Le Meridien Parkhotel Frankfurt, Germany [Master Thread]
 

Hi All:

Just checked into the Le Meridien Parkhotel Frankfurt. Booked the classic room, and as a PLT, got upgraded to the Deluxe room in the newly refurbished Business wing.

A few observations about this hotel:
(1) Hotel is ideally located next to the Main train station in Frankfurt - very convenient to travel between airport (T1) and the hotel - 2 minute walk from the hotel. It is also a good starting point for folks planning to travel on train in germany.
(2) the Hotel has 2 wings - the old part of the buidling (with the older European rooms) and the business wing.
(3) Check-in agent seems surprised by a PLT membe - I guess theya re still getting used to the Starwood conversion. She saw my reservation on her computer, and then saw that I was PLT - went to her co-worker and spoke something in German, but I could hear the word PLATINUM in the conversation. She came back and informs me that I was upgrade to a Deluxe suite on a high floor. She then offers me the Platinum amenities - which included a 500 SPG point. The local gift is a ceramic Apple wine holder with the hotel name on it.
(4) The enitre lobby and entrance to the elevator are smoking areas - ashtrays everywhere and people smoking - I guess Germans like their cigarettes.
(5) The Deluxe room in the Business wing is very nice:
- Maple wood furnatures resembling those of Ikea - right down to the lamps.
- Purple night lights frame the closet and head bed board.
- Sofa/chair not the most comfortable - is covered in a leapard print pattern fabric - quite tacky I thought
- DSL/high speed internet connection @ 19 Euro per day or 50cents per minute.
- Power plugs in the room are European only
- Looking at the floor map, the deluxe @ 30 m square (nice size for European hotel) is about twice the size of a superior room - which is tiny by north american standard.
- Rooms X60, x85,x84 are Deluxe rooms - Best room is x85, x84 located at the end of the building
- There are 3 Deluxe rooms per floor
- Unless you are really high up (8th floor) you wont be able to see much of the Frankfurt skyline. Otherwise you look into the other building.
- Bathroom is nice with floor to ceiling marble/granite - 2 separate rooms - one houses the toilet and a small sink and the other houses the main sink and bathtub/shower combo
- Turndown service is offered at night - exept you dont get chocolate/sweet
- The king sized bed is really two single mattress put together. There is no cover sheets - just two duvets - one for each side of the bed
- Nice 42 inch Philips Plasma screen in the room
(6) Fitness/Spa - completely inadequate - one rowing machine, one eclipse and some weights squeezed in the spa (which is about the size of the Deluxe room). I can't imagine someone relaxing in that spa!
(7) one restaraunt and one bar - Decent food, good Breakfast buffet with all the triminings - service is patchy.

I have stayed at the Sheraton Frankfurt Airport, ArrabelleSheraton Gradn Frankfurt, and now le Meridien Parkhotel Frankfurt - of the three my favorite is le Meridien - decent sized, comtemporary room very convenient to get to from the airport and train station.

...and for the other side (Palais)
 

I stayed at this hotel at the end of April. My experiences and observations are similar to ACfly's.

I quite liked the convenient location—it took all of two minutes from the Central train station to the nice park outside the hotel and then the somewhat smoky lobby ;). At checkin there was a similar conference about the Platinum status. The agent advised me that due to full bookings, pickings were slim for upgrades (I had booked a classic room); she then gave me what she said was the best non-smoking room she had on the second floor of the Palais wing of the hotel (the room was truly non-smoking ^ —not always a guarantee in Europe, IME). From here out my experiences start to diverge from the OP.

The room was charming and with tall ceilings, but small—in fact, I felt as though I was in a cube. The furniture and lighting fixtures were old-style (if not necessarily old) to fit with the theme of building and the heavy brocaded drapery (no Ikea look here :D ). The 'queen' bed was what we'd call 'full' in the U.S.A., with a rather (too) soft mattress. The rest of the furniture crowded the room significantly. The desk chair was adequate for short stints. My room was to the side, so there was no particularly attractive view to be had. Looking at the floor plan it would appear that most rooms on that floor are on the small end of the scale.

The bathroom was a single room, neither expansive nor overly compact with a generously-sized sink, a toilet, and a tub/shower combo that could use the curved rods that keep the shower curtain from invading one's space. Toiletries provided were house-branded, very generous (at 1.5 oz), and of decent quality—though each element seem to be of a different fruit/herb scent :confused: .

The concierge was helpful and competent, as was the staff in general. I placed a room service order which delivered the wrong item :rolleyes: . I did not use the internet connection or TV (~20-inch CRT), nor did I check out the breakfast buffet (I left early). But I did take a peek into the gym for research purposes and agree with the OP that it is wholly inadequate.

...but, I did get a chocolate with my turndown service :p

In summary, I think this hotel is a welcome addition to our SPG choices in Frankfurt.

Windflyer,

thanks for the update.. looks like you stayed in the older wing building.. definitely try to get the Business wing... much more ikea...

The location is the best part - right next to the train station to FRA!

ACFly and Windflyer, thank you for these reports. I found the city very amenable, with lots of options for leisure time. Perhaps visitors can find out if the furnishings are usual contemporary German quality furnishings or 'Ikea'. I understood German furniture has an excellent reputation for quality, so the contrast could be interesting! ;)
Now all I have to do to follow your lead is get to PLT (no Centurion!) and a career in the EU :D

I had reserved a classic room in the new wing, and was 'upgraded' to another small room in the old wing ;) . It was OK for just a bed to sleep on, really.

But yes, the best part is the location ^^^

(I'm posting this from the MUC LM, where I got upgraded to a niiiiiice suite :D :D :D ; will post review eventually).

Yes, I quite like Frankfurt myself... even if it gets a bum rap—there's all that green space :p

Now, maybe the OP meant modern 'scandinavian' looking furniture and thought of Ikea as a shortcut for the description ;) . I'm at the Munich LM right now, and I have some of that modern furniture (and the 42" plasma TV), and it's a lot better than what you'd buy at Ikea :D .

Cheers.

And just a block from the red light district. You can't get from the hotel to the city center without passing straight through the 'zone'.

Ah...yes... What an interesting introduction to the city :eek: , I wasn't referring to red-light pursuits (no stripshows in the company of my fiancee, yet), but we did eventually find our way to the parks, a fair of some kind, Sachsenhausen, do a little shopping and enjoy some pub food and ales on a nice summer afternoon.
Local people we spoke to were friendly, so not a bad way to use a FRA transit :)

I booked a deluxe room and was upgraded to a suite in the old wing.

Had to go back to reception and downgrade myself back to the new wing as the old wing does not have high speed internet access.

However the deluxe room is very good, like the flat screen TV. Bit small though.

Still think the Arabella Sheraton Grand is the best spg property in FFT. It also has a better bar.

But you can pick up the wireless signal from the Savoy Hotel nextdoor. Just go the front desk of the Savoy and pay 12.50 euros for 24 hour access. It worked for me...

does anybody know if the renovations are complete for all the rooms?

I key A
 

I assume the OP meant IKEA as a compliment and a praise to the property's contemporary audacity (leopard skin chaise ? ouch!)...:)
The closest I ever came to IKEA fixture in SPG (except from most 4 points of course) is, weirdly enough, in the dressing room of a corner suite of Hotel Maria Cristina. Shabby veneered "scandinavian" wood doorless cabinet looking completely alien in the "classical" surroundings.
When you come to think of it, this specific suite also had the Couch from Hell, he he, I guess I was unlucky!
But I disgress...

Booked a super-cheap single room (Euro105 all in) and was upgraded to a junior suite in the Business Wing. Slightly odd design - all the furniture was designed for a normal room and looked rather small in the larger space. :td: to the single duvets - I hate them. Bathroom was a little small, but really well put together.

Plat amenity offered.

Le Meridien Parkhotel Frankfurt
 

I am scheduling a trip to Eastern Europe over Thanksgiving starting in Frankfurt and decided to stay at the Parkhotel. I was going to finally start using all of the points I had accumulated, so I tried to book an award room. Nothing came up for Nov 16, 1 night. So I called and was told that the only award room was a deluxe which was 11,000 instead of 10,000 points. I agreed to book at that. But then I looked into booking Nov 24, for my last night before returning and found that only 2 single bed rooms were available for booking at the 10,000 rate. I then checked randomly up until April 2008 and noticed that as far as a normal award goes, ONLY "2 single bed" rooms are available. Cash and points offers 1 king, and 3, 2 single bed rooms. So my question is, isn't this hotel kind of breaking the rules by naming every room as "superior" or "deluxe" in order to avoid adhering to the rules regarding starwood awards?

I booked at 10,000 points in late October. The oddity for me is that online had rooms for sale and had points as an option but when I tried to book online I got message stating that there were no rooms. A call to the Plat Line got me a room, but odd I was led to believe there weren't any using the website.