We stayed at the hotel in December 2010 just for 1 night during our German trip. The hotel is rather average but nod bad. Our room was standard. The bathroom was spacious. The hotel is close to train station. We had to chech out early in the morning so didn't get breakfast at the hotel.

I travel to Mannheim at least 3 times per year and have a favorite hotel and a number of runner's up that are good, but not quite as good as my favorite. When I first started this job 7 years ago, I tried the Dorint, because it is a "name" hotel. I hated it then - it's still terrible now.

A colleague accompanied me to a trip to Ludwigshaven (just across the river), and her secretary picked the Dorint for us. Since I hadn't been there in 7 years, and she was convinced it was a good choice, I said nothing. Also, I had heard that it had been renovated in the meantime - could it still be as bad as I remembered??? Yes, oh yes, very very bad.

Where to start? The rooms are gloomy, the staff is indifferent. While the bed is comfortable, the bedding is too short to cover a 6'3" person from toes comfortably covered to the chin.

There is no air conditioning. They did supply a fan, but there is a curious problem with he Dorint - only one electrical outlet in the room is unswitched to the rest of the lights. So if you want to work on your computer and have the fan blowing, it's not possible without having some sort of electrical splitter. (Or you could keep the lights on and unplug one of the lights ...). Similarly, at night, unless you want to sleep with a light on, you need to unplug a few lights to have the fan operate on you all night (which was necessary).

The shower commits one of the ten deadly sins of travel - uneven water temperature due to other customer's usage in other rooms. The towels are the quality you would expect from a scuzzy "afternoon delight" hotel on the outskirts of Scranton, PA (yes, I have been there).

The internet is expensive and slow - further, it had some sort of firewall issue that caused me not to be able to connect with my VPN. Parking is expensive.

While the breakfast is good, it is very expensive. The Lunchtime buffet is extremely expensive and not terribly good. Of course, there are so many alternatives that one should only eat in the hotel if you're unable to get out (which I was awaiting a meeting).

On the good side, it is close to the water tower and many very good restaurants in Mannheim. However, if you really want to stay in this location, there are several very very good other hotels in the area.

And you get all of this for perhaps the most expensive price in Mannheim.

The hotel is next to a busy street. Although I asked for a quite room - the receptionist was telling me that I got a quite one - I could not sleep because of the noise (I had to sleep with open windows as the room was very muggy and had no airconditioning). They do not have free Wifi (not even Wifi) in the rooms!

The Dorint is a lovely hotel with an especially friendly staff. We really enjoyed our time there. My friend had initially reserved a room (without checking on Trip Advisor!) at a different hotel. We drove up to the other hotel and immediately got back in the car and drove to Dorint. They gave us nice rates considering we just walked in on a Friday night. The staff was so courteous. We needed a roll away bed for our room and two or three employees brought it up and set it up for us within 15 minutes of us checking in (and it was only 5::00 in the afternoon). I requested a fan since I am hot natured and they brought it up immediately!
I will always stay here from now on!