Best Western Plus Hotel Köln City

The room towels and flannel were dirty when I arrived, as if they'd been used to wipe down surfaces. The room wasn't cleaned and the water wasn't refilled once during my stay. The coffee and tea setup was poor, and the restaurant was expensive with little choice. Check-in was self-service, and I had to enter all the information again even though I'd already provided it to book and they confirmed they had it on record. I was told paying in advance would make checkout quick and that I could just leave, but checkout still meant doing the whole process and logging in again. The price was extortionate, €450 for three nights with no breakfast. If I wanted breakfast, I had to book it for every day of the stay, not just one day, for €28 a day. Bonkers. This is the worst hotel I've stayed in over the past 12 months. It presents itself as a premium place, but it was absolutely terrible. Avoid it if you can.

The bed was comfortable, and the location was good, with plenty of restaurants nearby. Still, it was just a standard hotel, and I expected more from a Best Western Plus.

The night reception is outsourced rather than handled by hotel staff, and their concern only goes so far before they stop caring. They threw away a charging cable that should have been kept in the hotel's housekeeping safe.

It's fairly close to a tram stop, so getting into central Cologne was easy. The room was clean, modern, and warm enough, and I appreciated the free bottle of water. I was disappointed there was no refrigerator or platform for opening a suitcase. Breakfast was decent, with some hot meats and vegetables as well as the usual options. Check-in was a bit of a slog: the kiosk accepted my details and went through the whole process, then showed an error at the end. The same thing happened at checkout. The hotel sent the kiosk QR code with a message only in German, which wasn't much help. I'd hoped a US brand would send messages in English.