A stunning piece of architecture, an old water tower imaginitively restored into a 5* hotel and retaining the original structure. Having said that is this a 5* hotel? definitely not. The public areas are outstanding in this unique style with lots of original brickwork from its former years but the bedrooms are tired and need an update particularly the bathrooms .

They would have you believe it is close to the city centre, it is quiet, but allow 25-30 mins walk to get to the Dom area. That is not a negative as for those less sprightly there is the U Bahn close by.
It is, however, the restaurant facilities that are dire. there is a Michelin starred restaurant on the top floor, wildly expensive as you would imagine and that should be ok one would imagine. Our family used the more "normal" W restaurant on the ground floor. Service was dire, 90 mins to serve one small Hors d`oeuvres plus a green salad. We complained about the wait, ten minutes later the main course appeared and was poor, very salty and poorly presented.

Breakfast service in the same restaurant was ok as it is buffet but having to go and find someone to serve coffee it not what you would expect in a 5* establishment.

Overall not a good experience, certainly not 5*

Visited this "5 star" hotel during a trade fair in Cologne. As always, photos make the hotel look great, and on arrival the unique design does impress.
reception is very smart and staff very polite. We were given a tour round the circular ground floor in order to get our barings of what is where - all very positive.
When we were shown to the rooms, this is where the negative kicked in! As with many European hotel rooms, a double is actually 2 twin beds, each made us as a twin. Not a problem for most but for someone who likes a large, double bed, very disappointing.
Main criticism was the lack of air conditioning. The weather outside was very hot, and as its a stone building, the walls retain heat all day and night. Rang down for an AC unit but only given a fan which does not create cold air, only circulate the warm. Did help a bit but a very uncomfortable nights sleep.
Other than that, the breakfasts, bar and patio area where very good - only thing that makes this an average review is the lack of Air Con.

We stayed at Hotel Im Wasserturm when visiting for the Christmas Markets and I really did like it. It's beautiful, with amazing arches and brick hallways, and great panoramic views of the city. I love that every time I walked in I felt like there was something new to see in the hotel. It was beautifully decorated for Christmas, as well, and it felt very festive.

The rooms themselves are a decent size with everything neatly placed. There were great built-in wall sinks that creatively used the funny-shaped rooms. In the evenings little treats, such as clementines and chocolate chip bread, were brought in. So sweet!

We had the same issue with many other travelers with the rooms being too hot. We had our door to the outside walkway cracked open each night and it was still quite warm. It was fine, but just be prepared.

I did not love the beds, however. The pillows were just worthless - totally flat and not nice and the bed was pretty hard. I would definitely like to see some improvements there.

Overall, though, I would recommend the hotel. It's within walking distance to many nice areas, it's beautiful, and you'll probably never sleep in an old water tower again in your life, so why not try it once?

We stayed for a few days here and thought the building was very niclely restored. The architechture was creative and the rooms comfortable and well laid out. The temperature in the room cannot be controlled individually and they could not seem to get it cool enough for us. In November we had fans on and windows open to be cool enough at night to sleep. The morning breakfast is in a beautiful room and the food quality is excellant. The service is very friendly but chaotic. Several days in a a row my breakfast came in parts and by the time my sausages arrived I had already completed my meal.