Geoff D.
Yelp
Cortiina is one of those cool boutique hotels I want to love. Unfortunately, after spending a week here with my family in one of their two-bedroom apartments, I left feeling like it's also one of those boutique hotels that ends up suffering from "form over function" (i.e., most things here looked better than they actually were) -- and I will try somewhere else next time.
Highlights of our stay:
- Outstanding location in Altstadt, near everything but surprisingly quiet
- Extremely friendly, English-fluent and well-meaning staff throughout the visit
- Appealing modern design in rooms and lobby
- The 2 bedroom apartment layout, though really more like a suite with some sliding doors, worked well for our family of 5
- In-room espresso maker with single-serving packets
Issues during our stay:
- The air conditioning was decidedly second rate; our room was never below 27 degrees celcius. Granted we were there during a heat wave and it was often high 30s outside, but hey, that's when you want the A/C to work properly.
- One of the bathrooms smelled awful and needed a professional plumber's attention. Despite my daily conversations with staff and management to this effect, they kept coming up to pour the equivalent of Clorox down the drain, which would help for a couple hours at best. When the technical guy finally agreed with me that a plumber was needed, he also shrugged that it was Saturday, so best they could do was Monday afternoon.
- Various elements of the room design were well intended but impractical. For instance, translucent bathroom doors that don't latch. Or the motion-sensing closet light that goes off 5 seconds after you open the door.
- The marketed free wi-fi means one consecutive hour per day, for which you have to call the front desk for a code each day. If you want to say, check weather in the morning and email at night, you're paying $20 per day.
- I was told that my rate did not include breakfast, but when I went to check-out, it turned out that I had paid for free breakfast (that we never ate) all week! Their generous handling of this? One day's breakfast fee removed from our tab.
All in all, it was a disappointing experience given that it should be a top notch place. Nonetheless, we had a good week and it generally met our needs. I think the best use case for this would be a fun adult's weekend when you want to enjoy the hip bar and address but don't care as much about infrastructure.