Originally Posted by fransknorge

Introduction I wanted to try this hotel, which opened very recently (End of February) in Cologne. The hotel is located into a former water reservoir, completely renovated inside. The architecture is very distinct and inside it shows: all rooms are shaped like a pie. The lobby is very bizarre and looks like a mini-Moria: lots of columns everywhere and a bit maze like. The lobby is quite uninviting, they tried to make it better by separating areas on the outside of the circle with hard wood floor and furnitures but it does not work. There is a lounge but it is not an Executive Lounge, just a place where one can get a coffee. Check In Check-in was quick, nothing special to say. I was upgraded to a King Deluxe Aqua room from a Queen Standard Aqua room. The key to the rooms are in wood. Room The room was big enough, however I was not impressed. The room is not very functional depending on your needs. The positives were the comfortable bed and the very nice shower and bathroom. For once the sink was not stupidly designed and functionable, both in depth and with a faucet located properly.The negatives are quite significant for me:- there are no plugs near the desk, the plug are near the bed in some sort of cavity on the side designed to put a phone to charge. But the cavity is too small for anything else than a phone (no laptop, no tablet) and even with a laptop, the charger overflow on the bed. This is really badly design- the desk is OK but the chair is not: too low, too deep. Completely impossible to use while working at the desk. Since there is no plug at the desk, impossible to work in those rooms. - Quite dark, not enough lights. Service Service was very hit and miss. The hotel is new but so is the staff and I wonder about their experience. In general the service was proportionnal with the age of the staff. At breakfast they were good, the desk staff on the other hand was really inexperienced and seemed overwhelmed with nothing: I order a pillow from the pillow menu and this turns into a mini drama (not bringing it within one hour, when they do it is the wrong type, then turns out they do not have the one I request, ...), the check-out was completely wrong (wanted to charge me for breakfast). Dining The breakfast was good and is one of the hotel strong point, with a buffet slightly more extended than what I would expect for such an hotel in Germany. They do not have eggs on order though and the coffee is just from some standard machine. But the pastries were good, they make some bowls (bircher musli, some spinach and egg, chia pudding, bread pudding).I did not try neither dinner nor room service. The room service menu is interesting but I am afraid the portions are small, based on the description. Location Location is good for Cologne, near the Poststrasse U-Bahn station. Easy access from the Bahnoff (3 U-Bahn station on line 16 or 18), walking distance to the Schokolade Museum and Neumarkt or Heumarkt. Overall The hotel could be a good choice depending on your needs but I am personally not convinced. For a cheap price and if no need to work this would be good enough, otherwise I would choose an alternative.

Originally Posted by Delectatio

Thanks for the review. I actually cancelled my booking a few weeks ago after receiving the exact same upgrade (in fact a queen aqua standard room was the exact same price as the 'upgraded' king aqua deluxe for my dates), even though many other room types were available (and they didn't want to give me anything better).
I found this very poor for a hotel that just opened, being almost empty. I might give them another try in the near future but would cancel for the same reason if the hotel is almost empty again (I think they can do better for a Diamond member). I am always treated nicely at the Hilton Cologne so that would be my backup plan.

Originally Posted by Delectatio

I actually cancelled my booking a few weeks ago after receiving the exact same upgrade (in fact a queen aqua standard room was the exact same price as the 'upgraded' king aqua deluxe for my dates).

Originally Posted by arlflyer

Interesting perspective. In weeks of staying at German Hilton properties as a Diamond member (including Hilton Cologne), I don't think I've ever received an upgrade of significance - usually just a standard room on a "special floor" with a robe in the closet. Anecdotally via FT, I'd always heard that this was just standard for the region - that upgrades weren't common.

Originally Posted by :D!

If they were the same price why didn't you book the king, looks like the next category is called a suite so they would have had to move you to one of those or pretend no upgrade was possible

Originally Posted by Delectatio

But I passed the stage of paying premium price for a hotel just because it has a Hilton sign above the entrance door and receive nothing for my loyalty except a free bottle of water (free in many 3* hotels), a free breakfast (many very decent non-chain hotels give this for free when you book direct on their website) and an upgrade that's not a real upgrade (or a room that costs 5€ per night more...)