mall but not really close to anything else of interest, so taking a cab is - especially in August - a must. I found this out the hard way when, stubborn dude I am, I decided to walk to the Creek from the hotel. My light green Polo was getting distinct splotches of dark within minutes. The positive side: within half an hour, it was completely dark so no-one noticed (for the unknowing: Dubai in August will sport 45 degrees centigrade with about 90% humidity).

Assuming the hot water problem was a localized issue, I would recommend this hotel if you get a good deal.

Tags: Dubai

What more do you want: a brand-new hotel, with well-insulated windows (to keep out noise), large and comfortable rooms, a large pool and nice gym? Okay, it is quite pricey, but Istanbul hotels tend to be expensive.

Our partner was able to get a rate of 159€ per night. Mind you, this doesn’t include breakfast or internet access...

If you can afford it (or if you get a really good rate), I highly recommend this hotel!

Tags: Istanbul