Castell Hotel is in the high-end shopping district right off a main street in Berlin. The high quality neighborhood combined with the low price and inexpensive parking are really the only things it has going for it. Park on the street and get a hotel street pass for 5 euro/day, some of the cheapest parking you will find in Berlin. The breakfast was acceptable, with slightly below average selection for this type of hotel, but enough to fill you up and get you going. The nearest public transit station is a few blocks away, with the palace and museums of Charlottenberg within a 15 minute walk and the Zoo within 10 minutes. One thing I found interesting (first time in Berlin, I don't know if it is this way everywhere) but everyone who worked in the hotel as well as all of the shops and restaurants in the neighborhood clearly spoke Russian as their first language. The desk clerk spoke an acceptable amount of English, but few other people on the staff/in the neighborhood did. Be ready to communicate the basics in German.

When checking into the hotel, the hallway/stairway is usual older European building, could use to be updated, but charming with character. The first room we checked into smelled overwhelmingly like rotting urine. The second room only had a slight smell of urine. The rooms are a good size for Europe as well as the inexpensive price, but could use to be a little cleaner, with years of cobwebs on the ceilings and walls. We had a great set of huge windows that opened up into a large courtyard. The bathrooms looked as though they had been rennovated in the last few years and were average, but the water temperature would constantly change on your during a shower. As seems to be the trend with other people who booked through a discount website, I was put on the lowest floor in a hidden hallway, it is possible the rooms on the upper floor were a little nicer.

To finish it off, we got a good nights sleep, were fairly comfortable, were fed well in the morning, all for about 1/3 of the average hotel cost in Berlin - and in a very safe and classy neighborhood. Everything considered, it wouldn't be my first choice, but I would stay there again when on a budget.