Metropol Hotel Katowice

Free parking right by the hotel was a genuine plus. Breakfast was edible, though only just a positive. My main advice is to prioritize finding a clean, comfortable hotel, then think about parking and breakfast. In Poland it’s easy to find food at cafés, bakeries, restaurants, or even gas stations, and parking is often free and easy to find outside a megacity like Warsaw. We made the mistake of filtering for free parking and included breakfast on Booking, which cut roughly 100 options down to around 10-11. Those conveniences weren’t worth a night somewhere unpleasant. This place is only worth considering as a last resort, with an extremely low price and no alternatives. I’d stay only on a very tight budget. Otherwise, I don’t recommend it. The hotel looks much worse in person than the online photos, which seem old or taken just after a cosmetic refresh. The building needs a full renovation. Walls are worn, scratched, and cracked, and there’s a stale, unpleasant smell that’s intrusive and makes the place feel cheap. Our room was in poor shape. There were black marks on the bed, stains by the pillow, and a small hole in the mattress. No soap was provided in the bathroom or toilet, for handwashing or showering. The chairs were rubbed through to bare wood. The mattress was too soft, and the pillow didn’t support my head, so I slept badly. We booked at around 10 p.m. and checked in straight away. Once I saw the room, I asked reception for a refund because we didn’t want to stay. They said it was up to the owner and couldn’t guarantee one. At almost 11 p.m., packing, finding another hotel, and paying twice made little sense. I then asked to move to a room with a clean bed and basic toiletries, the minimum needed to wash and sleep normally. Breakfast was mediocre. There was food and it was edible, but much of it was heavy fare with sausage and onions, more like lunch. Pancakes were available but always cold, since they cooked large batches ahead instead of making smaller warm portions. There seemed to be plenty, yet nothing I wanted for breakfast. I’ve had much better breakfasts at other Polish hotels, for example in Warsaw.

I had a really restful night and left more impressed than I expected. The room was warm, bright, clean, and the bed was properly comfortable. The shower kept giving hot water. Booking was simple, and there were lots of free parking spaces on site that were easy to get to. For the price, this modern hotel offers very good value.

The one star is for the lovely welcome at reception. I’m shocked by how dirty and hairy the room was. There was no mattress protector, and hairs were everywhere: on the mattress, the desk beside the drinking glasses, the shower head, and in the bath. Filthy rooms. Very disappointing, I don’t recommend it.

A clean, tidy room and a good hotel overall, especially if you’re on your own. The AC was the problem: it only blew hot air and didn’t cool the room, so opening the balcony window was the best I could do.