Trip Inn Blankenburg (ehemals Centro Hotel Blankenburg by INA)

The staff were really friendly, and the building itself is beautiful, but I didn't like the overall feel of the hotel. The room was okay, though quite old, and the furniture seemed worn down. There's a drug addict hostel next door, and people were hanging around in front of the hotel all day. I wouldn't stay here again.

The top floor was nice and quiet, even on a Friday night, and the lounge and dining rooms have lots of character. I ran out of time to try the free bikes, unfortunately. One hassle: the hotel's booking system automatically changes a booking for one person to two, so I had to book through a US company to get a single room.

The room problem forced us to fit five people into a double and a single, even though I'd paid for one triple and one double. When we arrived, Room 43 smelled unbearable, like something had died in it. The receptionist offered a replacement, but it was only a single. The single room also had exposed electrical cables, and my 2-year-old child touched them and nearly got an electric shock. That's a serious safety hazard. We saw several other guests going to reception with different problems, so it didn't seem isolated. The whole hotel smelled bad, was unclean, and looked nothing like the online photos, which seemed like they could have been taken 20 years ago when it was new. It's now old, run-down, and dirty. I'd never recommend it, especially to families with children. Spend your money somewhere else.

The woman at reception was friendly, and the bed linen was new, white, and clean. The rest of the place was awful. There was thick, wet black mold in the shower, a yellow buildup of limescale in the toilet, and a wet, discolored piece of mystery toilet paper behind the bathroom door. Hair from the last person using the dryer was still around, and most showerhead holes were clogged, leaving just four needle-sharp streams. The room floor seemed recently cleaned, but each corner had a little dirt pile. The room and hallway reeked of cigarette smoke, partly masked by a sickly sweet perfume. There was no mattress protector, just a thin sheet between me and two blood stains on a maybe 20 year old yellowed mattress. I checked for bed bugs and found none, though I saw others weren't so lucky. At 7 am breakfast, the fruit salad and soft cheese slices were already dried and oxidized, probably not their first serving. Not worth it. Find somewhere else.