Review: Sofitel Hamburg Alter Wall

100   Recommended
Superior room
May 23, 2016 by

 Map | 1 Review | 100% Recommended
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Sofitel Hamburg Alter Wall
 Map | 1 Review | 100% Recommended

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Superior room

Liked:
Location
Service
Food
Amenities
Room
Stats
Room
Superior room

Here is my review of a 2 night stay at Sofitel Hambourg Alter Wall. An overall good stay, even if some aspects are perfectible ;-)

 

 

 

A Veuve Cliquot champagne bar at the entrance of the hotel.

Check In

Checked-in late (11:30 pm) but the lobby was still busy. The lobby is large.

 

The check-in process was pretty quick, but a bit robotic without any feeling of being a top tier member of Le club, of feeling welcome in general. No mention of room category booked/granted. A welcome letter was given with the drink voucher. I didn't ask whether an upgrade had been granted or not, to discover it seeing the room. I booked a Classic double room and received superior room which corresponds to the same room but with canal view instead of city view. In that respect, it is interesting to read the Platinum welcome letter from the GM (see picture below)

Don't you see immediately what's missing ????

You probably guessed right : the room upgrade, the most important plat benefit is not even mentioned in this letter...no comment. Technically, I don't complain about anything here because they have upgraded my room as the room with canal view is a different category/price compared to the city view, even if the rooms are the same in term of size and equipments. I will come back later on another interesting aspect of this letter :-)

Room

The superior room:

 

 

 

 

 

 

View from the windows:

 

The bathroom:

 

On the plus side for the room :

  • I really liked the modern style
  • A small sofa in addition to the bed
  • Nice lightnings
  • Sufficient space for storage
  • Large bathroom with marble (the marble style is a bit dated and corresponds to the kind of marble bathrooms we had  20-25 years ago in France), but no big deal, still very acceptable. Separate shower and bathtub. 
  • BOSE speaker but which was not working with the aux output, so only with radio. I told the front desk but it was still the same after signaling it.
  • Zero noise either from inside or outside. Just great for resting.

 

On the minus side for the room :

  • no Nespresso machine, and not even a kettle/instant coffee. In this hotel, the Nespresso machine is for the top room categories only...
  • No safety box. As for the Nespresso, the safety box seems also to be reserved to the top room categories

Come on Accor, this is Sofitel !! How on earth can you still have rooms in Sofitel, your top brand, without a coffee machine and a safety box ???

  • as too often in Germany/Austria, the double bed comes with 2 single duvet. I know it is standard practice in those countries, but I JUST HATE THAT  ;-)

I said above I wanted to come back on another aspect of the GM welcome letter : the line VIP treatment : " a small gesture is waiting for you in the room. Bonne degustation". Close to the desk, there was a little drawer which was 2/3 open and with a half bottle of red wine in. The fact it was a half-bottle, the way it was displayed in this 2/3 open drawer, the letter mentioning "Bonne degustation" and VIP treatment immediately made me think, this is it :-)) And I already had some full bottle of wine in some Accor hotels as Plat VIP treatment and one very recent Trip Advisor review on this hotel was even mentioning a half bottle of champagne as a Plat gift !!! But you probably also guess where I'm going...I discovered at check-out a €22 charge on my statement for this half-bottle of wine and I was told this was part of mini-bar. And so what was the VIP Treatment/ gesture for which the GM wishes you "Bonne degustation"? "oh, those were the 2 small (150 ml) bottles of Apple juice you had on the desk". So, now you know that at Sofitel Hamburg, the VIP platinum treatment consists in 2 small bottles of Apple juice which should cost them €0.5 each. Laughable no ? So Starflyergold had his VIP soap bar story at this hotel, and I had my apple juice and my €22 charge. Bonne dégustation les amis !!

Dining

The bar has a pretty nice outside seating area along the canal. Very pleasant. The drink voucher is valid for almost everything, which is a big plus. I had dinner at the restaurant. Was hit and miss. A bit overpriced as often in Sofitel restaurant but why not if the quality is here ? I took their asparagus menu, but I had to send the plate back because a good half of the fish piece was uncooked. The staff acted in a good way of course replacing the dish and they kindly offered me a 30% discount on the bill, but the whole thing took about 2hrs (for an appetizer and a main course).

 

 

 

There is a very nice library with comfortable armchairs and sofas. Why don't they use this place or part of it to make a Club Millesime ?

Overall

Overall, I had a very good stay despite the little (annoying) things I have mentioned above and I recommend this hotel and would go back without hesitation. But, please Accor, work on those little details (the competition is everywhere around you).

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