"Check-in was slow and we had to wait for 30 minutes to get to the room, because I suspect that their system doesn't allow check-in even a minute before 15:00, but they tried to hide this by saying the front desk is so busy that we have to wait a while because of it.
In the lobby we had to listen to the loud conversations of two receptionists and they should tone it down for the convenience of their guests. The staff were nice, but it's apparent that they haven't had much formal training that you would expect at four stars, so the interactions were a bit odd for this kind of hotel.
Nobody answered the phone when I tried to call the reception from room for 10 minutes and had to walk down.
We had asked for a red room weeks in advance, but were still given a blue one. I learnt that most of the rooms are blue, and they have very few red ones.
Luckily the receptionist man was able to change us to a red room with an upgrade and we are thankful of this. This was the only positive thing in about this hotel in addition to the room decor.
The rooms looked very stylish and unique and I loved the red velvet look of the room.
The entrance also looks glamorous.
Unfortunately the whole lobby is decorated in blue, whereas it would look much better in red.
There is a lobby bar that plays a lot of loud music during Friday and Saturday evenings, so staying on the 1st floor during weekends is not recommended. Luckily the noise didn't reach the 4th floor rooms at all.
An awful smell of cigarettes lingered in the entrance hall and the lift.
Cleanliness of the room was otherwise good, except for the cleaning of windowsill in our room that wasn't sufficient; they hadn't been wiped for ages and there was one dead and one alive bug on top of it.
The breakfast was very underwhelming, poor value for money and not recommendable at all; just an a la carte, where you can have one coffee, one juice and just one dish from the menu for 20 euros. Often at hotel breakfast you either can choose multiple items from the breakfast menu to your liking or it is a buffet, but not here.
In addition, we had been told by the receptionist that since the breakfast was not included in our booking, we could just walk to the restaurant in the morning and have it for 20 euros per person if we choose to have it. But then the waiter at restaurant told us that since we hadn't booked the breakfast earlier and we didn't first pay the 20€ to the reception before walking to the restaurant in the morning, that we should just pay 5€ for coffee, 5€ for Juice and 13€ for one dish separately. Then I explained that that we had been told differently by the receptionist and the waiter finally agreed on the coffee+juice+one dish breakfast for 20€.
The lift was very small, inconvenient and very slow. It was always occupied and you had to wait for it to arrive for a long time. Even when it was not occupied, you have to walk up and down the stairs, because it's just stuck somewhere and arrives very slowly. The cleaners should have a cleaning cart on every floor, so they don't have to occupy the lift with moving their cart during the busiest checkout hours. Or do they do this on purpose? The staff member man accompanying the cleaner was visibly laughing at us when we had been waiting for so long on the 4th floor with our bags, when they were jamming the lift with their cart. The checkout took 30 minutes because of waiting for the lift so long!
Location could haven been better; while its next to a U-Bahn station, there is a 15 minutes walk to the closest S-Bahn station and a 10 minute walk to the beginning of Kurfürstendamstraße shopping street filled with shops and cafes."
