I have graded this hotel above average, that's a combination of average for the accommodation and excellent for everything else including the food.

The two previous reviews of this hotel are both correct, it just depends on the perspective of the writer.

If you want an up to date, modern hotel, with the latest facilities, then this is not for you. It is not the sort of place where you wake up and can't decide what country you're in, let alone what city. It could only be small town Germany. If you don't want that then don't go.

If you like a family run hotel, with personal, albeit sometimes quirky, touches try here.

The food is excellent. (Although the hotel's attempt to put on the cooked breakfast they seem to think their English and American guests want is really quite funny. They make all the sausage, bacon, eggs etc for 0630 at the start of breakfast and leave it on hotplates.

If foreigners think that's how we eat no wonder they consider our food unedable. Ignore it, in fact do them a favour, tell them not to bother, I did!)

The cold spread of meats, cheeses and breads is well above standard in both choice and quantity, tuck in. My step-daughter thought she had died and gone to heaven when she discovered that, not only was chocolate spread available for breakfast, she was allowed it!

The hotel has a good resaurant on the ground floor for guests and locals. It is well used and perfectly acceptable. However, take the lift to the basement instead. The bar has extracts from the same menu, but much more locally orientated. You can listen to live music some nights (a good jazz band), play skittles (book ahead as the locals use this place) and you don't have to dress for dinner. I take my lap top down and work for the evening and nobody bothers, couldn't do that upstairs in the restaurant.

The rooms are functional, clean, tidy and comfortable, but a bit bland and uninspiring. With mini bars, telephones and TVs (only German stations - try Crocodile Dundee dubbed into German, hilarious!). One nice touch, not only were the management quite happy to empty the minibar in the childrens room, they didn't say a word when they filled it with cheap coke from a local supermarket.

As I said, your thoughts on this hotel depend on your perspective and requirements. I can understand why it would be a hotel you either loved or loathed. Personally I enjoyed it, but then I lived in Germany for four years in the 1970s and this is a trip back in time for me.

This place was probably fine in the 60ies or 70ies, but has not seen much work since. Everything is just stuffy, stale and small-town German. Your kind of place if you want to see what hotels in Germany were like in them olden days where dark pseudo-wood was modern. Decent in its ways, but I much prefer a more anonymous clean-cut place. Was the only hotel in town that had a room on that night. Prices & service are OK.

I have dated this review September 2004, my last visit, but I have used this hotel on business trips at least twice a year for the last three years and am just about to visit again (August 2005) this time bringing my family and having an extended stay to show them the area.

There is nothing flash about the Brenner, but it does what many hotels find difficult. It gets the simple things right. It is straightforward, unpretentious, clean and tidy, with large rooms and good facilities. The breakfast will last you all day. All the front of house staff I have encountered speak very good english, better than my German in any case!

Where it excels is in the cellar bar. Wonderful food (try the curry soup), good beer, skilled bar-staff that know exactly when you will be wanting another half litre and have it waiting, poured slowly and with the right sized head and three very well used bowling alleys. A very nice 'local', that people staying at the hotel seem to ignore. I eat (and drink) there every evening and to my knowledge have never seen another guest.