Hotel Norddeutscher Hof

The location was fantastic, and the room and beds were very clean, which mattered a lot to us. We stayed in February, and when our flight from Turkey was cancelled because of bad weather, the staff were helpful about us arriving two days late and didn’t make an already difficult situation worse. I thought breakfast was good, pretty average. We did have to hand our key to reception whenever we went out, which I didn’t like. For a travelling couple who mainly needs a clean place in a good spot with breakfast, it met my expectations.

The receptionists were outstanding, honestly among the best I’ve encountered at a hotel. The location near the Central Station and the lake is strategic, and a lot of the room price seems to go toward that. Room service was just average, and some of the towels had stains. Still, it’s a good hotel.

The room I was moved to still wasn’t clean: there was sticky stuff on the pillowcases and pen marks on the sheets. When I checked out, they offered €9, the price of one breakfast, for everything I’d dealt with. It wouldn’t even cover my half of the laundry costs from the bedbugs, and I didn’t actually receive the refund because staff started checking in other guests while I had a flight to catch. They’d also given me the wrong breakfast hours, so I missed a breakfast anyway. I was bitten all down my legs, but staff wouldn’t believe me, even after seeing the bites and photos of stains on the sheets. A pharmacist confirmed the bedbugs and gave me a hospital recommendation. There were fruit flies on the breakfast bread, and the carpets, curtains, and apparently the mattresses were dirty too. The sheets in the bedrooms I was put in were dirty as well. There are no slippers, so you’re walking on the bedbug infested carpet unless you bring your own. Staff could be incredibly rude and unhelpful. When I arrived, they loudly repeated my room number in front of other guests, even though I was a small woman travelling alone. It took my friends coming in to argue for me to get another room, and I was promised a VERY small partial refund for the bedbugs that I never ended up getting. The hotel is very basic, and some rooms don’t have WiFi. Avoid at all costs.

The location worked well for the station and the centre, and breakfast was alright. The bedroom, though, was tiny and nothing like the photos. Two beds were squeezed against the walls with only a few inches between them, and the radiator served as a headboard. There was no bedside table or light switch. The carpet was grubby, one mattress was soft and uncomfortable, and the quilts smelled strongly of bleach.