We very much enjoyed our stay at the Hotel Pension Golz. In a town where large hotels generally cost 200 Euros for a double per night, we paid 81 Euros(including breakfast) for the Golz. In exchange, we had a very large room with a large balcony, with an excellent shower, television and telephone (with automated wake-up calls). The room was clean and comforatble.

Although the room did not have a mini-bar, this was not a problem because there is a self-service refrigerator on the ground floor that is fully stocked and very reasonably priced (it is on the honor system -- you sign out the number of drinks you are removing from the refrigerator. We very much appreciated the drinks prices - 1 Euro for a bottle of sparkling water and 2 Euros per bottle of excellent beer.

The breakfast was generous and tasty, and the breakfast room is warmly decorated with tapestries. The owner, who is on-site during the day, is pleasant and was very easy to communicate with, both by e-mail and in person (both in English).

The hotel is very convenient to the U-Bahn (subway), being approximately a 5 minute walk to the Bockenheimer Warte U-bahn station. This is one station away from the Hauptbahnhof, or main train station in Frankfurt, which makes getting to and from the airport quite simple (3.55 Euros per person from the airport to the hotel).

It is always hard for me to put a star-rating on hotels. Should a hotel be judged on what it attempts to be, or in comparison to all hotels in the world? My rating is based on what the hotel is trying to be, which is a basic, functional but not fancy, hotel. Based on this, I have given the hotel a five star rating.

However, if compared to all the hotels in the world, including luxury properties, I would have given this a four-star rating. Why? Although the room was large, and this was most welcome, the room was decorated in a very utilitarian manner, and had little charm (it looked like it was decorated by a man who was interested totally in function, and who cared little about charm or style). The towels, although very clean, were quite small. Although there were small bars of soap and packets of shampoo/body wash, both were utilitarian but rather harsh products. If these kinds of things bother you (and they didn't bother us), this is not the hotel for you.

Also, it is not a good place to stay for people with mobility issues as the rooms are accessible only via a long circular staircase (which is very lovely, but I know my mother-in-law would not have been able to make it up the stairs).

We chose this hotel because it is within easy walking distance of Gargantua Restaurant, which is a wonderful restaurant, serving overwhelmingly excellent food. (It is pricy though -- we spent the money at the restaurant that we saved by staying at the Golz). We would stay here again (and would definitely eat at Gargantua again).

After the 11 hour over-night flight from Brazil on our way to Croatia, we needed to rest up before pressing onward. The Gölz was perfect for our purposes.

We had a huge, immaulate first floor room with a balcony overlooking Beethoven Strasse in Frankfurt's upscale Westend residential district. The bed was comfortable, the private bath excellent and the buffet breakfast, included in the room rate, was plentiful. This is a family mansion converted into a small hotel.

The underground station is five minutes away and the walk to the Alte Opera is about 20 minutes, a bit farther to the center of Frankfurt's old town. The two interesting restaurants within walking distance made the location handy for our two night stay.

For those wishing to avoid the bright lights and big hotels, this is an economical alternative.