Much better than expected, friendly staff

Initially I was doubting this property due to the different not so stellar reviews, but in the end I decided to just try it out for 1 night and my other night at the sister property the Renaissance for my weekend trip to the city.   

The property is located in the city centre, with a U-bahn stop about 100m from the property, although for the airport the simplest would be to walk about 400m to the Jungfernsteig station which has the direct S-bahn train to the airport.  

Outside of this, it is about also a 10 min walk to the Rathaus and there's also the city main park which is also a 10 min walk to the entrance.  All within walking distance are shops, restaurants, bars and cafe.  Mainly around the hotel is more of a high end shops. 

For those adventurous one, walking to the Hafen/Warehouse area is about 20-30 mins walk.  

Even before arrival I received a message that I had already been upgraded to a King Studio suite room.  Since I was moving over from another property, I did arrive just before midday (not expecting the room to be ready).  However I was surprised that the room was ready and I could directly get the keys to it.  I was checked in by a friendly associate who gave me a run down of the different amenities and information about the reduced service for the evening happy hours at the Executive Lounge. 

FFP2 mask was still compulsory at hotels in the region during my visit.  (this was also informed via an pre-arrival email). 

Business centre

The room was located on the 5th floor and located at the end of the hallway - which is quite normal for suites in general.  Walking the hallways, it was quite clear that the interior decoration was not the most modern one, although it was well kept and maintained,  The same can be said about the room, it was still more or less stuck in the last time when the hotel was refreshed.  

The room was very spacious and airy mainly because the room was at the corner of the hotel where there was a beautiful view towards the square close to the hotel and there was large windows surrounding the room.  Towards the right of the entry hallway was a door to the main bathroom/toilet area.  This lead directly to fairly large seating area with a large sofa and a 1 person chair with a living room table.  On the other side of the wall was a small cabinet and TV set.   

Across from this was a working desk and next to this the TV stand for the TV in the direction of the bed.   On the working desk was also a small area dedicated to the coffee/tea making facilities with a bottle of complimentary water.  There were electrical outlets around the room (although no USB charging) mainly EU type plugs with surprisingly an odd 1 outlet for US style outlet.

Sleep quality was good - although the windows are not fully noise isolated from the traffic outside (in general it was ok, except for sirens or when people around the square was shouting, etc).  Internally there was no noise at all.  During the night time, there was no disturbance even from the exterior.  The bed was good - as expected from Marriott, bed was comfortable.  Climate control in the room was good - maintaining the room to the correct temperature and fan noise low.   

The bathroom area was ok in size - with just a bathtub and the toilet area behind in a smaller section of the bathroom.  It does seem like there was some minor refresh done to the room - as seen by some of the amenities in the bathroom.  Toiletries were a mix of brands - the wall mounted one was from Thisworks and the individual bottles were from the (usual) AccaKappa.  Both options I found to be refreshing in smell.  Water pressure and temperature control was good - it did take sometime for the water to heat up.  

Internet speed was stable and sufficient for usual work/browsing.  TV channels were the usual mix of local and international options.  I also found the operation of the entertainment system to be quite straighforward with not too many need to press buttons. 

The executive lounge was situation close to the elevator on the 5th floor.  I was actually surprised that it was more of an intimitate space - with not too many seating area.  Outside of the evening drink/snack hours, this was perfectly fine, but as expected, during the evening cocktail hours, the place was quite packed,  Luckily I did not see those coming in not finding a place, although seating was closed to capacity most of the time.  

Outside of the evening hours, there's the usual cold and hot drinks available - with limited snacks.  They do have also an afternoon tea period from 1400-1700 hours - which I wanted to check out, but arriving at around 1630, there was no sign of anything on display and I noticed that the lounge attendant already took all the items into the kitchen/pantry area - which i did not bother to ask for.  

During evening hours, the alcoholic drinks option were 1 white/1 red wine including 1 processco and the usual basic spirits/liquer options - quality seems ok for a lounge.  Even though it was indicated as a reduced service option, there were still quite a large spread of small bites and 3 different hot options (mainly small pizza slices and gnocci - because it was Italian themed that evening).  Under normal situation, it was supposed to be dinner like options.  The food was replenished fast.

On a side note, did notice during the day time some eligible lounge guests coming into the lounge and taking bag fulls of water bottles for their day.  I am ok if 1 or 2 is taken, but to come in with a bag and start filling it up, that is really beyond words.  If you can spend so much on a hotel, what is a 1-2 euro bottle of 1.5l bottle.  Quite a disgusting behvior in my opinion.

The breakfast service was at the main hotel restaurant, buffet style and it was up to midday, which is always nice especially in the weekends.  Although I came down during the start of the peak hour, there was no wait for a table.  I noticed that even after me, the other guests did not have to wait long for a table.

The spread was good, with good options for both cold and hot options.  The only complain here was the lack of service from the staff.  Outside of the coffee in the pot, all other items needs to be ordered, and this took forever to flag a staff to order one.  (nor informed when brought to the table).  Also plates were not cleared that fast, in fact it did start to pile up at one point before it was noticed and taken away. 

There was an egg station but the options here were limited to the usual omelettes and fried egg/sunnyside ones.  I also found out that for items like egg benedict, guests had to pay for this in additiona above usual offereings - which I found weird as their sister hotel had lots more options all included in the breakfast offerings. 

All in all, the stay was good in general, much better than expected - especially on the quality of the hotel.  Yes it is on the older side with some minor refreshed done to the rooms, but I found that although from design point it is not up to modern standards, the rooms were still functional and well maintained.  So as long as they price the rooms accordingly, it is acceptable.  

They did do a great job in the public areas - where it seemed to be the area where some good refreshed renovation took place to keep it up to current times in furnishing and decorations.

I also found that despite in the last years the reduction of benefits/recognition for Bonvoy elite members, this property seem to still had high standard and recognition for elite members which is a big plus.  I will based on this stay if I need a place to stay in the area, still select this property as one of my option.  Between this and the Renaissance, it comes down to what you find important - a much more modern room and breakfast or usage of the Executive lounge.