Estrel Berlin

“Great Staff, Tough Area, Decent Conference Location”

My wife had a conference at this location and after reading the reviews, I was extremely skeptical of what kind of a hotel I would be staying in. The conference part of the experience was great. There is ample meeting space, and a lot of rooms to accommodate a huge amount of attendees. The hotel i… more

My wife had a conference at this location and after reading the reviews, I was extremely skeptical of what kind of a hotel I would be staying in. The conference part of the experience was great. There is ample meeting space, and a lot of rooms to accommodate a huge amount of attendees. The hotel itself is starting to show a little age, the bland color scheme doesn't really lend itself well, and the floors and interior just looks tired. The staff are fantastic, even the cleaning staff go out of their way to say "Hello" and I never noticed any language barrier being strictly an English-speaker. Germans are serious about their breakfast, and this hotel is no exception, there is a HUGE spread for breakfast, although going forward, I would appreciate a coffee maker in the room. Our wait staff were good at all of the hotels restaurants and most went out of their way to try to talk with us. Special shout-out for Maximillian! Acting as both the host and head waiter at the Grill, he made us feel extremely welcomed and was an extremely hard-working individual. We also bumped into him at the train station and he went out of his way to say hello and give us a "must-see" list for where we were going. Truly a genuine individual. The neighborhood is sketchy in some parts, though there is a McDonalds, Pharmacy, and Grocery store just a short walk to the south of the hotel. The Sonnenallee station is a short walk to the north, which can take a traveler downtown with extreme ease. Generally, I changed trains at Ostkreuz and ended up at Alexanderplatz, which is right in the heart of Berlin. The ride was easy and both my wife and I made the trip several times with no problems. So getting around Berlin from this location is a snap by just riding from the S-Bahn station. There is also a nearby Vietnamese restaurant (Viet Bowl), that is in an extremely questionable looking part of town, but we walked there without any difficulty or incident and really enjoyed the food at the recommendation of the staff. I used the workout facility a couple of times and they had a nice combination of free weights, weight machines, and cardio options. The was plenty of space to workout, though I never ran into much of a crowd the times I was there. Ultimately, we spent the majority of our trip at this location and would have no problems going back if fate ever finds us in Berlin.

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“Great Hotel, but Catastrophic Food + proud Cooks who have no idea how bad they are”

The Hotel is excellent and the Rooms are great, but they serve the worst Breakfast I ever had in Germany. Poor selection of everything, no fruits at all (for the price....), pastry like from wax, "sunny-side up eggs" like from wax, scrabled eggs like from plastic, sausages burned from one side, und… more

The Hotel is excellent and the Rooms are great, but they serve the worst Breakfast I ever had in Germany. Poor selection of everything, no fruits at all (for the price....), pastry like from wax, "sunny-side up eggs" like from wax, scrabled eggs like from plastic, sausages burned from one side, undercooked from the other. Bacon had the same diagnose.. I have complained @ main Breakfast Chef, he sincerely had no idea what was wrong with the food = no cooking skills at all. Similar was the dinner.. undercooked meat, mushy overgrilled vegetables not edible at all. We complained, but again no response so we had to eat at McDonalds .. Terrible Food

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