Hilton Frankfurt City Centre

Index to Genius1 Trip Reports

Designed by John Seifert Architects and opened in 1998, Hilton Frankfurt City Centre is a typical late-90s edifice towering in a slightly top-heavy manner over the Opera Quarter in the western part of the city’s district of Innenstadt. Well located for exploring the city on foot (Alte Oper is 5 minutes away), we arrived on a pleasant summer’s day in July last year for a two night stay.



Refurbished between 2018 and 2020, the bones of the hotel are clearly still of their 1998 vintage, with the more recent design aesthetic being designed to complement them rather than hide them. The lobby and atrium is one large area, with reception desks off to the right as you enter, the PARK restaurant straight ahead and the Hudson Yards bar and lounge to the left.







Check-in was quick, and we were soon heading up in the (rather slow to arrive) glass lifts to the 10th floor and our Executive room overlooking the park to the rear of the hotel, a one category upgrade from our booked Deluxe room.









It's clear that the refurbishment of the rooms isn’t your usual Hilton drabness; I liked the golden accents, use of darker colours and walnut wood to create a more upscale feeling than you might expect. Whilst not terribly spacious, the room managed to squeeze in a narrow chaise longue by the large windows, in addition to an easy chair and a desk with its own chair. Power and USB-A sockets were located in all of the right places, including one UK plug socket by the desk which was a welcome feature and one not often found in Europe.













A small minibar in the hall area held a Lavazza coffee machine, tea by Ronnefeldt and a single large bottle of complimentary water. The minibar itself was stocked.



As is often the case with hotel refurbishments, the quite large bathroom had not been completely re-done. That being said, the refurbishment that had taken place had refreshed the bathroom very nicely; new marble-effect panels behind the toilet and to one wall of the bath, a completely new basin and surrounding vanity area and new gold fixtures throughout (aside from the silver grab handle adjacent to the bath which for some reason had not been replaced). For a 25-year-old property, I was impressed that the original floor and wall tiling was in such good condition.











Standard Hilton Crabtree and Evelyn amenities were provided in large bottles, although the body lotion was completely empty. We also had to request a second hand towel and a second pair of slippers – things that really should be provided in a twin bed room for double occupancy. The rainshower was pretty badly limescaled up, to the point that the detachable shower provided a better showering experience.

Overall, this was a comfortable room to spend time in. Housekeeping was fine with the notable exception that drinking glasses were not cleaned and replaced each day. I never understand why many hotels (particularly in Europe and the US) don’t bother with this. Soundproofing also left a little to be desired, with loud furniture scraping noises audible from above at regular intervals during the night.

The Executive lounge spans the top two floors of the hotel. The lower level on the 11th floor is an odd soulless space with mostly café-style and dining seating, a high-top table overlooking the atrium and another under the marginally more attractive curved staircase leading up to the lounge’s main area.









The 12th floor lounge space holds more café seating and three booths at the top of the staircase, with banquette and dining seating adjacent to the self-serve bar and buffet to the rear of the space. Soft drinks, whole fruit and nuts are available all day, with breakfast and ‘happy hour’ being offered, the latter including alcoholic drinks.







The space really isn’t very inviting, being sandwiched into two lift lobbies, so we didn’t sample anything other than some stale flapjack on our day of departure, preferring breakfast in the PARK restaurant on the ground floor, which was very comprehensive if a little busy.



The hotel has an indoor pool, fitness centre and spa which are operated by Fitness First.

The hotel extended our check-out on request to 14:00, although was unable to provide postage stamps for a postcard which I thought was a little odd.

On balance, Hilton Frankfurt City Centre is a thoroughly decent property offering all of the conveniences you would expect from the brand in a good location.