You certainly got incredibly lucky in Cologne. I wonder if that upgrade (and the beer may have influenced the report. The location is perfect and the lounge is typical European standard with good meals and drinks, but the service across the board at that hotel is consistently terrible. Rude staff. Obnoxious staff. Unhelpful staff. Arrogant staff.

Other than front desk/concierge staff who are friendly, and management who are very helpful, most of the rest of the staff are belligerent and have no business in the hospitality industry (except Maria in the exec lounge who is outstanding).

Glad you had a good experience mwilsonrr, but that's definitely not the norm at the terrible MC Cologne....