Sunday Hotel Düsseldorf City Nord

The breakfast buffet staff were rude, and the TV and remote were both outdated, with the remote not working. Any specific rules should be made clear before booking or at check-in. I spent two days here and couldn’t get a good night’s sleep, which left me tired all day. The room looked as if it hadn’t been renovated since the hotel first opened. There was no fridge, and the air conditioning didn’t work properly. It felt more like a two-star place than a four-star hotel. I won’t stay here again.

I booked through the official accor.com site, but the breakfast listed in the added options was missing when I checked in. Showing my reservation email still didn’t settle it right away, and it took some time to convince reception that breakfast was included. Another staff member eventually confirmed it, but when we got to the hotel restaurant, our room number was still missing.

I had confirmed my reservation the day before and said I’d arrive late, after 20:00. I’d paid in advance for a room with two separate beds, but at check-in they said all those rooms had gone. Reception blamed “chinese guests” who had arrived and taken the rooms with double beds, counting rooms as available even when they’d been reserved by people who hadn’t checked in yet. I was tired and needed a shower, and my choices were to find another hotel, sleep in the car with 10 degrees outside, or accept a single-bed room. I took the room. I hadn’t read the fine print saying guests couldn’t complain in case of overbooking or something like that. The bed was bigger than a single, but smaller than two singles, maybe queen-size or something. I was sharing the room with another guy, which is why I’d booked two separate beds, but we ended up sharing the same bed. We both slept badly, with the other person on one side and the risk of falling out on the other. It was really small. Reception didn’t seem interested in the problems caused by the overbooking. They said sorry twice, but their attitude was basically take it or leave it, and they offered no financial compensation. As far as I remember, a room with one bed for two people costs the same as one with two single beds. Either way, I’d paid for the comfort of sleeping in my own bed and had to share instead.

It’s reasonably priced for Düsseldorf, and getting there by car is easy. There’s also a nearby tram stop that gets you into or out of town in about 20-30 minutes. Staff were friendly and helpful, and the underground parking was fairly priced with enough spaces even when the hotel looked full. The basic equipment needs an update, though. The room kettle didn’t work, and there was a capsule coffee machine but no pods that we could find. The air conditioning was just a very loud fan with no cooling, even at maximum. We were lucky the weather cooled down, and opening the window helped. Our room faced away from the highway ramp, so traffic wasn’t too loud, but we could clearly hear people talking outside. The front desk said technicians only come in the morning. The shower pressure on the fifth floor was a little low, and the water temperature jumped much warmer and then colder every minute or two. At least one key card stopped working whenever we came back, often both. Over two nights, we had to get new or re-coded cards three times, and one card from the final pair failed the night before checkout. We kept them in an NFC-shielded purse, far from our phones, after the front desk first suggested phones might be the cause. We reported all this when we noticed it and again at checkout. It wasn’t too big an issue for us, but if you rely on any of these things, have a plan B.