Art Hotel Erlangen

The rate wasn't lower than similar places where these issues were handled better. The room lights were difficult to operate, the phone plug didn't work, and the water took a while to warm up. Still, it was clean and quiet even though it's by the street, which makes getting around convenient.

After a long drive with our two small kids, we arrived to find the hotel locked and nobody there. The bartender next door kindly helped us get inside, only for us to discover that the room meant for us was already occupied. They eventually found an empty one, but we had to make the bed ourselves, clean a dirty bathroom sink, and put up with a lot of dust. The next day, the receptionist was rude and racist. She didn't apologize for the poor hospitality and instead accused us of being less prepared for travel than German people. She said the manager would call, but even after six months we still hadn't heard from them. They were unreliable and disorganized throughout, and it was a waste of our time, money, and nerves. This was by far the worst experience we've had in years of travelling around Germany and the world. I wouldn't stay here.

We were on a 1600km drive split over two days, with two small children, and had booked this place to rest overnight. We arrived to find reception closed. Eventually we got an access code for the keybox, but it was empty. The nearby bar was still open, and its staff really tried to sort things out, though this wasn't their job. They even tried a few rooms that turned out to have guests in them, before finding an empty room on the top floor. It was set up for two when there were four of us, and could have been cleaned better. We helped pull out the sofa while staff looked for bedding. They eventually found some, and we got to put it on ourselves with two exhausted toddlers. At checkout, what I first took for an apology was really a dig about us booking late, along the lines of, "German people are normally more organised..." I'd happily stay somewhere else with rooms that are actually ready, so just don't make the room available to me if you don't want me there. We weren't happy, and agreed that instead of paying there, management would call to discuss it. A few weeks later, my wife got a call while busy and asked them to call back in an hour. They never did. Half a year later someone called to ask for payment, with a "promotion discount" of 30EUR. I found out during the call that they weren't actually management. After a lengthy explanation, there were some apologies, but they kept insisting they'd done their part of the contract and we had to do ours. Apparently we should be grateful to avoid interest on the money owed. We paid, and we definitely won't stay again. No room was ready, and the receptionist blamed us the next day because we'd booked late. When you mess up, own it. Mistakes happen and most people understand that. Avoid if you can.

The building has three stories and no elevator, and the facilities are old. The corners of my room weren't clean. What really got me was how stingy the hotel was with small amenities. I forgot toothpaste and asked a woman wearing a manager tag for help. She said yes, then took the small tube from a toothbrush set and gave it to me. Since I was staying for 3 nights, I asked for another. She promptly refused and told me to get it at the nearby supermarket. A simple no at the start would have felt better. There were two complimentary bottles of sparkling water when I checked in, but they weren't replaced after I finished them. The room had shower gel but no shampoo. Not sure what the hotel hopes to achieve by being so stingy.