vsevolod4

IC Düsseldorf


Were you (or for multi-stayers are you generally) happy with the hotel/stay?
Generally, yes.

Which room did you book and which upgrade did you receive?
Used rewards nights from a past promotion. Upgraded to an executive suite. No lounge access, though they offered to downgrade me and give me Club. On the welcome letter, it's stated as an explicit either/or.

How are the rooms?
Nice, a bit modern.

How is the exec. lounge?
In plain sight on the 2nd floor; I've been there before; it's nice though not big.

Did you receive a welcome gift?
2 bottles of Gerolsteiner, and for some reason 2 fruit plates with 4 fruits each. Gift was a small booklet/catalog of an exhibition that takes place in the "vertical museum" inside the hotel (essentially, one panoramic photo per floor -- but since you need to use your keycard to activate the elevator, to see all the floors is a nontrivial effort.

How was the minibar?
Welcome letter warns that the benefit is not applicable for reward stays. Nor is the free movie benefit (has that changed, officially?) But I asked at check-in and they said yes it applies. So Schroedingerian.
Minibar pretty good, including about 10 mini-liquor bottles.

What was good and what was bad?

-Good
Pleasant enough.
Very artsy lobby space
Location if you like high-end shopping, it's on the Konigsallee. It's a bit over a kilometer to the train station and a similar distance to the Altstadt
Guaranteed early checkin went smoothly.
The bar is a good bar to people-watch. Cocktails expensive but Altbier is only 3 euro (sure, it's 2 in the pubs, but here you also get peanuts and wasabi snacks, and it's a swanky place to see and be seen).

-Bad
Seems to be a stickler for rules (minibar on reward stays) and a single benefit - upgrade or club.
Dusseldorf itself. It's a wealthy city, tidy and clean but boring. Other than the Altbier houses, it has less going for it than Berlin, Munich, Cologne, Hamburg, Dresden, Leipzig, Bonn, Hanover, etc. No major castle; only a modest art museum (which was closed for renovation) and not much else. When the top TripAdvisor attraction is basically a garage where people store their luxury and exotic cars, you know you're pretty much scraping the bottom of the barrel. If you want interesting sights and history, take the train to Cologne, which is awesome. Or head out to the Neander Valley ("Thal"), where the first Neanderthal was uncovered.

Value for $ or Priority Club Points?
Kinda pricey compared to other German ICs; if it were about $50 cheaper I'd have paid, but at the prices it made more sense to use freebies.

Would you return?
Yeah, if I have to be in Dusseldorf.