Hi Sharon,

I am platinum and I was there a week ago and I wasn't offered breakfast in the restaurant but I didn't ask either. The lounge is very nice in Koln so I was happy with it.

It's lounge "only" (Oct 12). Offerings are more than sufficent. I would prefer lounge brekkie over restaurant which can be a zoo during breakfast.

Thanks - I've updated the sticky.

Cheers.

A brief update on the evening lounge offerings since my visit late last year to note it appears the quality and variety have dropped off. A couple of nights the lounge was very full and replenishment was slow. Chicken wings and onion rings were subbed in for the two hot dishes. The initial hot items were not of the same caliber as I recall over the past few years when beef tenderloin and poached salmon made an appearance in the evenings.

It may just be a down few days, but very noticeable drop in the evening selections which is disappointing. Staff remains top notch and does the best to cope with the crowds at busy times.

Hmm I was there about two weeks ago and didn't find that to be the case. The two hot selections were pasta and a chicken wrap, both of which were very delicious.

With that being said though, the lounge was fairly empty, no more than 10 people in the lounge at once.

We were offered the option of breakfast in the restaurant or lounge as well.

Staff at the Marriott Cologne were definitely top notch though!

Anyone knows about street parking possibilities around the hotel? I wouldn't mind saving EUR 25 for parking.

Thanks in advance!

Zero. Cologne has a very agressive policy on charging for street-parking - I think the metered parking around the hotel runs something between 8am and midnight, and it IS enforced during these hours. And it is something like 2 Euro per hour with a four hour maximum.

If you can stand to park next door (literally!) it saves you 10� a day (no in and out, though)...the garage is called "Rhein Triadem", and the entrance is right across the steet from the Marriott garage...you drive down the same street and make a left for the Marriott's garage or a right 20m earlier for the Rhein Triadem.

Greetings - Dirk

Thanks Dirk!

Anyone knows if the lounge serves afternoon tea with cakes? That would influence when we will get to the hotel.

Thanks in advance!

Here is a quick review for the hotel:

Stayed there for 2 nights, 1 night under Mr. Nacho's and 1 night under my name. Mr. Nacho is Plat and I'm Gold.

The hotel is currently under renovation - it's bad because they didn't put the information online so it was kind of a surprise to us.

So no lounge, they use some bar/restaurant area in different time frame as lounge. There is a sticker on your keycard and that's the lounge pass.

The room is ok - slightly dated - I would say it's similar to Hamburg Marriott.

No upgrade as Plat/Gold - reason: big group of guests coming and renovation.

The lounge was ok, the main course was the best we have tried. Cold dishes and dessert was not as good - especially the dessert (especially when their restaurant is French).

Breakfast was in the restaurant - the only great item there was the yogurt, croissants were worse than those from Lidl. The worst was their omelette - we have ordered 7 (2 days and we returned a couple of them) and only 1 of them was right. There was one of them came with only ham and I asked for ham and mushroom. Guess what they did? They dug a hole in the omelette and put 4 full mushrooms on it and returned to me.

The restaurant's staffs are definitely having fun: we can hear them laughing from the kitchen. I don't mind that as long as they can get the food right.

We had trouble finding somewhere to sit but the restaurant was full and we had to clean the table ourselves.

Also the air-con was broken during our stay - it was almost 30 degrees outside and in the morning the room was steaming hot. Called AYS and they said they were fixing it and they said the air-con means 5 degrees less than outside temperature. Hopeless.

Internet doesn't work so well - I tried to log in to 3 machines and then they got disconnected and when we tried to reconnect again, it said 'access denied'.

Called AYS, he wanted to put me through to the Cloud people (it was midnight) and I asked for vouchers and they sent them up.

When I checked in, I was asked for ID (I never asked for one and neither was Mr. Nacho), and no upgrade of course, then the room wasn't ready so I had to do the check-in again.

When I went to the reception again, I asked for late check-out and she denied me even for a 1pm check out. The whole thing was unfriendly to me compared to Mr. Nacho and we were wondering if there is anything to do with the fact that I'm not white.

I don't believe this renovation thing is a 'sudden' project - if they can't handle all the guests don't rent all the rooms out. They really ought to put the info on marriott.com.

Haven't used the parking, found street parking 8 minutes from the hotel for EUR 4 per 24 hrs - the parking machine was broken so we paid EUR 4 for 2 days.

Thanks for the review, Nacho. I'll be staying here beginning of July so it was a very interesting one.

I didn't know about the renovation either but I guess I will stay there anyway because I really need the cat5 cert that this stay will trigger. Quite not looking forward to it after your review, though.

I'll report how my stay was afterwards.

I think it's really poor that the hotel doesn't notify Marriott.com about the renovation. It's not even on Virtual Concierge! Not that they give us anything less than the basic - however no upgrade as Plat and no 1pm check out as Gold was pretty bad.

Mr. Nacho got 2pm check-out the first night and guess what - the keycards stopped working at noon - most hotels we stayed at have it until 12:30 or 1pm.

Wow, thanks nacho for the update.

I was thinking about this property as part of the stays for the current promo. Now I would keep our existing reward nights at Radisson Blu instead.

The renovation and no lounge are major downer, coupled with the very poor attitude - cannot believe what they did on a wrongly prepared omlette - seems to me they purposely did this to despise you who is not white.

Marriott definitely lose our business on this one.

Elizabeth, I'm sorry you had such a undesirable stay at the M Cologne. I stay there at least once a month since their opening and got somewhat used to a less than perfect treatment. Have to show ID from time to time even after 100+ nights . White or not white is most probably not the reason. Upgrades are rare (better chances if I ask for well in advance for weekend stays in summer...). Wine offering at the lounge is undrinkable; better stick to the beer.
Like the gym, lounge breakfast, lounge terrace with view of the Dom, most rooms, and location close to the station.

Nice to hear that it's not because of my skin colour - I suspected that because the very same woman treated Mr. Nacho much better. I have his surname since I'm married to him and that I don't look like one that has a Scandinavian surname - although most people in Denmark who don't know me would assume that I'm an adopted kid

With a 100+ nights and they still treat you like that - I think I'll definitely have a nice chat with the GM. At CY BSL - we went there 2 times and the third time they call us by our surname and they even commented that our kids have grown a lot.

CY Bremen - we went there for like 2 times/summer and they also remember us.

The dessert in the lounge is horrible (it was cups with chopped fruit from brekkie and chocolate thing with gel-O texture - I asked the lounge attendant what it is, he said, 'dessert', I asked what exactly it is - he said once again, 'dessert'. Then he used his marker writing 'Dessert' on the table

If he knows something is called roasted beef, and one is called pasta, he ought to know what it is, if not, go to the kitchen and ask.

We think that they know that their dessert sucks because they put out very little and that they don't bother with it.

About the omelette - Mr. Nacho thinks this is the reason: If you don't want to make more omelette, make sure you make it bad so people don't come back for more. I think the theory doesn't work on me because omelette is the only thing I fancy there.

This is a real turn off. Denied 1 PM check-out is unacceptable.