Gewandhaus Dresden, Autograph Collection Review

I stayed here for a two-night break over New Year's Eve. I can overall highly recommend the hotel for its proximity to the old town and almost all of the tourist attractions.

Upon entering I was greeted by the reception staff, which essentialy stand inside one ned of elongated-O-shaped bar, of which the other two thirds serves as a bar.

I had used SNAs to upgrade and received the room that I had been approved for. They claimed they had upgraded me to this room, but that is splitting hairs.

They thanked for my loyalty as a platinum (I am still Ambassafor Lifetime Platinum). Again a bit off the mark.

Otherwise I was offered 750 points (or was it 500?) or daily breakkfast as a plationum amernity AND 1000 points because they do not offer a lounge. I chose the breafast.

I was offered assistance to my room, but declined it.

Valet Parking Warning

Later my travel partner joined me who had arrived by car. You should note two things about their valet parking:

1) Unlike the app which states that the "valet parking" is free, it is not actually free. Only the actual valet service is free. You still have to pay the 25 EUR per night parking fee. I argued with them that this is incorrect language or at best, highly misleading. They refused to budge.

2) They do not have an actual valet, so if you want to retrieve your car, expect to wait 15-20 minutes, since someone from the reception or elsewhere has to be freed up to actually walk to the lot to pick up the car.

There is nearby street parking that had available spots. I just did not notice if it was paid and what the cost was. Since, it was NYE we did not want to risk exposing the car to fireworks.

When I went into the room I noticed it was quite warm. I had to open up some of the windows to drop the temperature quickly. I felt also when turning down the heat all the way, it was perhaps 1 C too warm. But my travel partner was wrapped up in a cocoon at night, so this may have been my personal challenge.

The enrtry has a small seat, where you could also place a small suitcase. The cupboard contains space for hanging your clothes, some shelves, a mini-bar, a safe and and ironing board with iron. There is also a capsule Nespresso machine. Milk can be found in the fridge.

There were alos bathrobes with slippers in the pocket. I cannot remember if they were in the cupboard or the bathroom.

The bathroom is all done in marble. Not my favorite look, but still pleasant. The jakuzzi style bathtub was a nice touch. I did find the shower temperature to be difficult to keep constant. It flcutuated quite a bit. The single basin was a bit of a surprise for a bathroom of this size, but there was a decent amount of counterspace.

The bed was comfortable, as well as the bedding. The were available wall outlets next to the bed. I do not believe there were any USB-A or USB-C ports.

The desk at the left also had some freee power points. It was okay to sit at for a while, but not a desk I would want to sit at for a long time.

As you can see the room has multiple windows. Unfortunately most of them currently look ont a construction site. It was unclear to me what they are building in front of the hotel.

These windows did prove fortuitous once the fireworks started. We essentially had a 220 degree view of a large portion of the city. It was once of the biggest and loudest fireworks I have ever experienced. And it lasted really long!

At the back end of the room there was a seating area with a sofa for watching tv. I magaged to fall alseep on the sofa the first night. I guess it was not so comfortable, because I did get up to go to bed after a couple of hours.

In house there is a restaurant called (m)meatery. As you might expect it has a strong meat focus. I felt the prices to be rather high, but not excessively so, if you are into good quality cuts of meat. Neither of us were tempted to try, so we can not report on the quality.

Breakfast is served in the (m)eatery restaurant. It had a decent selection of food. There is also a small menu with a la carte coffees and some egg and  and pancakes choices, including Eggs Benedict with ham or salmon.

We were quite happy with the taste and selection of the food.

We also tried two cocktails from the bar. I thought they were reasonably priced and tasted very good.

This hotel is located close to all the tourist sites.

It is perhaps not best located for those coming by train. The station however, is only a 15-20 minute stroll through the shopping area and old time. Not a bad walk, even if you are pulling a suitcase.

There is a separte lift to take you down to level -1.

As you come out of the elevator you will see changing rooms. There are lockers and showers available here.

There there is a pool which is more for plunging rather than athetically swimming. Some lounging chars and plenty of towels were available.

From the pool area towards the spa your pass by the perhaps most undersized "gym" I have seen in a large hotel.

As you enter the spa area there is a small sitting area.

Since there were constantly people going into the sauna AND this is Germany, I had to be quick about getting off a shot while no one was running in front of the lens stark naked. I did not see any signs explicitly banning clothing inside the sauna (common in Germany), but be aware that you will likely be amongst naked people.

There was a regular sauna and a Turkish steam room. Both of them were sufficiently large for the number of people using the area.