The Schloss hotel is indeed a German fairytale. It is a stunning castle with sweeping views over to Koeln and the Rhineland Valley. It is situated above the town of Bensberg and the centre of Koeln can be reached within 30 minutes by tram.
I was upgraded as part of my Leaders' Club membership to a suite; I was most satisfied with my room; fixtures and fittings were impeccable and also very clean. The spa was also beautifully apointed, with a pool, two saunas, steam room and treatment rooms.
One of the hi-lights of the hotel has to be the Vendome restaurant, which has three Michelin stars. Service was impeccable, as was the level of creativity; I do not know whether this is a devastating critique of my palate but I was a little underwhelmed, and thought the desert was perhaps the best element of the meal.
The hotel bar is also worth a mention; the coctails were well crafted, with good service. The other restaurants, both Enoteca and the one in the lobby were also good.
One criticism I have of the hotel is the inexplicable lack of response to e-mails I sent to an individual staff member subsequent to the stay; this is after a month and also a follow up e-mail.
Apart from the above matter which was disappointing, my view of this hotel is very good. Everything during the stay could not be faulted, and my room was certainly beautifully appointed and good value for money.

I booked this hotel purely on the basis that there were very few hotels available in Cologne due to the ANUGA trade show. Although located outside the city (about a 15 minute taxi ride), it looked like a beautiful historic hotel, so in that sense I was looking forward to my stay.

We had made our reservations through the hotel's website and because the hotel was nearly booked, we ended up paying a bit more for a Jr. Suite as it was the only thing available. It was a grand room with high ceilings and a separate sitting area. The windows looked out upon the green grounds. Unfortunately the room smelled so strongly of cigarette smoke - by far the worst I'd ever experienced. I knew it was something we had to put up with as it was the only room available, but it was incredibly off-putting. I had to open every window and air it out for the first few hours in the chilly October weather. It never really did go away the five nights we were there, I guess the room just has poor ventilation.

As for the rest of the hotel, it was grand and lovely - I imagine it would be a great place to hold a wedding or special function. We ate one night in the Italian restaurant and enjoyed their seasonal menu and wine selection. We also enjoyed the breakfast with the delicious selection of special local breads in a beautiful dining room.

What put me off about this hotel mainly was the staff and the overall unprofessional feel of the place. While it looks like a five-star hotel, it is just missing that special service that one would expect. We noticed how all of the staff seemed young and performed as if it was their second day on the job. Nobody seemed to know much of anything when we would ask, so we pretty much fended for ourselves.

Also, I believe we lucked out with our room (minus the smell), however, I don't think others are so lucky. A business friend of ours got stuck in what he referred to as a 'stuffy room in the attic with one small window' and refused to move him even though they initially said they could. Needless to say, he was also unimpressed with the could-care-less service.

Hopefully one day the staff and services will live up to what one would expect for a hotel of such grandeur.

This was our second stay at Schloss Bensberg. It is absolutely a great experience. The whole castle is noble. Beautiful decoration, large & beautiful rooms, dream bathroom, great service, beautiful pool & sauna area. It has a gourment restaurant with 3-star cook. If you would like to have a feeling of being a prince/princess don´t miss a weekend at Bensberg.

It seems risky to judge this hotel negatively (moves your "helpful" rate on tripadvisor down :-)), but let me do it anyway, because there are serious drawbacks with this house.

This Medici palace with an axis towards the Cologne Dom is surely one of the most gorgeous hotels in the world. But to get it full and make it pay (which has not been easy and still is not), the management has to cut corners and agree to arrangements that are not helpful in preserving a *****L rating.

Many of the rooms are nice, but not the basic ones, and some singles are cramped and tiny. Public rooms are okay, ways are long. The spa area is very nice.

If you want to park your car, eat breakfast, and check your mail in the room, you'll pay more for those "extras" than for an entire room in downtown Cologne. One understands the strategy to have room specials and make money via the extras, but, really...

My main problem was the head concierge the second time I checked in in one week. I had received a nice upgrade the first time and had been told when checking out that I would receive the same when coming back. When I did, the new head concierge quite directly told me that to ask for this was greedy and showed me some rooms in the lower category. Okay, I had a good deal, but why first offer it? Denying a promised upgrade (a promise I had not asked for) is a downgrade and decidedly unfriendly. She said, however, that if I came back a third time, which I had planned, then a nicer room would be available and there would be an upgrade. I took a small single and it was okay, but decidedly not splendid (not enough space to put your luggage, not even one bag!), but when I checked out with the same lady and asked for the 3rd booking, she said that indeed plenty of rooms would be available (midweek high summer) and that I could have the upgrade... for €30! I then declined and took my business elsewhere; in this class of hotel, this level of unprofessionality is really offensive.

I should also add that the hotel hosts a lot of weddings, business functions etc. which can get extremely noisy, and as these events are what matters for the house, nobody will ever take care that people can sleep at 4.30 am.

Altogether, an okay hotel with some very mixed service (the 1st time that week I stayed there, all staff was very friendly indeed) in absolutely splendid surroundings. I think to eat there (incl. Sunday brunch) or to look around is preferable over staying there, unless one gets a high-class room at an adequate price (or doesn't care about a price-value connection).

Too bad; this could be a really good hotel; it would be tough to make that happen (because of the business model), but it seems that on the personnel level, one isn't even trying.