we stayed 4 nights at the motel one Berlin alexanderplatz while visiting friends in Berlin and for new year's eve celebrations. We choose the Motel One Berlin Alexanderplatz mainly because of location and because of limited availability among other hotels in the city. This was my first experience with the Motel Once chain/brand.

Firstly: yes it's rather inexpensive: yet I would not call it good value. Mainly because hotel rates in Berlin are rather cheap in any hotel compared to other European cities and also because you get more for the same price with chains like Ibis or the AllSeasons properties.

The hotel does position itself as trendy, design, fancy, whatever you wanna call it: and indeed there was an effort of decoration and loon'n'feel that went into the property and these things are always a matter of taste: yet it's nothing to write home about.

The hotel is nicely located at just about 100m from Alexanderplatz station where you can catch multiple subway lines and commuter trains. It is also in decent walking distance to Berlin's most important museums and some of the main tourist destinations. The hotel faces on one side the very busy railway tracks, I can imagine those rooms are rather noisy. We were lucky enough to get a room that didn't face the tracks.

The hotel features a rather big lounge area in the lobby with loads of seating available. There is free wifi in the lounge and breakfast is served here and you can get drinks and snacks all day from the bar.

Rooms are VERY small! They are indeed smaller than anything you get at a similar price at competing budget chains. There is not even a cupboard to put your clothes away. With two people and some luggage: the room is literally crowded. Yes it's a budget hotel so I don't expect a lounge area or balcony or whatever... yet still at least an armoire and a place where to put my luggage.

Rooms have AC which is good, not standard in Berlin. Generally both the rooms and bathrooms and the public areas of the hotel are very clean. The room did smell a little strangely however, which housekeeping did notice, so whenever they cleaned the room; they would have opened the window causing the room to be freezing every time we came back. Annoying...

Also above average for this type of price range is the bathroom; its very small: so watch out when taking a shower (I did not manage a single time to take a shower without causing the entire bathroom to get wet...) yet its much better than what you get with similar hotels that will give you a plastic, pre-fabricated bathroom.

Regarding sleep quality: its not great. The pillows are rather hard and unhandy: there is no extra pillow. Mattress is okay.

We did not take breakfast.

All in all: I can recommend this hotel for it's location only. Regarding actual price-value; you can get better options.

+location
+/- clean (yet room did smell funny)
+/- bathrooms (small though)
-room size (not even a cupboard)
-sleep quality
-no free wifi in room (ridiculous for a hotel that's supposed to be for GenY travelers)