We went to Dollenberg with our two daughters aged two and seven. The room was nice and room service and cleaning staff was very attentive.
The food is good - and we definitely enjoyed it. The kitchenparty was really loads of fun. Staff is very, very friendly and tries to help out in any way they can. There was a playing area for the kids outside, We also went to the hut, which was fun and the opera in Baden Baden, which is really a must-do.
What was a bit less? Swimming pool somewhat small and only suited for playing. They are building new ones, I hope that includes one for laps.
Lunch was a no-no. Very limited (no) choice - and we did it only once.
Kids are very very welcome but the hotel lacks some basic facilities on this front: There was no inside playing area, no kids menu in the restaurant and only very limited flat water in the mini-bar. For kids there is not much to do except the one playing garden.
Lastly, people are still allowed to smoke in the inside bar, which is a real turn-off.
But really, apart from these smaller points we really had a very good time in a luxurious hotel with attentive staff, nice food, in a wholesome environment.

As the reviews here illustrate, the Dollenberg is a mixed bag and the service not consistently 5 star. For 5 star service, try the Oberoi Kolkata -- it's my fave hotel of 2009. Was just at the Dollenberg with my Mom for Christmas. If you know what to expect, you may be pleasantly surprised. There are parts that are lovely, surprise added bonuses and a world-class chef. There are also some things they can easily improve; I hope they will... I'd return again and again. So, here are the Pros and Cons:

Pros:
- Free Wireless Internet

- Loved that the Hut dinner experience was included in the half board price - that's a great perk. I'm nearly 40 and brought the average age down considerably, but it was fun nonetheless and a great added bonus during our trip. Would have loved to have more authentic, rustic Hut food, but you cannot fault the food at this place... it's outstanding. More choice would be better, though. At least letting you know that there's no choice or if special requests are accommodated and/or encouraged. The activities director, Frau Schmid (?), was delightful.

- The massage by Thomas was the best I've ever had and I am a connoisseur of massages all over the world. He is part masseur, part physical therapist. Really great! He delivered the nicest service I experienced there, too.

- My Mom and I had the pool and sauna area almost all to ourselves one morning. That was magnificent. It can get crowded, but they are expanding significantly.

- Breakfasts were great. Yum. Yum. Yum.

Cons:
- My experience with staff was mixed... sometimes nice, sometimes rude and arrogant or following policies that were really stingy (like making us pay for water out of the breakfast room during breakfast hours even though we wanted it because they were out and hadn't replenished it while we ate).

- They should provide water around sauna and massage areas. We had to ask repeatedly for water and then pay for it. Ridiculous. It's things like this that you can expect without a mention at a five-star hotel.

- More choice around the dinner and not making you sit with strangers at Christmas Eve would be better. The chef is truly gifted and made me a few substitutions, including the finest pasta with black truffles... it was really one of the best things I've ever eaten. Still it would have been great to have been given the **choice** to sit with others or alone and at least a few choices for what to eat. The chef is so good it's a shame to have to eat things you don't want or to miss out altogether because the menus are pre-set.

I would recommend the Dollenberg with a few caveats. Don't go expecting 5-star service, definitely take advantage of as many amenities/activities as you can, enjoy the Chef's creations and the walking trails, they are great!

Too bad the Fabulous Chef Herrmann is so far away: I'd love to have his paper-thin pasta with truffles again soon. He made big pieces of veal tender enough to cut with a fork. I have no idea how he did that.

We planned our whole trip around Kitchen Night and then got stuck at the Gotthard Pass for hours and missed it... next time I'd leave home earlier and do that for sure.

Wowww !!! i travel more than 64 country and i was chocked to experience the cooking of chef Martin Hermann , his kindness reflect is cooking and i would like to thanks him for making our stay one of the best experience. I would give him the second best chef in the world after Joel robuchon macau (galera).
Martin all the best for the futur...

When you are paying 5 star prices you expect 5 star service and this wasn't the case at the Dollenberg.

As a party of 4 adults we opted for a Suite 'Type 3' which although priced much higher than the cost of taking two separate rooms it seemed ideal for our purposes - having 2 double bedrooms, 2 full bathrooms plus an extra cloakroom and a separate living room.

I was careful to contact the Hotel first to make sure that the design of the Suite was suitable for us, and as we require both bedrooms to have 'separated' mattresses (not double beds) I was also assured that all the beds in their Hotel have separated mattresses.

Upon arrival we were shown to our Suite (515) however we were dismayed to find that the layout was completely different to the information I had been given.

The 2nd bedroom was small and for adults sharing it was only suitable for single use because it only had one standard sized bed (one mattress). The 2nd bathroom was only a tiny shower room. There was no separate cloakroom. The living area was very small and the most annoying aspect was that there was extremely limited storage in the entire suite - there were no wardrobes in the bedrooms and nowhere at all to put your suitcases - the only place to put them was on the floor in the hall way which meant you had to step over them when entering before you could reach the bedrooms or living area. This was not 5 star experience.

Another silly aspect of the design was glass doors leading into the bathroom from the 1st bedroom, meaning zero privacy as the lock in the bedroom didn't even work.

It was entirely unsuitable accommodation for us as it couldn't sleep 4 adults - their solution to the problem was that the 4th person would sleep in the living room on the sofa but if we wanted to sleep on a sofa we would have booked that and certainly not at the price tag that they were charging for this suite!

We asked to change to 2 separate rooms instead but were told firstly that the Hotel was completely full that night (which it wasnt), then that we 'might' be able to move the next day but we would have to wait until the next morning before they could tell us.

At that point we decided to leave as we couldn't have stayed in that Suite - yet as soon as we said that we were leaving everything changed! A manager was brought over to us to try to help and she immediately started trying to find other rooms for us, 30 minutes later we were told that we could in fact change to 2 other rooms the next day and they also reduced the price for our Suite to the cost that it would have been it we had booked these 2 rooms originally.

They actually took us to show us one of the rooms that they would be giving us and, although it was going to be vacant that night (it was 6:30pm by this time), we still couldn't have it until the next day!! I still don't understand the reason for that, afterall it wasn't like we wanted it free of charge, we would have still been paying the full price for the room for that night!

However, on the plus side - our #1 priority when choosing the Hotel Dollenberg originally was the reputation for it's food - we were not at all disappointed on that count and would highly recommend the restaurant here to everyone !

We had intended to dine in their gastronomic restaurant 'Le Pavillion', but after our problems at check-in none of our party were in the frame of mind to spend that kind of money so we opted for their half board restaurant 'Kaminstube' instead - what a great move that was! In fact it was so good that we actually cancelled our other reservations for Le Pavillion for the remaining nights of our stay so we could eat in the Kaminstube each night!

On the standard menu you could choose from A La carte, or there are various set price menus of 3, 4 or 5 courses (average 42 EUR for 4 courses). There's also a special 5 course menu (Weekends 42.50 EUR, 'Midweek 18.50 EUR) which looked delicious, but the biggest revelation was the superb 6 course half board menu!

This is only available to Hotel residents and being priced at only 17 EUR we didn't think it was going to be anything special but how wrong we were, it was gastronomic heaven! With food of this quality you really have to have a good reason to deviate onto the a la carte.

Even taking into account our check-in problems at the Hotel Dollenberg we woud consider going back to this hotel again if we needed to stay in that area - however with the benefit of hindsight we will be careful to book two separate rooms in future knowing the unsuitability of the suites!