The Hotel

The Hotel is classic cookie cutter Hampton in the most recent design style. Once in the room, I could have been in any newer-build Hampton in Europe except for some artwork centred around the German film industry and an old map of Potsdam. As it's brand new everything looked very smart and clean.

Status recognition

I was pre-upgraded (with upgrade email in advance) as a Diamond.

I was also provided with a savoury snack and fruit plate with a welcome card, waiting in my room.

Room

The room amenities included an iron and ironing board, safe, fridge, bottled water, kettle and a selection of tea and coffee.

Power outlets are readily available by the desk and on both sides of the bed. The outlets have connections for European plugs, USB-A and USB-C.

The bathroom was smart with a very well-proportioned with a large shower with both rainfall and handheld shower heads.

There is a flip-down desk and comfortable padded chair to go with it.

The windows were very soundproof and the curtains were of the full black-out type.

Outside the room

The hotel does not serve lunch or dinner but shares a building with a steak restaurant next door. I ate in town so cannot comment on the food offering here.

There is a large lobby lounge and a bar which serves snacks, soft and alcoholic drinks including beer on tap. The lobby lounge doubles up as the breakfast room in the mornings.

There is a small gym with new, modern equipment on the ground floor. Whilst small, it has a good range of equipment including cardio and resistance and was empty both times I used it.

Breakfast

Breakfast was served 6-10 weekdays and 7-11 on weekends and was perfectly decent but maybe a little bit smaller in terms of choice than the average Hampton breakfast. The Hampton staple waffle maker is of course available as is a self-service hot drinks machine.

Location and Transport

Having stayed at the Hilton Berlin the previous two nights, I walked to Friedrichstasse and hoped on the RE7 which took me direct to the Potsdam Medienstadt Babelsberg, about 3 minutes walk from the Hampton.

My plan was to visit the Altstadt, Dutch Quarter and the palaces of the Sansouci park and for that, there are probably better located hotels near the centre of town. However, there is a bus stop right outside the hotel (601/690) which will get you to the Hauptbahnhof in about 10 minutes and from there you can choose to walk into town or take tram. o

If you have business in the Media District in Babelsberg, then this is an excellent location.

The whole of Potsdam is covered as part of Berlin band C so if you have a valid 'ABC' or 'BC' ticket on the Berlin transport network (BVG) then you can travel around Potsdam using that.

You can also travel to Potsdam Hauptbahnhof direct from BER without going into the centre of Berlin, although the quickest train-only connection from the Medienstadt train station is to get the RE7 back to Berlin and the change to the FEX express to BER. If you travel direct from Potsdam to BER, you will only need a valid BVG 'BC' ticket. If you transit through Berlin, you will need a full 'ABC' ticket. You can also choose to use a single Deutche Bahn ticket for this journey.

Potsdam, like Berlin has electric scooters and e-bikes available to rent via the relevant apps.