My friend and I booked two rooms using the Best Western internet site. We came here to go to the Hamfest on the last weekend of June 2009 and then stay three extra nights to look around the area. Due to Ryan Air changing and then cancelling flights we had to go and return by alternate means which meant booking an extra nigh giving us a seven night stay in total.
The first thing to note is the hotel is where Google Maps says it is, but the map is not that helpful. Karlstrasse is easy to find as it runs parallel to the Seestrasse (the promenade along the lake front). From the Hafen Bahnhof just walk away from the Bus station through the underpass and walk straight ahead past the playground along the semi pedestrianised road. The hotel is a few hundred yards ahead on the right.
What we saw of the main hotel looked very good. We saw the main reception, breakfast room and corridors. We did not see any rooms though as we were put into the annexe. This is reached by going out the back of the hotel and across the semi pedestrianised Adenauerplatz to another building. The entrance is at the end of the role of shops. This was the Hotel Drei Kőnige and Best Western has taken it over. You use your room key to open the street door. (Push it whilst it is buzzing.) This leads into a lobby with a small lift and stairs.
We were directed to floor 4 of the five floored building. The forth floor corridor and the lift smelt of damp and wet dog. The carpets in the corridor were stained and looked like each of the rooms had been left with their sinks overflowing which had flooded the corridor. I was shown in to a very small room with little storage space, no safe (despite the fact it was supposed to have one) very old furniture and very little storage space. (See photos). The only new thing in the room was the flat screen TV, which you could not see from the bed. My friend was shown to a larger room at the end of the corridor with a double bed, a shower and bath, modern furniture, a safe and more storage.
As we had paid the same for both rooms and the price was the same as far superior Best Westerns that I have said in, I was not happy and complained to the reception. I explained that this was the worst room I had seen in a Best Western (and I have stayed in quite a few) and was not worth the money we had paid for them. They said they were full, but promised to move me the next day.
The following afternoon I was moved to a room on the third floor of the annexe, directly below my friend’s room. The third floor was nicer, did not smell of damp dog and had not been flooded. The room was clean, had a double bed, bath and shower and a chillier unit on the window. However, it still had the same old furniture as my previous room, no safe, power sockets that did not work and a shower head in the bathroom that was loose. I manage to fix that myself... There were working power sockets in the room, but they were in hard to get at places, some looked unsafe and some cracked when in use. The room had very poor storage and would have been hopeless if two of you were sharing. The double bed is two singles pushed together with separate duvets for each one. Not as bad as some as I have seen in Germany though and it could function as a double.
The rooms have no air conditioning but at least one window. As our rooms were on the end we had two windows in the room and one in the bathroom. The windows had drapes, net curtains and metal shutters which lowered over the outside. If I is hot you can have all of these open, but you will be invaded by flies. Squashed insects are mentioned in a previous report and I had to deal with quite a few my self. Closing the curtains does not keep them out. You also get woken every morning by the loud and long peal of bells which are a feature of the town. If you close the windows and shutters, you won’t hear the bells or get the flies, but you will suffocate as the rooms get very hot.
Floors one to four have a mixture of single, double and apartment rooms. These have a separate sitting room. I know this because the housekeeping staff leave all the doors open whilst servicing the rooms, even if they are not in a particular room. Unless you can leave valuable items in your safe if you have one, or in a friend’s safe, if they have one, this is one more reason than usual not to leave them in your room.
The basement had a gym, sauna, showers, toilet and loungers. Towels were provided. We did not use them, but they looked modern and clean.
The fifth floor was the mystery. This had rooms on each side of the corridor with big picture windows as it was essentially in the roof space. All the furniture looked brand new, but none of them were occupied. We know this because all the doors were open and there was no luggage in them. They had fans running though. I am wondering if they had just been fumigated. I certainly couldn’t see why they should all be empty whilst guests were made to stay in sub standard rooms on the other floors.
On the plus side, the rooms were clean, serviced every day (they forgot to empty my bin one day though) and the maids did not hassle you like in some hotels. There was fast free WiFi in each room. To use this, get a user name and password from Reception which gives you 24 hours free access to the local T-mobile hotspot from the time you first use it. You get a new user name and password each day form Reception to continue using it. It should work on any other T-mobile hotspot in Germany during the same period. The Reception staff were polite and knowledgeable. However they tired the usual trick of trying to charge me for the rooms again at the full rate when we checked out. It was soon sorted though. The area is also quiet at night as the bells stopping ringing after mid night and there is little other noise. Bells and building works commence at 7am each morning.
The breakfast was OK and you could sit out side. It runs from 7:30 until 10, but if you come down after 9 you will find quite a lot of things have gone and are not replenished. Have it if it is included in your deal, as it was for us, but don’t pay extra for it. There are plenty of places you can go to nearby.
On balance I can not recommend this hotel. Reading the previous reviews, those who were able to stay in the main hotel were happy, but those who got the annexe were not. Hotels should not make which room you get a lottery where you don’t know if you are going to get a good or poor quality room, especially when both cost the same. Best Western should not put people in rooms in the annexe until they have been refurbished to the same standard as the main hotel, or at least the fifth floor of the annexe. If you do decide to stay here and are offered a room in the annexe, complain if it is substandard.
This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC
