Although others had previously rated this hotel highly, I don't speak German so didn't know exactly what to expect - but I certainly shouldn't have worried because this hotel is virtually perfect in every respect. Our room was beautifully furnished and spotlessly clean, whilst the staff were friendly and bent over backwards to be helpful.

Here are a few examples of the pleasant surprises:

- fresh fruit in our room on arrival
- free Internet access in the library
- a complimentary newspaper in the morning
- a buffet breakfast that featured top quality fare beautifully presented

To cap it all, when we departed after two nights we were handed a carrier bag with food for our journey.

Short of providing a personal butler for every guest it is hard to think of any way in which this hotel could have been better. (OK, I thought of one eventually - the time on the TV in Room 328 was wrong).

We stayed at the Kurpark out of season - Bad Salzuflen is an attractive spa town - and so we paid a very reasonable rate. I'm sure that in the summer that you would pay much more than the 104 euros per night that we paid, but you would find it hard to find a hotel anywhere in the world that does a better job of looking after its guests.

I should mention that because we were visiting family we didn't get the chance to sample the dining room in the evening, but if the breakfast was anything to go by, I'm sure it would have been superb.