Mein Urlaub auf Sylt

Breakfast was good, and I was allowed to switch from a room about the size of a storage closet to a larger one. That was the only real plus. The house is terribly run-down and the cleanliness was awful. I left early and wouldn’t return. I can’t understand how a place like this is still allowed to rent rooms.

WARNING: SCAM! We paid €90 for one night, but left without staying because the hygiene was so poor. The room smelled strongly of cigarettes despite being advertised as non-smoking, and there was no smoke detector. The pillow, duvet and mattress were brownish yellow, with hair and brown marks on the sheets. The mattress also felt damp in the middle when we lay down. We arrived on time at 4 pm, so we couldn’t have caused the state of the room at check-in. When we asked for clean bedding, the owners said they were on the mainland and couldn’t help. We saw no staff at all, including at check-out. On the first floor, roughly seven rooms shared one very old, worn toilet and shower. The furnishings were dated, with dust and stains everywhere and some damaged furniture. The room shown on Booking.com wasn’t the one we were given.

The location is the one good thing about this place. We’ve visited Sylt many times, but this accommodation was awful, starting with a horrible smell when we arrived. There were cobwebs in the corners, the kitchen fittings were dreadful, and the shower door came off in my hand because its guide rollers were missing. The furniture looked salvaged from the trash and made the place feel shabby. The kitchenette had an old refrigerator built in as a cabinet, and both burners were filthy. A triple outlet on the counter had a broken wire, all the floors were damaged, and there was no privacy at all. The parking area is reached over an extremely high curb and is a mud pit, so be careful if you’re coming by car. There’s too much else to list. The worst part is that these problems were already there at least four years ago, leaving plenty of time to fix them. Taking the money without investing anything is unacceptable.

We stayed here twice for work, first in 2021 and then again in 2022. I’d forgotten the first visit, and word about how run-down the place was hadn’t reached our company, so my colleagues and I had to go through it all again. We left together after two nights, and the company spent a while pursuing legal action against the operators. There was even a question about whether the photos had really been taken there. I can’t think of another place where guests are treated this way. The five of us had to coordinate because not every room key came with its own front door key. On arrival, keys for us and other guests who hadn’t arrived yet were left outside in the mailbox, meaning anyone passing could get in. The entrance smelled strongly of a basement. The garden had bulky rubbish and a shopping cart, and it was awkward to get past when another guest parked in the space in front of the house. Inside, the furnishings were poor, and the beds weren’t especially big or comfortable. The shower head, and apparently the mattresses and duvets judging by their marks, looked like they were from 1970. Some lights didn’t work, and there weren’t enough bathrooms. With nine rooms and one toilet, plus thin walls, you could hear people constantly. There were only five forks for nine rooms, and they needed rinsing before use. Touching anything in the house made you feel you needed to wash your hands. The housekeeper was very helpful and incredibly nice, and two beach chairs had recently been added to the garden. This time there was no hair on the walls, and the bedding smelled a little less musty than before. Still, there was mold, and the mattresses and bedding had stains we couldn’t identify.