Arena Inn

For the price, it’s fine, and you can get to Berlin city center easily. The area wasn’t great. I didn’t feel unsafe, but I didn’t feel comfortable either. The room was basic, with no kettle, but it was clean and quiet. Check-in and the staff were fine.

I’d seen some reviews and was a little apprehensive about booking for five days, but the location suited what I needed to do in Berlin. I arrived early and my room was ready. The man at the desk explained how the key system worked. The room was clean and tidy, if a little worn, and the shower was excellent. Wi-Fi was top-notch on the fifth floor, measuring 220 mbs. I asked for another pillow, and one was waiting in my room that evening. Reception has a large sign saying breakfast is 7:30-10am. At €10, it’s excellent value. There are plenty of restaurants and shops nearby, as well as transport connections. It’s more than adequate for what I needed, and it isn’t costing me a fortune. I really couldn’t fault anything. Some reviews seem a bit unreasonable, especially considering that nearly 80% of all reviews are positive.

At €109 a night, this was a terrible place to stay. When I arrived at 12:40 a.m., the lobby was empty, the elevator was off, and all but the entrance door were locked. I spent an hour texting and calling the hotel and Booking.com, still effectively locked out. At 2:15 a.m. I went out into the dark, asked a stranger on the street to call Booking.com in German, which got nowhere, and then to call the hotel from his phone. A woman finally answered and told him to send me to the unlit rear building to use the stairs. The hotel didn't apologize in the morning. The stairs are outside, through another building, and the doors are separated by entrances to things like a restaurant. There was no notice when the elevator broke. The facilities didn't feel safe, with no lights outside and lights inside that only came on when you moved toward the lobby. The front desk had staff for at most two hours a day, around 9-10 a.m., and they showed no interest in questions or requests. They ignored WhatsApp messages sent to the same number they'd used for check-in directions, and insisted I should use my US phone to make an international call to their German number. They even argued that this was normal, though I'd never before had to call the hotel I was staying at from the hotel itself using international service. Breakfast was nearly empty. At 9:40, twenty minutes before it officially ended at 10, staff were already putting up chairs and removing food. I've stayed in small, unpretentious hotels before, but this so-called three-star place was the worst experience I've had at any hotel. And there's more.

I paid extra for a double, but was given a dirty single room with a broken lamp. There was no staff or even security on site, and nobody answered when I kept calling. The rooms seemed to be a free-for-all, open until someone occupied them. I moved into an empty double, the room I'd paid for, and they kicked me out at 10 p.m. I'm a young woman, and had to find another hotel for the week. If they'd picked up the phone, this could all have been avoided. They now refuse to refund me, even though I didn't spend a single night there. The front door was left open when I left, so anyone could walk in. It felt very dodgy, more like a hostel, and the photos bear little resemblance to reality. Avoid this place at all costs. They need to be shut down.