Nick D.
Yelp
I am a stickler when it comes to cleanliness at hotels. With the literally thousands of lodging options in Berlin we narrowed it down to Hotel Amano (the Grand Central one not the other) using Booking dot com. We had a great rate (about $60 USD a night in early May).
Location is great it is literally 5 min walk to Hauptbahnhof (The central station in Berlin). Although it wasn't as useful during our stay in Berlin itself, it was so perfect when we just wanted to catch a direct S Bahn train to the airport. Although they do advertise as being centrally located, it is still a fast-paced 15-20 min walk to Brandenburg gate. Berlin itself has an incredibly complex transit system, but once you master it you'll be fine. From the hotel you can easily catch S-Bahn and above ground trams or (if you dare) busses. Not so many U-bahns (their metro) run by here.
If you are looking for nightlife or lots of restaurants this isn't the area for you. We even had difficulty finding a store that sold water and snacks past 9pm. However, the staff were okay and friendly. They were knowledgeable about the basics (Shopping, sightseeing) and accomodated us with a courtyard view room thus we had no issues with noise.
As of May 2016 it is only a 1 year old hotel. So everything works great, has a new smell to it, and everything just felt so clean-to the point where you can walk around barefoot. It hasn't shown its age at all and is a modern boutique hotel. I get that it's a boutique hotel, but one MAJOR issue that I had with the place is that it was TOO much on the budget side of things that it compromised something so simple as ICE. We wanted to drink champagne one night, and bc the fridge was luke warm, we needed ice. No ice buckets, no ice machines. The only way to get it is through their Bistro which closes early. The second night we were able to get ice, but how silly was it that they served it to us IN A TOWEL. Yes, how gross, unsanitary, and what a shame. I brought ice cubes to my room in a towel. Ugh.
Next time I plan to stay elsewhere, I am sure with a city this booming new boutique, budget hotels will be popping up everywhere.