Location

Hotel is located slightly outside of the center and old city.  There is a U-bahn station/stop about 5 mins walk from the hotel.  There is not much around the hotel except for offices and close to the U-bahn station/stop some shops and restaurant.  For those not interested to pay for parking at the hotel parking, there are some street parking available but would be difficult during weekdays/office hours.  In the weekends it is much easier, although there are some lots which are private spaces - so take care to not park or you'll risk getting your car towed.

Check In

Arrived late in the evening at the property (around 6.30 pm) and there was only 1 associate at the front desk with 3 people in the line.  Not sure was it my bad luck or what, but every one before me had lots of questions to this only associate, so in the end it was about 15 mins before it was my turn.  I did not do an online check-in just to see if I will get an upgrade, but sadly, nothing much except a room on the Executive floor (which in my books is not an upgrade).  I was also informed that the lounge was closed (I did not ask for the reason) but they had a temporarily setup at the end of the on-site Restaurant Max (I was given initially wrong information by the associate that it was at the Bar area, but after going there, was informed that it was actually at the restaurant)

Room

Room was the normal size room facing the ring and the L'Oreal building.  

The room and furnishing was still the same, rather late 90's type but still functional.  

Bed was comfortable however the pillows in my opinion needs to be changed as it was practically flat even with 2 pillows piled above each other.  

Temperature control in the room was basically non-existence.  It was freezing outside, however the room felt too hot after some time (room was set to 23 deg C when I first entered) and despite setting the temperature down to 18 deg C and on high, there seemed to be no effect to the temperature in the room.  So in the end, I just turned off the unit and had the window opened for some time to cool down the room.  After this, for the whole night, the temperature was ok for sleeping.

There was tea/coffee making facilities in the room.  The mini bar was available but with the automated detection system.  Internet was stable and sufficiently fast (I was provided with a code - I guess this is for the higher speed internet).  The TV was on a smaller size for a Hilton with relatively OK channels ( although quite a number of them seemed to be not working anymore).

The bathroom was tiny, it was not possible to have 2 people in the space at the same time as there would be no way of passing each other.  Even for 1 person, it was quite small.  

Executive Lounge

They had a temporary lounge set up at the back of the Restaurant Max.  Evening offerings were quite good with 3 different warm dishes and a couple of appetizers and desserts.  

There was a 2 different white and 2 different red wines (all wines seems to be of German origin - good to see that they try and promote the local wines).  There was also a sekt on offer.  Other than that, the usual alcoholic choices.

Service was good, with the 2 servers working in the section clearing plates and refilling drinks/asking for coffee/tea efficiently.  

Only complain would be the limited number of seats available.  When I arrived, there was no more seats available, so had to wait until one was available.  

Breakfast

As I had expected during weekends, the hotel shifted the normal breakfast location from the Restaurant Max to the conference rooms of the hotel.  This means sharing tables with strangers, which to me is not really acceptable for a hotel of this level.  

However what was worst was that it seems in such a situation, the quality of the food reduces drastically.  The experience this time was really bad, most of the hot dishes - especially the beans, bacon and sausage, they were all burnt.  Especially the beans (which clearly was burnt - had both smell and taste that the pot of beans had burned and yet they tried to salvage it) and the bacon (basiclly a whole pile of rather blackend and oily pile of bacon).  

Also due to this settings, it seems that they could not set up a proper toaster - so there was no possibility to toast bread.  

All in all, not the best breakfast experience that you expect from a Hilton.  I've had such a situation before at the Renaissance Dusseldorf, and at least there, the arrangement was much better (and elegant).

Overall

I've stayed at this hotel before a couple of times and after my last stay, I too had some issues which I had informed the front desk.  However it seems that the management of the hotel is not taking the necessary steps to improve things - especially when the hotel capacity is high.  

Also, very little recognition of the hotel of Elite members as I don't see any improvement in giving the extra touch (better room upgrades, or some welcome amenities).

Only main reason I would recommend this property is that at least it has an executive lounge that still opens in the weekend with some subsance.  Location is not overly bad.