Jennifer S.
Yelp
Summary: Good, but needs improvement for a 5 star experience.
We stayed in a suite (bedroom, living space, full bathroom plus separate 1/2 bath) with Club privileges on the 8th floor with a view of the Sony Center. The Bayern Munich Football team was staying there while we were there, but we didn't hear them.
First the good:
--several staff members are outstanding. Mandeep in the club room made us feel very special and gave outstanding, professional service. Esezi the doorman was wonderful as well.
--the bed was comfortable, and we enjoyed having our choice of foam or feather pillows without asking. The water bottles were replaced each day.
--The club room, especially the breakfast, was very good. The breakfast had a really good selection plus delicious made to order eggs and omelets. (Fantastic poached eggs.) In general it wasn't crowded, it was well run, and felt very welcoming.
--The location was great: close to several tasty yet reasonably priced restaurants, and right next to the S bahn and a U bahn line to get to everywhere in the city. It was easily walkable to many major sights, including the Brandenburg Gate, the Gemädegalerie, the Neues Museum, the Tiergarden, Topography of Terror, the Holocaust Memorial, and more.
--The staff seemed to want to help, or to fix issues.
The issues:
--There was a big bleach footprint on the bedroom carpet. At this level of hotel it's not reasonable to have such an obvious stained carpet in a bedroom. We didn't complain as there was nothing that could be done at short notice.
--The first two nights the bedroom was very warm and could not be made cooler by lowering the thermostat. You could turn down the temperature on the thermostat, but nothing happened. We asked for it to be fixed both the first and second mornings and it was finally better after the second night. (The street noise is too loud to just keep the window open.)
--One of the sinks in the bathroom didn't drain. This was fixed the first morning, but it was puzzling as the cleaning staff should have seen this issue when they cleaned before we arrived.
--At some point the first morning when someone came in the room to fix the thermostat or the sink, a baggie with some coins and a €20 bill was taken. It clearly was not a tip, as it was in a baggie, in the midst of other items, and it was the first morning we had arrived. We should not have left it out of the safe, but when we mentioned the two issues that needed fixing, we did not know someone would be in our room that quickly (or consider they would look in our items). We just sadly decided that we had to be incredibly careful going forward as we did not know who would be in our room or what they would look through.
--The cleaning staff was not up to R-C standards. There were some sticky spots (from where they must have spilled some bitter lemon we left in the room) right in front of the door that wasn't cleaned for two days; we finally mentioned it to the front desk staff, but only some of it was cleaned in the following two days. This made us wonder if the staff ever mopped the wooden floor portion of the room. The room and bathroom items were left in different locations each day. Sometimes our personal toiletry basket was moved to the tub and left there or our personal items moved unnecessarily. The water bottles were replaced but the glasses often weren't. Coffee saucers were never replaced. There were only two Kleenex left in the bathroom box on one of the days, so they immediately ran out. Only one bathroom was left with a spare toilet paper roll (glad we had a 1/2 bath to use!). We asked for extra hand towels by leaving a note in German the first three days, but forgot the fourth day--and didn't get them as no one remembered.
--As I mentioned above, the staff we met, such as at the front desk and the concierge, seemed like they genuinely wanted to help. Snags just kept happening, though. First when we checked in they had lost the part of our reservation that showed we had reserved a Club access room. We were placed in a 4th floor room and then went back to the desk because we couldn't see how our key would allow us to go to the club floor (10th floor). We had to prove it to them with the email of our confirmation. They did move us to a different suite which was closer to the Club Room (to the 8th floor). When we asked the concierge the night before for the hotel car to take us to the train station in the morning--we were told it was free at that time. However, when we arrived, we were told by a different concierge that there was "no driver" and so wasn't possible. Luckily an Uber was only a few minutes away.
Will we return? We're not sure. The value may not be worth it for all the issues. Unfortunately there aren't that many five star hotels in Berlin to choose from, and the club is still a plus for the R-C.