موفنبيك هامبورغ

We booked into the Mövenpick Hamburg Hotel January 3-7, 2025. We had previously stayed at other Mövenpick hotels elsewhere in Europe so our frame of reference was known. The Hamburg hotel certainly does not compare with other Mövenpick hotels that we have frequented. The others have paid homage to Mövenpick roots in chocolate and ice cream, but the Hamburg franchise has no such connection. The hotel is in an old water tower; interesting but not related to Mövenpick. I have been to 159 countries and stayed at hundreds of hotels around the world. But this one was unique- and not in a positive sense. The bar does not open until 5 PM weekdays and 6 PM on Mondays. The restaurant is closed Sunday and Monday evenings. This is a major hotel in the second largest city in Germany and there is no coffee shop or restaurant open on weekends. I have never heard of a major hotel in a major city in the world where the restaurant is closed two nights in a row. My reaction as a businessman is financially the hotel cannot staff the restaurant and other positions. Moneyq talks. There are no bellmen. There is a station on the ground floor inside the sliding glass doors of the entrance with no staff. So, if someone over the age of 65 and gets out of a taxi and enters the building, they are no signs and therefore they are confronted with a daunting challenge- how to get to the unidentified lobby. The lobby is on a floor that appears to be twenty feet or more high. There is a moving escalator from the ground floor ( no elevator) that is inclined at a 35- 40 degree gradient. There is no way anyone in a wheel chair could safely get up to or down from the lobby, let alone with luggage. The ground floor and mezzanine are overly dark. There are spotlights over the reception area but the rest of the floor is dark. The toilet seat in the bathroom broke. There was no supply so we moved to another room and it was much better. I have never seen or heard of a broken toilet seat but it seems odd that a hotel does not have an extra. On the positive side, the array and quality of breakfast was impressive. I actually paid a compliment to the breakfast chef for the taste of scrambled eggs. She said the secret was the addition of cream. We enjoyed the German wine in the Cave on the mezzanine. The manager Manolo was wonderful.

Poor is not what I would expect from a Movenpick Hotel but this property was a real disappointment and spoilt our short break in Hamburg. Phone not working and when reported it was a known issue, not fixed during our stay. Not sure how a guest staying in a high room is expected to report an emergency. No way to black out the room as blind missing, again reported but not addressed. How can room be signed off for guest accommodation with a blind missing? The hotel did choose to compensate us for the issues however this really does not excuse the lack of attention to basics. That said location was good, room a great size, plumbing mostly worked as expected, nice restaurant and atmospheric bar.

Keep receipts, of everything. I paid my city tax on the second day of my stay as they had made a mistake and only took it then. No problem, I thought. On leaving they charged my friend again for city tax and she was meek enough to just pay as they insisted they were right. They then made 2 unauthorised attempts to charge her card, without saying anything, for bike rental that I had paid in cash. Thankfully the bank blocked this. Upon calling them, they agreed to refund the additional charge but just keep receipts, they are absolutely hopeless at keeping track and will try and make you pay for their errors. I can excuse a single error, but repeated errors including making unauthorised card charges demonstrate that staff here are not trained to do the job they are doing.

I stayed here for three nights at the beginning of August and paid in full ahead of the visit. The hotel is nice enough but my problems started after check-out. Following the stay, and having checked my bank account, I realised that the hotel had charged the full room rate to my bank card (which I had provided in the usual way for incidental expenses incurred during the stay). I called them and asked to speak to the accounts team and was told nobody was available and to send an email. Over a week later, I have heard nothing back and the €400+ remains charged to my account. I’ve stayed in hundreds of hotels all over the world and have never experienced this type of issue. Completely unacceptable that the charge is made in the first instance and then not rectified or addressed when raised. I would therefore absolutely not recommend this establishment.

Perfect clean room. Nice and massive building. Good and fresh breakfast. Staff is very attentive. Good sauna and pleasant facilities. Easy check in and check out. Good located in the heart of the city and next door to the famous Sternschanze.