Brian Chen

Going in a week to the regular Axel hotel, will report on how it is. I find it pretty cheap but can then afford to upgrade

bitterproffit

While I agree at 80%, I lucked out recently with a property in Munich called Deutche Eiche. It erased all the stereotypes I have had on service and price.

Sounds like a thread rating good and bad 'gay' hotels would be very useful.

ksu

Deutsche Eiche is an excellent, but strange hybrid. It is foremost a good Bavarian restaurant, with a large loyal local customer base (in the gayest part of a very affluent city), then it is a good three star hotel. It is much frequented by gays (and markets itself to this segment), but it is very straight-friendly and certainly has many business customers, due to central location. It is also quite expensive. Lastly (and most recently) it has one of the largest men-only bathhouses in Europe, but this is not very noticable for other restaurant or hotel patrons, even though reception and entrance are joit.

The reason that the Deutsche Eiche is so well run, is probably that it is a freestanding property, run by the owners who are hands on. They also have loyal staff.

But this is a digression. I agree that we should have a thread (even a sticky) about gay and gay-friendly hotels.

Brian Chen

The way I see it, because it's so cheap, I can book a larger suite-ish kinda room for cheap and hopefully it'll be better than the average review?

DXBtoDOH

I've stayed at Deutsche Eiche and can confirm everything you've written. It's not the best hotel for what you pay, but what you still get is still very good. Clean and comfortable room, excellent restaurant downstairs with good breakfasts included, and a bathhouse right behind. Makes it very convenient, I must say. I did check out the bathhouse, which is free for hotel guests, and probably the only place that was as well run/enjoyable is Boiler in Berlin. And the location is excellent, too.

Vip4me

I loved the Axel Berlin but haven't been to the one in Barcelona.

PeterFlorrick

Stayed at Axel in BCN this summer for a couple of nights and thought it was fine. The pool area on the roof is quite compact and was extremely busy both times I visited (plenty of eye candy though). My city room was small but adequate, and as someone mentioned above it is worth opting for an upgrade if there is one available - ask on check-in as they are snapped up quickly. Staff were pleasant and breakfast was fine. Overall good value for what it is.

ITakeItDeep

I stayed at the Axel hotel in Barcelona and thought everyone was nice and the hotel staff were very helpful, but I HATED THE FURNITURE in the room and I am NOT a fussy traveler. It was like when you buy IKEA furniture and after about 8 months stuff starts to wobble? That's how my furniture was!!! AND!! there was no closed closet - it was all open without much drawer room, so if a hot guy was coming buy I had no place to quickly throw my make up and purse (just kidding on that stuff...)