chang9121990

If I am a first time visitor to Berlin and just want to do all the touristy stuff, is this hotel or the Hyatt better located?
I don't mind walking and is a heavy user of public transportation.

FD1971

Still a tied game after 4 over time periods..., you can't go wrong with both places, when you look for a good location in Berlin.

The Grand Hyatt is the better hotel, though, and that game is decided after some minutes...

Flying Lawyer

The Westin is in the better location (at least from a local's perspective)

Hamurabi2008

Hi!

Just returned from a 3-Night trip to the Westin Grand Berlin, Germany.
I booked a 140 EUR corporate rate without breakfast. When the booking was done I was SPG Gold. The night before I made it to Platinum. In the morning I called the property and checked if I needed to tell them
They assured me that their system showed my upgraded status already.
However, they managed my expectation down as it seemed they were fully booked that day.

When I arrived late on the same day I overheared a conversation by the frontdesk staff with the platinum member before me - and he got a suite upgrade. My hopes rose again. Unfortunately it did not work out: I received upgrade to 'just' a 'Superior Room' (towards 'Unter den Linden').

No Platinum perks aside the standard published ones. I opted for the 500 points arrival gift.

The breakfast costed 30 EUR. Room service delivery cost 4 EUR. For the latter I could not find a note in the menue. Anyhow...

I noticed that they cost-cut the alarm clock in the room - is this standard at Westin now???

Some strange observations:
- I brought a glass bottle of water from my conference to the room (different brand than the one that they give out for free to SPG members). During cleanup they removed the empty bottle of their own water and placed my bottle where they should have placed a full one of theirs. Not a big thing but not suitable.

- On Day 2 I was quite unhappy with the servicing of the room and asked the FrontDesk Manager to get this fixed. They added a few towels but nothing else. I also asked for a different newspaper in the morning.

- On Day 3 I did not get a newspaper at all...


My personal conclusion:
The Westin is a solid Westin. Given my great experiences at the Berlin Grand Hyatt or the Radisson BLU, I think they should treat frequent guests better.
The SPG perks/points aside I don't think the place is worth the money it charges.
I will probably return to my beloved Radisson Blu Berlin for my upcoming travel. My company rate there is 110 EUR incl. Breakfast. But OK - the rooms are smaller... The Grand Hyatt Berlin is a fantastic hotel. The Club is very nice and I just love the style. Location is also quite central and good - if you don't mind walking/taking the subway.

Here are some pictures of the room on Flickr.

Kind Regards

Ham

charder

compared to the other hotels the Westin is just crap
In Berin there are just better choices and SPG has to draw in this city (capital of germany)

skrosvik

I too don't get the general rave about this hotel. Checked-in here today, and while I had the cheapest room (125 EUR) I got upgraded to a junior suite on the 6th floor without any form for pushing.

Generally I find the staff to be grumpy and the hotel to be slightly outdated. I do not know how to put it, but the suite feels like 1991 mixed with some modern fixtures, like LCD-tvs. I think it is strange they did not take the opportunity to give it a complete renovation - but I guess it is a money matter.

The suite itself is a open suite, no door between the sleeping area and the living area. Two bathrooms though - both spartan and outdated.

The view is nice, can see the Russian embassy and the Parliament and it's dome.

No coffee making facilities in the room, you can have one delivered to your room, but a room service charge of 4 EUR plus 1 EUR for refills will be charged to your room (ridiculous!!!).

Drinks in the bar are more expensive than those in the Hilton (where I stayed prior to this stay) and on par with those at the Hyatt - which is a MUCH NICER hotel, but of course far more expensive rooms as well.

I am happy that I am staying on a good rate, would be dissatisfied if I had to pay 200-300 EUR per night to stay here.

A huge downgrade from the Westin Grand Cape Town where I stayed last week!

Louie_LI

I just got back from a stay here. We were "upgraded" to a room on the 4th floor (more recently renovated?) with a view over Unter den Linden.

I was actually impressed with how helpful the staff was. Maybe dealing with them in German improves the situation.

We had coffee-making facilities in the room and were not charged for refills.

The only water in the room was a €7.90 bottle of mineral water. The tag on the bottle did not say that it was free for Gold/Platinium, so we only drank one bottle. The charge was taken off our bill at check-out, without us having to ask about it.

Late check out was confirmed at check-in, again without having to ask for it. (But why, oh why, aren't the keys coded to include this? We had to trek back down to the desk on the last day in order to have the keys re-set.)

There was no wifi in our room, only a cabled DSL connection. Wifi was available in the lobby.

The bar is very expensive.

7Continents

I just came back from a 5 day stay at this property and have a very different perspective. The location is great for a tourist. At 9AM the morning after a sold out night the clerk spent a few minutes discussing the two available rooms and the one that I could wait for. She let me pick my room and then gave an apology for keeping me at the desk while I chose! I had a fifth floor garden view which was what I chose. It was fresh, really clean and well laid out. I drank one bottle of water and wasn't charged for it as a gold. The staff were really helpful and pleasant. They also have iPad rentals which was awesome as it included unlimited web over the mobile phone network.
Upon checkout at 5:30 am they had a table set up with juice, coffee and fruit as the restaurant wasn't open yet. I also had a glance at the SPG upgrade list for that day and indeed, it lists everyone who has status along with a "point" value and a room type.
I'm really not sure what everyone is clucking about as for this type of service and attention to detail you certainly wouldn't get it in Paris or London at generally less than 200 Euros a night.

alanslegal

Hey, I was there the same time as you (well 1-4 July was my stay).

Stayed three nights on a BRG claim (that was approved with breakfast included) at a cost of EUR125.xx inclusive per night. Mind you breakfast is EUR30 per person and has a very good range of food on offer and the quality is also of high standard - so with my cheapie rate, I'm doing well

As I am a Platinum who is probably in the bottom two of the status list, I was upgraded from a standard room to one of those windowless bedroom suites, with a separate living area, on the 6th floor. It is basically two adjoining room, and the room appears to have been renovated, in the further wing from the elevators [I note the new lighting in those hallways].

Check-in was efficient and very helpful, where I had a young lad who had very good english and was willing to assist. Check out I also had a good female agent, so no issues on check out.

Location is probably as central as you can get if you're in Berlin for tourist purposes so you really can't go wrong.

PS. Does anyone know which room/suite did they film The Bourne Ultimatum in?

raunow

Did a 1 night stay at Westin Berlin as part of a family road trip this week.

1 room booked at cheapest rate (125€) upgrade to large renovated Jr Suite with plenty of room for 2 roll-away beds (at no extra cost). We were offered a street facing Jr Suite, but chose the one with only a small window facing the inner yard, since it was larger and we needed room for the 2 roll-aways.

Breakfast not included in rate, but offered as "Summer promotion" for 15€/adult (half price for children), which we accepted. HUGE breakfast restaurant with a really good selection/quality.

Nice Gym/Pool area with very attentative staff. WiFi in room with cost deducted at check-out.

For parking we used the valet service (28€/day) since it was raining heavenly when we arrived and traffic was too heavy to search for parking. Seeing afterwards the garage they use is right across the street we might just use that ourselves another time.

Location is fabulous with the Museums and Tiergarten park in easy walking distance and an underground station 50m away.

For lunch we did Aigner closeby on Gendarmenmarkt (http://www.aigner-gendarmenmarkt.de/) which I can highly recommend.

remymartin

Had a long stay here this month.

As I was gold at the time I just received a quiet room on one of the upper floors. Free internet really came in handy, as it normally costs an astronomical 29 euros / day.

My room was on the courtyard side and the views were actually pretty nice. I reckon the Unter den Linden side of the hotel would be rather noisy.

Front desk were very welcoming. The sauna / spa area is nice, not very busy and the staff there are great.

What I didn't like before and still don't are the concierges - they are absolutely useless. Don't ask for restaurant recommendations etc from them.

Forstbetrieb

Strange! Are there new concierges? The old concierges were not useless!

UA-NYC

Doing 5 days here next month - seems like from all the posts, I should lower my expectations a bit!

Forstbetrieb

Why?

Sphinx

This is s pretty good hotel. And, for Germany, the service orientation is quite decent.