Crowne Plaza Berlin - City Ctr Nurnberger

“Excellent hotel, staff, location and breakfast!”

The hotel is in an excellent location just half a block from the main Tauentzienstrasse/Kurfurstendamm shopping street, with the famous KaDeWe department store just a further block away. It is just a five minute walk to Wittenbergplatz U-bahn station (with Ubahn lines 1, 2 or 3) or a ten minute ca… more

The hotel is in an excellent location just half a block from the main Tauentzienstrasse/Kurfurstendamm shopping street, with the famous KaDeWe department store just a further block away. It is just a five minute walk to Wittenbergplatz U-bahn station (with Ubahn lines 1, 2 or 3) or a ten minute casual stroll over to the Zoologischer Garten main train station (for regional trains, S-bahn trains, U-bahn line 1 or bus). In all, it is a great base and quite a ‘transport hub’. We got a great deal on the room by booking directly through the hotel’s own website. There we found an advance rate, which included the full cooked breakfast for two (more later), for around 100 Euros per night. A superb deal for a hotel of this calibre. On arrival, we were given a room on ‘quiet floor 5’, even though we only paid for a standard room. Room 552 looked out onto relatively busy Nurnberger St, but it was dead quiet, and we never heard any traffic noise at all. The room was a reasonable size for our week’s stay, although the bathroom is quite small and ‘l-shaped’. The room had a small closed with only eight hangers between us; we could have done with more. Inside the closet was a free-to-use safe, one drawer, a couple of shelves, iron and board, and one dressing gown/slippers pack. The main room had a soft ‘bench’ for cases/bags, and a unit with a large widescreen TV. Unfortunately, try as we might, we could only find a few channels in German – none in English – despite what the TV guide and settings said. Still, we were not there to watch TV! There was a kettle provided with cups and spoons, and a few sachets of coffee and tea. A nice working desk gave plenty of space, including two drawers, a desktop lamp and a good mini fridge, which only had room for three full sized bottles of pop, a carton of milk and a few additional bits, but did a good job of chilling the drinks. It had a desk chair in front. There was an additional comfortable chaise for sitting. The king sized bed had two separate duvets (which we liked) and two pillows each, although there was an additional pillow menu if needed. The bed was very comfortable, and had bedside tables with lights on each side. The room also had good air conditioning. The bathroom had a walk-in shower to one side, but water did easily escape onto the bathroom floor itself, which needed drying off each time. The water pressure in the shower was only moderate (unlike the sink tap, which blasted out water at high pressure). In the shower was a dispenser for liquid soap/shower gel. There was good shelf space around the sink, and two dispensers (one liquid soap and one hand/body lotion) were provided, together with two glasses for toothbrushes, etc. There was a hair dryer, shaving mirror, small bin and tissues, plus toilet with sufficient toilet rolls. The bathroom came complete with the typical array of two larger towels, two hand towels plus a floor mat. The most annoying thing about the bathroom was that the door didn’t close with a normal handle/latch. Instead it had a door roller kind of catch that needed quite some force (and a loud bang) to close. Not ideal if using the facilities when your partner is asleep – and you could also hear this banging of bathroom doors from adjoining rooms. Perhaps this is something the hotel really needs to give thought to changing? We liked the ‘green scheme’ that the hotel runs where you can choose to put out a green sign each evening to indicate that you didn’t need the room cleaned or towels changed the next day. Apparently, this awarded you some points or a drink at the bar, but whilst we did adopt the philosophy most days, we didn’t check to see what we had accrued in exchange. Every four days, or so, the room will be cleaned regardless of if you choose to be green, apparently. Breakfast was brilliant! We really recommend you try and get a rate that includes the breakfast, because it was a full ‘holiday spread’ rather than just a ‘continental selection’ that you get in many other hotels. It took place in a large, bright room that included seats outside, if you desired. There were multiple juices, water, tea, coffee, a large range of yogurts, fruits, cereals, breads, pastries and croissants. There was a full hot selection, including things like scrambled egg, bacon, sausages, meatballs, tomatoes, beans, fried eggs, boiled eggs and omelette to order. Additionally, there were lots of cold meats and cheeses. There even seemed to be some sparkling wine at the weekends. We couldn’t fault the breakfast in the slightest. There is no evening restaurant, but the hotel does have a small bar at the front of the hotel for drinks and snack meals. There is also a pool/sauna/spa area, but we didn’t use these, so cannot comment further on their quality. The four lifts were very quick at taking guests to the seven floors. We never waited for more than 30 seconds for the next lift to arrive – something that you can appreciate after experiences (delays) in certain other hotels. Finally, every member of staff we interacted with, from the reception staff, to the breakfast staff, to the cleaners were all friendly and professional. Would we go here again? Absolutely! At the price we paid for such quality, in such a great location, I don’t think we would look anywhere else.

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