City Hotel Suhl

The room was big, but nothing special. Cleaning was okay, though it could have been better. There was no fridge, so I couldn’t keep my water cold like I usually do. There’s no free parking either, and leaving a car near the hotel costs 3€ per night. The pool is in the next building and costs 5.50€ to use. Everything, from signs to menus, was only in German, which didn’t feel welcoming to people from outside Germany. The internet was just 0.5Mb/s in a hotel in 2019, and getting a faster connection meant paying 5€. It was my first and last time here. I strongly recommend staying away.

I was in Suhl for a congress next to the hotel and stayed two nights. The roomkeeping staff were friendly and professional, and the room was fairly large, with a TV, wardrobe, desk and chair, another table with two chairs, bedside tables, a big window with a blinding curtain, and a bathroom with a single sink, toilet, hair dryer, and bathtub. It was basically clean, but in poor technical condition. The bathroom fan had a timer of about 15 minutes. I switched it on in the morning, and when I came back in the afternoon it was still running, stuck at two minutes. The silicone joints were cracking and had large black spots. The hot water was a bit cold but okay in the morning, then only 31°C in the afternoon. Worst of all, the A/C didn’t work at all. Whether I set it cooler in the evening after the sun had heated the room, or warmer in the morning, the temperature stayed the same. One window tilts open, but the door is so loose it won’t hold back the wind and soon falls closed. The reception staff were the next big problem. There was no sense of customer care. The room phones had replaceable paper labels for speed dials, and M1 was marked as reception, but dialing it only gave me a busy tone. I called from outside to ask my question and tell them the label was wrong. They said I was supposed to look up the number on the key card cover. I’d booked a twin room through my company, with the company name and address obvious, but was given a double. When I asked to switch, the discussion turned into several rounds of “the client is always wrong,” with no apology or solution. I ended up booking two single rooms at full price to get separate beds. Suhl isn’t known for tourism and hospitality, and now I can see why.

The best hotel stay I’ve had in ages. Nothing fancy, but everything worked just as it should. You need a chip to use the lift, which held me up for a minute, but I’m not a smart man. Suhl sounds like a good name for an evil wizard.

I went to Suhl to look into my family history, and everyone at the hotel, townhall, and Church was very helpful. The hotel had recent upgrades and the rooms were good. They all have working air conditioners, which seems rare in Europe. I’d recommend this hotel.