Victoria Hotel

After a red-eye flight, the junior suites were a convenient, reasonably priced choice for our group. The front desk staff were incredibly accommodating, and I’d stay here again. We had fast WiFi, plenty of outlets, and could walk to everything we needed. The neighborhood didn’t feel great late at night, but the location and a quick rest worked perfectly for us.

We chose this hotel for a business visit to Frankfurt Book Fair, which is about a two-kilometre walk away. Zail street and Roam Square are around ten minutes on foot. The main station is even closer, just a five-minute walk. The hotel itself was okay, probably three stars in my view. The room was tidy and clean, though the shampoo and shower gel bottles were tiny, enough for one night. We skipped breakfast because there’s a cafe/bakery next door. The surrounding area was messy and noisy, with homeless people and drug users around. The street is busy during the day, but still didn’t feel pleasant, and a woman walking alone at night might feel unsafe. Watch your belongings in restaurants too. We saw two people come in, sit down like customers, and pretend to reach into a jacket pocket. They seemed to be trying to take things from pockets left on the backs of chairs. Luckily ours were empty. They left within a minute without even looking at the menu. There’s nothing wrong with the hotel itself, but we’ll try to avoid this area next time.

The central location was handy, but the street stayed noisy all night, with people shouting, playing music, and talking loudly. We also saw drug use nearby, and the hotel is one block from the red-light district. We booked and paid for a triple room with three beds, but at check-in we were given a double room with one bed. It was never put right. Staff at reception seemed uninterested and didn’t help when we raised problems. The room wasn’t clean to the standard we expected from a four-star hotel: it was dusty and poorly maintained, the bathroom smelled strongly of cigarette smoke, parts of the bedroom smelled of urine, the sheets had holes, and the duvet had blood stains. Our key card stopped working several times a day and had to be reset again and again, with no real effort to fix it properly. We stayed three nights at the Victoria Hotel in Frankfurt, and it was a disappointing experience. We wouldn’t stay again.

Being near the train station was the one good thing about this place. Otherwise, it was awful. There was hair in the shower and dried blood on the floor when I arrived, and at 7pm a man walked into my room because he’d been mistakenly given my key. Street noise went on all night in a nasty location. It felt like a third-world hostel and was nowhere near worth almost €200 a night.