I was visiting a company during my trip and just used the hotel to sleep because my main focus was work. The hotel was very close to the company and cheap and that is why our travel management chose that hotel. It was clean and the people were friendly. It is in an area that you would normally not go out because there is nothing to see and there are also not good restaurants around. If you want to go downtown then you have to take the bus but don't forget your bus plan because it is far from the centre and you will get lost.

We stayed at the Alfa Hotel as part of a package booked through the My Berlin site. I chose the hotel as it seemed to be near the centre of town, but it is a little bit far from the centre. You have to get the TXL bus, and the stop is about 5 mins walk away. However, our receptionist told us about the transport ticket, which was 16 euros for 4 of us, and enabled us to have 24 hour travel on bus, Underground and trains! Very good value.
We arrived late at the hotel due to flight delay, and had to get our keys out of a safe, a bit of a complicated procedure, but help was at hand on the end of the phone. The room we had was lovely, clean and spacious. The bathroom was very impressive too. Staff were very friendly and helpful, nothing was too much trouble. The buffet breakfast was very filling, with lots of choice of ham, boiled eggs, cheese, yoghurt and cereal. I would certainly go back again.

Our plane was delayed and we got to the hotel at midnight. They close the front desk at 11pm and leave you a note saying that your key is in a box and you need to enter the code that was given to you in order to retrieve it. We did not have any such code, I have no clue how they ever expected us to get it. The note also had a phone number to call in case we needed any more assistance. The phone number was wrong, so we kept calling an old lady in the middle of the night. Finally we called all numbers we had at hand and someone answered. She gave us the code and by 1:30am, we got to our room. The room looks like it has not been remodeled since my grandpa's time. But it is very clean. My main problem was that it was really hot and there is no AC, they left us some tiny noisy fan that sort of helped. The second major problem is that is not close to anything you want to see in Berlin. It is in an area where every restaurant and store is middle eastern or Turkish, and so are the residents. This means you can find cheap food close by, but it was not much of a German experience. The metro is also not close, you need to take the bus in either direction to get to a metro and then stay in the metro for a while in order to get to any of the attractions. They claim they are close to everything, they really are not. Because of this, we were a bit apprehensive to go out at night and not make it back before the public transportation closed. I have no clue how much a taxi is from the center of Berlin all the way out to this hotel, but I will guess it is not cheap. Other than the location, and the room decor, I would say it is ok. The staff is nice, it is clean, and the breakfast is acceptable. If you are flying out of Tegel, it is quite close, but Schoenfeld airport is quite far. I do not plan on staying here again when we return to Berlin, I think I can find something closer to the attractions for about the same price.

The hotel is a little far out of the centre ( a bus ride away) but it's good value. Nice and clean.