DonGissel
Google
The short version: perfect location, great staff, kid-friendly, fantastic beds in quiet rooms, fantastic breakfast with anything you could want, great bar (with lots of alcohol-free alternatives for kids), restaurant is great and surprisingly good, cleaning impeccable, air-condition perhaps a bit too eager. We will definitely be back.||The longer version:|I honestly only booked this hotel because they had a vacant family room, and just one day before we were thinking of travelling to Hamburg, that was good enough. Communication with staff was quick, informative, friendly, and helpful, so I felt good about my choice as we boarded the train the following morning.||Only later did I realize I'd inadvertently booked the second-best rated hotel in the entire city, and it really showed. Staff was incredibly helpful and friendly, everything looked and felt like a million euros, and we had some reservations about having brought our three kids (ages 5-9) to such a nice place. But the descriptions of the services and the family rooms held up: we were all welcomed with open arms, the rooms (two large rooms, privately connected by two solid, sound-insulating doors) were exactly as advertised, and we had the best time there. The Portuguese quarter and two different train stations are within easy walking distance, so you're spoilt for choice with regards to transportation and restaurants. The restaurant in the hotel, which we used the first evening, turned out to be great value for money, kid-friendly, and with a great selection of food and drink. And we slept in perhaps the best hotel mattresses I've ever experienced, so a good night's sleep came easy.||Downsides? The in-room TVs did not support any kind of streaming, so if your kids need a break, they'll have to make do with German TV, which was something of a linguistic challenge for ours. With a laptop and a HDMI-cable, you'll be past that, but offering a Chromecast or similar would be swell. And the air-conditioning in one of the rooms were perhaps a bit eager, so we had to fiddle a bit with the controls to not have it too cold.||None of that mattered in the big picture, and The Madison played a big part in us falling in love with Hamburg immediately. You can get cheaper hotels, yes, but would you want to? I got offers from a few other hotels that were only one or two hundred euros less than The Madison for three nights, for separate rooms that would've posed a challenge for a family like ours. For what we got, and the peace of mind we had, we wouldn't have it any other way.||Oh, and every time room service had been through our rooms, the kids' plushies were neatly arranged on each of their beds, welcoming them back with open arms. It's the little things.