McDreams Hotel Düsseldorf-City

For the price, it’s absolutely worth it. The room felt nice, it was clean, and the heater worked really well. Parking is free, and it’s easy enough to get into the city. My favorite part was how digital everything is: you can check in online and open the door with your phone, which is very convenient. Parking can be a pain around dinner time because the lot is packed by people visiting the Gourmet Palast next door. There are other parking places nearby, though, so you can leave your car there until a space opens up. The digital setup may be hard for older guests to figure out. I helped another customer who didn’t know how to check in one night. Still, for me the digital side is the best thing about this hotel.

The room itself was fine, but arriving after midnight and finding no instructions for check-in made it impossible to get in. A couple of other people couldn’t check in either, and had to book another hotel at the last minute, after midnight. With a proper reception, I’d have given it four stars. Instead, it turned into a really unfortunate experience.

The room seemed okay and the Wi-Fi mostly worked, but I woke up to bed bugs crawling around me. I had to throw away my clothes and shower right away, then take every precaution I could to avoid bringing the pests home. Never, ever again. The whole stay was a horrorshow. My Booking.com reservation apparently wasn’t enough to secure a room because it wasn’t in their system. I had to reserve one on arrival, which was much more expensive and exhausting, and fill out a questionnaire to “confirm my identity.”

The stay was really good and comfortable. The location was the one thing I wasn’t so keen on, with a lot of drunk people around, either from the nearby concert or because of Halloween.