NH Mannheim

I’d stay again because the area is decent and the rooms are decent, but the service needs hospitality training if the hotel is going to call itself four star. Several employees didn’t greet guests or respond to a hello, and some seemed to see us as a burden. Breakfast was okay, nothing special. There were water bottles left uncollected on the floor by the elevators and beer bottles on top of the outdoor garbage cans. Parking was a nightmare and always full. I was told to use a handicapped space, which made me uncomfortable in case someone with disabilities needed it. The night desk employee, who said his name was Borat, was rude when we called about the parking ticket and explained that we should back up a meter and pull forward to reset it. The ticket still failed. When I went inside, he treated me as if I were the problem. He came out to help only after I went to try again, then saw that we’d been given a one-time ticket, apologized and fixed it. I don’t understand why he was rude when I first asked for help. The first morning, three of the four coffee machines were out at 10:05 am. I asked whether I could use the one by the food area. A tall, blond man with glasses got upset and cut me off with, “BREAKFAST IS OVER!!” I said I knew, and explained that the other machines weren’t working. He said no, led me through the side doors to the other machines and pointed, saying, “THERE!!” I told him those weren’t working either, as I’d already explained. He walked over, pressed a button to clear one and acted like I’d caused a problem.

Free parking is available, though the hotel is a little way from the very centre. The room was nice and clean, and breakfast was great. Cleaning wasn’t always done as agreed.

The hotel is clean and convenient, with a location not far from the centre and parking right on the premises. It seems to be an older building that’s had some renovation, and the bathroom sometimes smells. Some rooms seem worse than others. There’s no kettle or coffee-making setup in the room. Breakfast costs €24, which feels a bit high for this area and this level of hotel.

The location is okay and fairly close to downtown, but rooms facing the main road get a lot of traffic and tram noise. For business travelers staying a couple of nights, the policy of cleaning rooms only every 4 days means there’s no service during the stay. They say it’s for sustainability. I requested service for the next day, but nobody followed up. Is this what German hospitality has come to? It feels like savings in the wrong place, especially when so many low-wage workers are being put out of work. I’m looking forward to flying home tomorrow and getting away from this sad decline.