The Sheraton Raritan Center in Edison has $69 rates, including breakfast on weekends. And my point wasn't so much to do with the rate, but from the other postings, I had hopefully expected a better upgrade regardless of the what I was paying. It was a quiet weekend, without too many business travellers and there were lots rooms listed on the Starwood website at low rates for this property. (In fact, as I mentioned, I was easily able to get a room on the RC floor at the Hyatt with short notice, for not much more than I was paying here).

Edison is not Cologne. To be fair you should compare Charlotte, Philadelphia or any other of the "tier 2" US cities with Cologne....

And this property is certainly at the (very) lower end of a quality scale. I would not even dream of staying there with the Dom Hotel or the Cologne Hilton on the "better side" of the railway station near by.

Thanks for the post mauld. The hotel has been reviewed many times on here and people have been in general happy. I do not recall anyone in the past posting that were given a single twin bedded room regardless of rate paid. I was unaware they even had them. In the future I will be very careful to verify the bedding described when booking this hotel.

I do not get the analogy Flying Lawyer is going for. A Four Points should offer a minimal standard of accomodation regardless of rate paid or location. The marriott goes for 99euro so cologne is a cheap city for hotels.

rich

You say it: "minimal standard". The Cologne Marriott is normally at 119 Euro, even during weekends. And 77 compared to 119 is 54% more.

Not to be nit-picky here, but you did refer to my local area (Metuchen), which is why I choose Edison... But as for your own comparision of say, Charlotte NC-- I just pulled up the Four Points Charlotte for next Sat, and got a $80 rate (which would be actually somewhat lower than the e77 rate). I've stayed here many times (previous employer is HQ there), and while not on an LC collection level, it was far better than my Koln experience.

The hotel is not happy about the construction work and I know rooms X05 quite well. They are certainly not the best rooms, but they are not that bad either (they have bigger bathrooms) and offer good W-Lan Access.

77 EUR is not that expensive (location near station and pedestrian zone) and you would not get a hotel with the same value for this price. (honestly, I was able to stay here for 64 EUR some time ago).

The Hilton has also some bad stay report over in the Hilton Forum.

I notice no comments about this hotel for over 2.5 years... Has anyone stayed here recently, and how have you liked it? How do they treat their PLAT guests as well as their no-status guests? I am PLAT and am considering staying here and would be bringing a whole group with me so would get a couple rooms...

Yes, that is right. The **** Cologne has single rooms with single beds. I had once such a room back at a time when I was a standard member.

I was there in February and I liked the hotel very much. However, I booked a rate which included breakfast because I believe there is no complimentary breakfast for Platinums included.

As far as I remember there is nothing special for Platinums exept a room uopgrade which you may get if there is availability.

It is selfexplaining that the other members won't get any benefits either. However, the hotel staff was friendly and helpfull and I would go there again if I were in Cologne.

I can confirm that. As a Diamond with Hilton, I did not get any upgrade at all despite the fact that there were plenty of Deluxe and Suite rooms.

The Hilton Cologne remains in a very negative way in my memory @:-)

The **** remaions in very good memory ^

The 4 Points is a terribly run down property in desperate need of a complete renovation, however the location cannot be beat when you arrive by train.

Rooms vary from suites in the 50-70 sqm range to tiny rooms with a 32 inch wide bed and a ridicously small bath room. The furniture in all rooms is old and worn down, bath rooms smell, because of no fresh air at all for 40 years, mold is a concern. If you have any allergic problems, stay miles away from the property, because also the carpets are full of stains and old...

I am 0 for 4 this year for suite upgrades this year and the Plat. bonus did not post automatically as well, if offered at all by the ( often ) clueless staff, some clerks are better, though.

Location and price is in favour of the 4P, if you want real quality go for the Le Meridien Dom Hotel, which is on average twice as expensive.

During non-fair periods, the 4P normally goes for 50-90, the Dom for 110-190

Since the Hilton was also mentioned, it is on average the far better hotel, although it has only 1 or 2 suites and no club lounge and is priced comparably to the Dom Hotel.

unless your purpose is a matress run, i agree with FD1971.
run down and since a year or so, they have stopped upgrading me to suites, and their regular rooms are tiny and more like a european 2-3 star hotel. i am surprised they still meet starwoods criteria for even a 4P- so i have stopped staying there.
both the hilton and the dom are ages better ...i find the hilton cheaper most of the time. the dom does not provide breakfast for plats/no lounge , and there is not even a coffee maker in the room .

So it sounds like this hotel should just be avoided like the plague... Although the price is very attractive, I guess you get what you pay for, no? Too bad!

This is not true at all! I have no idea what the folks are talking about. I liked the hotel and it is not at all in such a bad shape as one might imagine after the previous comments @:-)

I agree. Although the Four Points could indeed benefit from renovation, I enjoyed a dozen or so stays there last spring and was upgraded to a suite overlooking the hauptbahnhof 100% of the time. The minibar was stocked with four bottles of water and soda, all free. The staff were quite friendly and free internet was available. On the mezzanine level, there was also a free computer and coffee was available 24 hours per day. For rates as low as €65 tax included, I would gladly stay there again.

I was also treated quite well at the Hilton, where I was always upgraded to a top floor junior suite.

In contrast to these two properties, the Dom Hotel provided me with one of the most substandard rooms I have ever encountered in my travels. The small viewless closet of a room was equipped with a diminutive bathroom furnished with inferior accessories, including extremely thin and scratchy towels. The benefits I received as a platinum guest of many years was nil and I will not be returning there.

Take a look at the pictures available on the Tripadvisor website, they speak for themselves.

Indeed, the rooms are between 2-3 * quality at this point, some suites have newer furniture, however that is also showing some age.

Cologne has been blessed with several new hotels in the last years, some of them are also 4 star properties, but nicer than the 4 Points.