Hohwachter Hof

For €125 with breakfast, you have to expect a few compromises, though I understand why many reviews are negative. The location is excellent, breakfast was good, and the beds were clean and comfortable. We stayed one night at the Howachter Hof. The hotel has a somewhat sad history, and I hope they get a young assistant to help tidy the place up. Then it should be fine. If you want better quality, you’ll need to pay more and book somewhere else.

The location is fantastic, and the lady at the neighboring hotel who makes breakfast every morning deserves full marks. That’s also the only place to find someone to talk to, apart from mealtimes. I was placed here for three business nights, and the room did its job, but nothing beyond that. I’ve stayed in lots of places and rarely seen such poor value for money. There was no service at all. It feels like they’re squeezing every last penny out of the hotel before doing anything to improve its condition.

The room was clean, and the beach is beautiful. The hotel next door also serves surprisingly good, affordable dinners. Still, this place is rough. I came for work and hadn’t read the reviews first. It may not be quite as bad as some say, but it’s bad. Time seems to have stopped here, with old furniture and a freezing room at night. The toilet is squeezed between the shower and the toilet area, so I had to wriggle between the toilet paper holder and glass door to use it. The curtains are too small for the window, and the cheap blind barely dims the light. In midsummer, sunrise would make the room as bright as day. I found one power outlet, and a wooden beam under the thin mattress dug into my lower back whenever I turned over. The Wi-Fi was just about fast enough for checking email. There’s basically no service, and the place feels abandoned. I’ve had worse nights, but that was at the Bundeswehr bivouac on the Drover Heath. It’s barely okay for a work trip. I wouldn’t choose it for a vacation, and if you can stay somewhere else, you definitely should.

The best things were the lovely view, the beach less than 50 meters away, and the generous, good breakfast buffet at the neighboring hotel. Everything else was a disgrace. There was no one to speak to, and reception stayed empty the whole time. At check-in, the key was left in an envelope on the counter where someone would normally greet you. The room was huge, almost like an apartment, but run-down and completely lacking any coziness. It smelled of old carpet everywhere except the bathroom, which stank of a dirty drain. The shower was filthy, just awful, and the toilet situation was ridiculous. The fancy bathroom hairdryer was broken, though there was a spare in the closet. But there was nowhere to plug it in, so I crawled under the bed and unplugged the bedside lamp to use the dryer. I have no idea what kind of rooms are shown in the Check24 pictures. The night before we left, the whole house smelled intensely of fries or fried potatoes. The pizzeria’s ventilation system must have been broken. As I said, there was nobody to contact, and you can probably guess why.