Sonata City Hotel

Walking distance from the train station so very conveniently located and not too far to drag our luggage. It was quirky in that there were no keys you had to input your last name into a kiosk and then it gave you a code for the front door and a different one for your room. We were on the fourth floor. No elevator and a curved staircase. No front desk. Breakfast not included but lots of restaurants and ATM in walking distance. Very clean. Good water pressure in shower. Great view from our window.

The reality was not at all what was advertised online. I arrived at the hotel and the reception area was quite run down and was not the actual location of my room. There was not a hotel but rather a boarding house self-entry building four blocks away.

Centrally located which was great for getting to all the tourist places but so noisy as everyone makes they’re way around. A lot of street dwellers contribute to this, by playing loud music! This place is self check in, so if your not confident with your IT skills and prefer to engage with a human, this may not be the place for you. There’s no early check in or bag drop, we had to use the lockers at the station. There’s no lift, so our room on top floor was an endurance with a 20kg bag. Within the building it was noisy, from other residents, to the point I had to shout to turn the volume down in the TV! The room was comfy and beds cosy. The fridge and coffee facilities great. The shower cubicle was tiny and whilst trying to close the bifolding doors, I knocked the hot water tap to full blast and then managed to poach my skin! I’m not a big person either. There was a guy working in a small room on the ground floor, helping if he was there, but there is no 24 hour reception.

The place was pretty neat to live in. The room was mostly clean, the bed was also decent. Most of the sights are located not too far from the hotel. There are also many restaurants in the vicinity. The view from our room was pretty average for a city.

From the moment we set foot on the property we got a bad vibe. We were checked in on the street. Made to pay before we got to our rooms. There was a reason for that as had we got to the rooms we would not have paid. £360 per night for what I can only describe as a cupboard. We’d booked a twin room. We got a tiny box room with a double bed. Not ideal for two blokes. We put our suitcases in the room then there was no room for us to move around. It was filthy. We even found an old sock by the curtains. Our room was situated on the main road so the traffic noise was hideous. We had to open the window as there’s no air conditioning. We complained but it fell on deaf ears. Our friends next door had a toilet that didn’t flush and the bathroom door was hanging off. Overall a dreadful experience which I wouldn’t recommend to anyone.

I stayed with a partner during a weekend in the easter holidays. The "automatic check in" allows for you to automatically check in after 3pm. However, i would recommend not trying that before 3:30pm because of the queue that formed in front of smarty hotel. The device is a bit infuriating to use, but after you check in once, it works like a charm. Location: 5/5 The hotel is 2 minutes away from the trainstation and the "Kölner Dom", an incredible spot in the heart of the city. You can go in many directions and see different districts of the city by foot, as the location is so central. Service: 5/5 The service staff in this establishment is just the best. They happily fixed all th etiny problems we had in our time of staying in the hotel. There is an service checkpoint on the 1st floor, which you can take advantage of 24/7, and that's not an understatement. I went there at 3am because i couldn't sleep (external noise problems) and the great night guard guy at the service checkpoint gave me two sets of oropax and sleepmasks for free. During daytime, there is a really friendly lady who hired a mechanic because something in our room wasn't fixed in place (not relevant for security). the people who work there really want you to have a nice stay. Rooms: 2/5 sadly, this is the part where i have to stop being so positive. The room had no storage room and it was incredibly narrow. The beds are on top of each other. Also, the matresses as well as the sheets were relatively unpleasant for me and my partner. There was one chair in a room for two people. Additionally, the tablet which is supposed to be your possible connection to the service point, didnt work for us. It was just broken. there was a balcony that had a view towards the back of several houses, which was uninteresting and the fire ladder to our room hadn't been fully built yet. Also the temperature of the showering water fluctuated intensely. that's why I'm coming to the conclusion that this hotel ist best at being what it wants to be. A cheap bed for the night next to a toilet and shower, in the middle of the city. you shouldn't spend your days there, and you should definitely try some things during the night as well and primarily use the hotel as a home base, where you can rest and refresh. If you do that, the hotel ist phenomenal.