The Hotel Mondial am Dom Cologne MGallery is a centrally located (views of the Cologne cathedral and next to the main train station). A solid hotel but this stay (for the Christmas market) was somewhat Kafkaesque.

Check In

I had booked two adjoining junior suites and checked in at 15h. Only one was ready and I was told that the other would be ready after 16h. Fine by me and off I went to explore the city. When I returned after 17h I was told that the adjoining suite was not available after all (the guest had extended his stay). So we were given another junior suite (not recently renovated) but told again that the adjoining one was not ready.

When the adjoining room was finally ready it turned out not to be a junior suite after all. Being fed up with this game of musical chairs I decided to keep the room.

Room

You'll get to see three different rooms here:

1. A recently renovated junior suite (first room given)

2. Another junior suite (not recently renovated)

3. Adjoing King room (not a junior suite as booked)

All rooms featured those awful single duvets you find in most German hotels. Other than that all were quite comfortable but the whole situation was somewhat ludicous.

View from the second junior suite:

Service

Staff were friendly throughout (front desk, breakfast, restaurant). Premium guest get three items from the front desk shop as the rooms do not have a mini bar (but have a fridge).

Dining

We had dinner at the restaurant but were not impressed. The quality of the food was not up to the mark. The breakfast buffet was ample and decent though having a self service coffee station in my view is somewhat unbecoming for an MGallery.

Dinner:

Location

You can't beat the location. Right next to Köln Hauptbahnhof (station) and easily reached by car, the hotel is right in the centre. The main Christmas market (as well as a another more cuter one was right on our door step.

Overall

Overall, even when considering the bizarre room roulette, the stay was pleasant enough. That said, the promised service recovery for the inconvenience never arrived (even after reminding the hotel after the stay) left a bitter aftertaste. A hotel should not promise something and then completely fail to deliver.

Value for money was decent (considering how busy Cologne gets for the Christmas market) but I understand that at certain times the rates can be very high (trade fairs etc.).

If you are considering staying there make sure to insist on a recently renovated room. While the somewhat dated one was serviceable its small TVs and carpeting belongs to another era.

I wanted to stay in Cologne for an extended weekend for R&R following some surgery I had in November. This hotel worked well for its proximity to the Old Town and that it had a spa. I had booked a Business room (because based on description it seemed certain it would had a standing shower and not a bathtub).

Check In

Check-in was fine, I was not greeted as a Gold (I was Gold at time of booking) but was told I was upgraded to a Deluxe room with Cathedral View and given the drink voucher. There was also an apple, two Lindor and a bottle of water as my Gold welcome gift. 

The upgrade is a bit fake, the hotel has 3 categories which are exactly the same rooms : normal, Business and Deluxe with view. The difference is Business has a Nespresso machine (the bathrobe is standard to all room as it is a Spa hotel) and Deluxe has a Cathedral view and a Nespresso machine, price hike per night is 80 EUR for each room category. Some of them are not refurbished and it seems to be the case of the Standard. 

Room

The room was perfectly fine, modern and adequate. The bed was particularly comfortable (it might be a MyBed), the desk on the small side. The bathroom was fine, although the shower pressure was a bit weak for my taste. Also the lack of kettle and tea bags is really baffling. 

There are some design issues : no plugs near the desk, this is always annoying, just one plug on each side of the bed. The do not disturb sign is hooked just under the hook for the coat, so once you hook a coat it can not be seen. So I spend the stay thinking there was no DND sign in the room. 

There are some elements that are not modern at all: the TV might be a large screen but is old. Usually now it is easy to set up hotel TV to stream music from a phone or a tablet but this one had no such features. The safe is an old model without any display of the code or status. 

Service

Service was good albeit nothing stands out. Breakfast is 100% a buffet, not even coffee is served on order, there are coffee machines. The breakfast buffet is quite nice, good quality and enough choices. There was quite a lot of cold cuts available, and more cheese than usual. On the other hands, the cereal quality was not great, too much sugar. 

Location

Location is by the Dom, so can not be beaten really. Very easy walking access from the main train station. There are of course busses, tram and subway nearby. Despite its central location, the hotel is quiet. 

Overall

Overall the stay was OK but I was not impressed, it missed a Wow factor specially for a MGallery which are supposed to be somewhat boutique.