fassy

First of all I have no idea why they think they are a 5* hotel. To me it made the impression of a solid 3* hotel, not more.

Second, no AC so you have to sleep with open window in summer or like in my case even in winter since they had heated up the room to about 35 degrees Celsius with huge solid steel radiators... First there was no control unit to turn them down and second even if, they would have kept the heat for hours... so open window it was.

Not a bad thing in general but for a hotel in the heart of the city? For a 5* property? Come on? I could have lived with it, but to top it off, there is a night club in the building next door... so be it honking cars, loud drunk and puking patrons roaming the street under your window and the music rocking your bed all night long... The worst part, when I complained to the front desk, first the guy looked like *What the hell are you talking about?* even though it was as loud in the lobby as you would stand directly in the club, then he grumpy dished out a new room key for a room with no windows facing the river side. By the way, he did't even offer to help moving my stuff. Why bother?

That room was also very old, the walls cracked and shabby, the door to the bathroom didn't fully close and the water in the toilet was running all night - next to a disturbing low frequency buzzing. I guess from the elevator motor or some generator somewhere in that wing.

When I complained to the manager next day he told me: *Yes, we know of the problem with the club but can't do anything about it. We called the police so many times we can't count...*

While I agree that they perhaps can't do anything about the club itself, I think they could invest in proper sound isolation of the doors and windows as well as decent air conditioning units.

Also, besides that lame excuse nothing was offered after a night with barely any sleep. At least they could have offered some sweets, a free breakfast or some Gold points... nothing... Remember, a 5* hotel.

Then, they did not recognize any Club Carlson status claiming they are not part of Club Carlson but only have a franchise agreement. This means they do not have a Club Carlson booking system and therefore do not know of your status. Not sure if it would have made any difference...

They also failed to post the points and needed three reminders. I was actually stupid enough to pay for the two nights there...

They can't even blame it on language as I'm fluent in German - being a German.

In general:
- Yes, a boutique building
- Yes, a great central location
- Yes, might be nice for a quick city breakaway if you get a good room
- No, not a 5* hotel, not by either the hard product nor the soft product. No parking, no sauna, no pool, limited restaurant, no fitness equipment, no mini bar, no air conditioning, worn down furnitur and rooms... Much is missing to make it a 5* property
- No, I would not return (unless they remodel the rooms and get some friendly staff). At least that spares me walking down the stairs again trying to avoid both puke and broken bottles from last night to get to the cab.

So my advise:
- show your membership card during check-in
- do not get a room to the river side
- check the room is in working condition and has a quite location before you unpack
- always leave to the pedestrian zone side, not the river side.


Checkout Tripadvisor and look only for the bad reviews (1 or 2 out of 5), they are pretty consistent with what I observed. From the great reviews I have the feeling most people leaving those reviews never ever saw a good 4* or 5* hotel...

EDIT:// my stay was about a year and a half ago. Perhaps things have changed, but I seriously doubt it. They seemed to be pretty happy with the situation as it was and saw no need to reach out to a complaining guest... so, why bother now?