Hotel Excelsior, Bochum ***
Max-Greve-Str. 32-34, Bochum
Stayed: August 2019
This was my second stay at the Excelsior, I‘d stayed there once before about a year previously.
If you‘re not travelling by car, the hotel is a bit of a haul. I took the underground from the central station to „Planetarium“ and then walked about 5 minutes to the hotel. It is all up hill, so if you‘re not good with that, it needs to be considered. Walking downtown after checking in was pretty quick, it isn‘t far to get to a (somewhat) more lively location.
The hotel is part of a larger building complex that also houses an Italian restaurant and at least one corporate office - the official entrance is around the back, which may be confusing at first. Since reception closes at 8PM (!), there is also a night entrance that you get a separate key for. The Italian restaurant was closed and I seem to remember this to be the case when I stayed here the first time as well. I didn‘t bother to look when or if the restaurant is open.
My room this time (number 13) was in the lower floor. The door opens to a foyer with the door to the bathroom strait ahead and the door to the actual room to the right. The advantage is, you have two doors to keep out any noise from the hallway (of which there wasn‘t much).
The room was quite large with two separate single beds separated by a night table. Quite unfortunately, there are no usable outlets near the bed, so if your phone needs to charge over night, you won‘t be able to keep it next to you (for the alarm).
Furnishings are functional, there is a TV (that I didn‘t use) and a mini bar (that I didn‘t take anything out of), as well as a chair and a closet to hang your clothes. Windows run the entire length of the room; these can be closed off with curtains, but the curtains don‘t fully block out the light, so you‘ll have to contend with that in the morning.
The bathroom is also functional, though the sliding door of the shower stall was hard to close and the faucet for the shower is annoying. It isn‘t a thermostatic control and it is hard to get the temperature right. The temperature also started drifting to hot with time, so I had to continuously readjust it.
The room has no air conditioning. While I would presume that the lower rooms stay cooler longer, in a heat wave it will probably get quite warm. A stand-up fan was provided.
The room rate is with breakfast, but I didn‘t have it, so no comments here.
All in all, this is certainly a hotel you can stay at - if there isn‘t a heatwave on. If you‘re up for bars or restaurants or theater, you‘ll probably prefer some place closer to downtown. Likely, you‘ll try to avoid Bochum altogether, as it is really quite dead in the evening, at least on weekdays.
Stayed: August 2019
This was my second stay at the Excelsior, I‘d stayed there once before about a year previously.
If you‘re not travelling by car, the hotel is a bit of a haul. I took the underground from the central station to „Planetarium“ and then walked about 5 minutes to the hotel. It is all up hill, so if you‘re not good with that, it needs to be considered. Walking downtown after checking in was pretty quick, it isn‘t far to get to a (somewhat) more lively location.
The hotel is part of a larger building complex that also houses an Italian restaurant and at least one corporate office - the official entrance is around the back, which may be confusing at first. Since reception closes at 8PM (!), there is also a night entrance that you get a separate key for. The Italian restaurant was closed and I seem to remember this to be the case when I stayed here the first time as well. I didn‘t bother to look when or if the restaurant is open.
My room this time (number 13) was in the lower floor. The door opens to a foyer with the door to the bathroom strait ahead and the door to the actual room to the right. The advantage is, you have two doors to keep out any noise from the hallway (of which there wasn‘t much).
The room was quite large with two separate single beds separated by a night table. Quite unfortunately, there are no usable outlets near the bed, so if your phone needs to charge over night, you won‘t be able to keep it next to you (for the alarm).
Furnishings are functional, there is a TV (that I didn‘t use) and a mini bar (that I didn‘t take anything out of), as well as a chair and a closet to hang your clothes. Windows run the entire length of the room; these can be closed off with curtains, but the curtains don‘t fully block out the light, so you‘ll have to contend with that in the morning.
The bathroom is also functional, though the sliding door of the shower stall was hard to close and the faucet for the shower is annoying. It isn‘t a thermostatic control and it is hard to get the temperature right. The temperature also started drifting to hot with time, so I had to continuously readjust it.
The room has no air conditioning. While I would presume that the lower rooms stay cooler longer, in a heat wave it will probably get quite warm. A stand-up fan was provided.
The room rate is with breakfast, but I didn‘t have it, so no comments here.
All in all, this is certainly a hotel you can stay at - if there isn‘t a heatwave on. If you‘re up for bars or restaurants or theater, you‘ll probably prefer some place closer to downtown. Likely, you‘ll try to avoid Bochum altogether, as it is really quite dead in the evening, at least on weekdays.
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