We were visiting Mannheim for a family event and booked three rooms in the City Hotel with a low cost approach in mind. My wife booked it and as we needed one room for three people and City Hotel turned out one of the few that had one available, we ended up there. We normally wouldn't stay in a hotel like this and under different circumstances we would have booked the likes of Steigenberger or Maritim. The experience at City Hotel proved that we will absolutely do so in the future. This hotel is very old and is situated in a not so nice neighbourhood. The parking is detached from the hotel so no direct access and very annoyingly you need to take a remote control (of which they have only one) to go in and out. The rooms are small, old, the beds are very uncomfortable, and the towels are as thin as a newspaper. There is no remote control for the tv in the room: I didn't bother to ask for it. In one of the rooms, the heating couldn't be switched off. The shower works with a timer button to save cost I presume but very annoying as you need to push the button all the time. The elevator must be one of the first ever installed in Mannheim: very uncomfortable and don't go in there when you are claustrofobic... Breakfast was OK but simple, but cheap only 5 euros. Staff was friendly and we got a good recommendation for a great German dinner in town. When booking they asked for a credit card guarantee but told us they would not charge the card. I've just found out they did and we have been double-charged so we need to spend time on correcting this again. Annoying. One of the other parties were charged a higher price for the room than the price stated on the reservation and it was quite a huge amount, about 35% higher or so with the argumemt that prices had gone up. They didn't pay this in the end but very strange and not the first time when reading a couple of other reviews. So all in all: pay double for a good hotel in Mannheim instead of City Hotel would be our recommendation.