Lina Benmehrez
Google
Please read this before considering booking this hotel. It is not a 4-star hotel.
On Saturday night, June 14, my friend and I were forced to stay overnight in Aachen after three disrupted train connections from Hamburg to Brussels. Deutsche Bahn (DB) provided us with a hotel voucher (198€) and reserved a room for us in Aquis Grana hotel so we could catch a morning train to Brussels.
We arrived at the hotel at midnight, exhausted, only to face an untrained night receptionist who had to call his manager, who was sleeping, for instructions as he didn’t recognize the DB voucher.
Then, he told us his manager asked us to pay the full amount in cash immediately, promising a refund in the morning when the morning team could check the voucher carefully (as he didn’t have the right skills, and the manager didn’t want to be bothered).
When we asked if we could pay by credit card, he said we had two options: either pay in cash and get reimbursed in the morning, or pay by card and request a refund directly from DB, not from the hotel. But we had the DB voucher in hand, so we knew that DB wouldn’t reimburse a direct payment to us.
So he told us to find an ATM outside, without even knowing which one was open, simply checking Google for "possible options." We only had 60€ in cash. We offered to leave our ID cards and the cash we had to sort things out in the morning (as you normally pay your room at the end of the stay), but he refused everything.
When we asked him to call his manager again, he bluntly said he “didn’t want to bother him” because he was asleep.
After I told him I felt unsafe as a woman walking around in a city I didn’t know to withdraw over 100€. He casually said, “the man can go instead.” (my friend). I was furious, realizing I was “lucky” to be traveling with a man, or I wouldn’t have been allowed to sleep. I was outraged.
When we insisted we just wanted to rest and deal with the details in the morning, he became aggressive and told us we could “go to another hotel.” At 1AM. We had no choice, my friend had to go out alone to get the cash.
The next morning, the staff confirmed that DB had already reserved the room. We never had to pay anything ourselves, it was a mistake from their side.
This hotel absolutely does not operate at a 4-star standard. The night shift was untrained, aggressive, and unempowered. The manager refused to take responsibility and didn't train properly his night shift staff. I’ve reported this to DB and urged them not to work with this hotel again. Please avoid this hotel and stay safe.
