Hotel Am Schelztor

Getting around was very convenient: the marktplatz is about a five-minute walk away, shopping is just out the front door and around the corner, and the train and bus station takes about seven minutes to reach on foot. The location is great and breakfast was good. Our room for three adults was tiny with the extra bed, but we appreciated having that option. The bathroom and shower were terrific, with a nice amount of space and plenty of warm water.

Esslingen is a beautiful city and the location is great, but after two weeks here for business I found the stay stressful and wouldn’t recommend it for work. The staff were friendly, though there’s no one around at night if you need support. The parking area isn’t well organized, and customers sometimes have problems with each other. In the mornings there wasn’t hot shower water. The bed was cheap, the air conditioning was extremely noisy, and the bed light got so hot that I accidentally burned my arm on it, a fairly serious burn. One odd thing: I’d washed my clothes, including underwear, and hung them in the room, but someone moved them to the drying room without telling me. Maybe I’m picky, but I’ve never had these problems at another hotel. I’d recommend it for a short visit or weekend if you can put up with these issues.

I wouldn’t recommend staying here. The rooms were OK otherwise, but this wasn’t a particularly cheap hotel, and I’ve stayed in much better places for less on that same journey. There was some open parking behind the building, though a space wasn’t guaranteed. We booked two rooms with air conditioning for mid-July, but neither had working air con. After check-in the receptionist left, so nobody was on duty to sort it out. We had to keep the windows open all night. Young people were playing music at the football pitch across the road until 2 a.m., then matches started at 8 the next morning. We had a terrible night’s sleep. The next day I was grudgingly offered a 5% discount for the broken air conditioning, and pushed for 10%.

The room itself was quite small, and the street outside was busy and loud. Breakfast cost 9 euros a day, which felt too expensive for cold cuts, bread, and some sad-looking fruit. But the worst part was arriving at 9:30 p.m. after telling the hotel when I’d be there, only to find they hadn’t sent the code I needed to get my room key after reception hours. No one answered the phone number they’d provided, and though other guests let me into the building, I still couldn’t get into my room. I called repeatedly and emailed, with no reply. I ended up sleeping in the lobby with my coat for a blanket. The next morning I startled the breakfast staff by coming in to ask for a key after spending the night there. One staff member finally gave me a key, just as the owner/manager arrived. She seemed not to care that I’d spent the night in her lobby, alone as a woman during a global pandemic, and brushed past me into the office. I spent the next two days trying to get a refund. When I returned Saturday at 6 p.m., reception was closed, and it was also closed when I left at 7 a.m. Sunday and came back at 6 p.m. I finally reached her on Monday. She asked why I hadn’t called the number provided. When I said I had, she shrugged, said sorry, and refunded one night. I should never have had to sleep in the lobby. The owner should have answered the phone, and her response when she learned what happened was basically “I don’t care.” I wouldn’t recommend this place at all and will look for somewhere else next time I’m in Esslingen.