Eckstein

The rooms are small but clean. I paid 129 EUR per night, then was charged an extra 10 EUR per night in tax, which they hadn't mentioned beforehand. It might work if money is tight, but it isn't worth these prices.

The area felt strange, and guests in the next room came back drunk and noisy at 11pm. The beds and bathrooms were old. This is a low-quality hotel and poor value for money. I was disappointed the event organisers booked it. Stay somewhere else.

The bed was so bad I dragged the mattress onto the floor, and dealing with the hotel was a useless headache. I've stayed in cheap places before, but this one wasn't cheap at all. The value for money was practically nonexistent. Save your money and book elsewhere. I was travelling for business and needed to look presentable, so before booking I called to ask whether they had an iron. They said one was available and suggested I book online, which I did. When I arrived around 23:00, sweaty and tired after one of the hottest days of the year, I badly needed the bathroom. Check-in meant calling an employee, and that call took 15 minutes. I realized fairly early that I wasn't going to get an iron. Trying to ask for one didn't get me anywhere. The booking system hadn't asked for my address, but listed me as being from Hong Kong, a place I've never been. We had to clear that up. It also had no field for preferences like an iron. The employee kept blaming me for not having one. He said I should have asked for it to be put in my room, even though I'd asked earlier whether one was available. The receptionist I'd spoken with earlier that day hadn't said I needed to make that specific request. The call got sidetracked into explanations about hotel protocols and my responsibilities as a customer. He wanted to know exactly when I'd called to ask about the iron and when I'd booked, so I had to check my call history. He was polite, but seemed clueless, and asked six or seven times if I wanted to give up the room whenever I complained or mentioned the iron. This was at 23:00, before a busy, important day. After the long, sweaty call, I finally got the key. The room was basic, with old 70s-80s furniture. There was no note or greeting, and the landline didn't work when I tried calling to report that there was no iron. That was as pointless as expected. When I later mentioned the phone, the employee complained to me about people not doing their jobs. The room was too hot, but opening the windows let in too much noise, so sleeping normally was a challenge. There was one tiny packet of soap, as if they didn't expect guests to shower both at night and in the morning, or assumed we'd use the hand soap. The bed creaked as soon as I sat down and sounded like an earthquake when I lay on it. There wasn't an outlet near the bed. At 07:00 I tried calling for an iron again. Apparently that was too early. The same employee, who I'd just woken up, said he'd try to contact his colleagues. As I left in an unironed shirt, worried about the attention I'd get all day, the hotel employee called to tell me how to get an iron from the staff. I stopped him and said I'd already left, exactly when I'd told him I would. He then said his colleague had travelled to the hotel by taxi because of me, so I apparently owed him an apology. I coughed in the room and the next morning for some reason, despite not being sick or a smoker.

During my Berlin trip, I had a wonderful stay at Hotel Eckstein. The room was clean and tidy, and the staff were polite, cooperative, and always willing to help. They served a complimentary breakfast from 8-10 AM, and it was tasty.