Garner Hotel Hamburg Graf Moltke by IHG

The hotel may suit someone watching every dollar, but it did not meet the IHG standards I expected. The building is old, and the entrance shown in the IHG website photo isn't actually the front door. The real entrance is about 25 meters down the road and much less glamorous. There are stairs up to the front doors, then another flight to the lobby, so it isn't disabled friendly. An ashtray and bin by the entrance seem to attract people searching through the trash. Guests and staff share one elevator. My room had two twin beds pushed together as a king, each with separate linens, plus a small single bed that I used for storage. There was also a small bathroom cut out of the room, and a little desk with a TV. A strange, fixed lazy-susan takes up more than a third of the desk. Two large windows look onto the street and are poorly insulated. The bathroom was awkward. The toilet wouldn't shut off properly, and the small sink has sloped sides that make it hard to keep grooming things from sliding in. The shower is a cramped trapezoid, under a square meter and made even smaller by a billowing curtain. The shampoo and soap dispensers are fixed to the wall at eye level, so moving around without getting sprayed in the face takes effort. The heated towel rack was a good feature, but the towels were small and not very nice. The location is close to the train station, but there are homeless people, vagrants and drunk people around. A very busy kino next door also draws people to hang out outside.

The streets around the main train station felt unsafe, especially at night. Outside the hotel, we saw people openly using drugs, barely able to stand, passed out in doorways, or wandering around dazed. It was confronting and very different from the Hamburg we expected. Inside, we couldn't get a proper night's sleep. Doors slammed and echoed all night, and people ran along the corridors into the early morning. Around 1 a.m., my cousin messaged me from his room asking, “What the hell goes on in this place?” People who seemed drunk or high were shouting in the halls, and at times it sounded as though someone was testing handles or opening doors. Seeing similar people out on the street made it feel even less safe, though I can't be sure they were the same people. If sleep or safety matters to you, I'd strongly suggest choosing another area and staying somewhere else.

The friendly receptionist was the one real bright spot. She gave us directions when we asked. Otherwise, the hotel was pretty basic, not especially attractive, and the breakfast wasn't good. Most of my complaint is about the Hamburg Hauptbahnhof area. It felt grim, with drug addicts, drunk people and migrants who weren't friendly. I'd advise people planning a visit not to stay around there. The hotel itself didn't give me much reason to recommend it either.

The neighborhood was only okay, but the room itself was clean and really good. Would I book it again? Yeah, I would.