Hotel Alsterblick, Hamburg **
Stayed: June 2018
The room was booked via HRS for two nights - about 1/2 hour after booking, I received an email from the hotel (in German) to the effect that „as I had been informed on the booking platform, there was some construction going on at the hotel, but only between 7AM and 5PM“. Surprised, I re-checked HRS and was able to confirm that no such notice had been posted in hotel entry there.
The entire hotel is encased in scaffolding - both on the street side as well as in the back. The front is so closed up you feel like you‘re walking into a cave.
My room, No. 6, was on the „ground“ floor (this is several steps up from the street) in the back. It was a very small room, with a tiny closet and an even tinier bathroom. The bed was comfortable, so I slept well, but luckily I spent most of my time outside the room.
The bathroom was a tiny thing off the side, with no door to keep any smells out of the sleeping area. No A/C was available, by the way, but this wasn‘t much of a problem despite high temperatures outside during the day.
The sink in the bathroom was likely the smallest sink I have seen in my life, even smaller than the tiny thing we have in the guest toilet in our house. Using it was a bit of a challenge. Even more of a challenge was the toilet, as the TP holder had been positioned (unnecessarily) exactly in knee height, which made straight sitting on it impossible. The ultimately rediculous instrument was the shower. It was a corner thing (see picture) flattened at the front, which left a triangle of about 70x70cm to stand in. The rather large mixing battery stuck straight in my back, so „adjusting“ the handle both in water quantity and temperature was unavoidable. To make matters worse, the soap dispenser had - for whatever bizarre reason - been mounted exactly in head height… anyone with more than 20kg too much on their ribs will not be taking a shower here.
Also, while the entire back of the room was taken up by ceiling-high windows, with a nice view into the rather large park behind the building (and the not-so-nice scaffolding attached to it) it also meant that you absolutely needed to let down the inside window covering to prevent prying eyes from watching you.
Enough complaining about the room, especially because I was told that it would be completely rebuilt, taking a part of the hallway leading to it to create a larger double room.
Breakfast was quite nice with yoghurt, fruit, cereal, rolls, meats/cheese, some hot foods, etc. Nothing missing there, except for spoons which I had to request on both mornings.
The hotel is not located close to anything relevant, unless you‘re willing to do some walking. „Downtown“ is quite some distance away - even St. Georg is a trek. I didn‘t have my car in Hamburg, so I don‘t know if they offer parking somewhere, but likely not. You‘ll probably be taking a lot of taxis if you stay here.
I‘m unable to comment on the other - probably quite a bit bigger - rooms, but they are likely as ancient looking as the one I stayed in. The door to my room was probably as old as the house (1800‘s?) - optically nice, of course, but just not very practical. I did notice while re-checking for the supposed construction warning that regular rooms were quite expensive (around 140€ per night), which I find to be too much for what you get. Yes, you are right across the (busy) street from the Alster, but so what?
The room was booked via HRS for two nights - about 1/2 hour after booking, I received an email from the hotel (in German) to the effect that „as I had been informed on the booking platform, there was some construction going on at the hotel, but only between 7AM and 5PM“. Surprised, I re-checked HRS and was able to confirm that no such notice had been posted in hotel entry there.
The entire hotel is encased in scaffolding - both on the street side as well as in the back. The front is so closed up you feel like you‘re walking into a cave.
My room, No. 6, was on the „ground“ floor (this is several steps up from the street) in the back. It was a very small room, with a tiny closet and an even tinier bathroom. The bed was comfortable, so I slept well, but luckily I spent most of my time outside the room.
The bathroom was a tiny thing off the side, with no door to keep any smells out of the sleeping area. No A/C was available, by the way, but this wasn‘t much of a problem despite high temperatures outside during the day.
The sink in the bathroom was likely the smallest sink I have seen in my life, even smaller than the tiny thing we have in the guest toilet in our house. Using it was a bit of a challenge. Even more of a challenge was the toilet, as the TP holder had been positioned (unnecessarily) exactly in knee height, which made straight sitting on it impossible. The ultimately rediculous instrument was the shower. It was a corner thing (see picture) flattened at the front, which left a triangle of about 70x70cm to stand in. The rather large mixing battery stuck straight in my back, so „adjusting“ the handle both in water quantity and temperature was unavoidable. To make matters worse, the soap dispenser had - for whatever bizarre reason - been mounted exactly in head height… anyone with more than 20kg too much on their ribs will not be taking a shower here.
Also, while the entire back of the room was taken up by ceiling-high windows, with a nice view into the rather large park behind the building (and the not-so-nice scaffolding attached to it) it also meant that you absolutely needed to let down the inside window covering to prevent prying eyes from watching you.
Enough complaining about the room, especially because I was told that it would be completely rebuilt, taking a part of the hallway leading to it to create a larger double room.
Breakfast was quite nice with yoghurt, fruit, cereal, rolls, meats/cheese, some hot foods, etc. Nothing missing there, except for spoons which I had to request on both mornings.
The hotel is not located close to anything relevant, unless you‘re willing to do some walking. „Downtown“ is quite some distance away - even St. Georg is a trek. I didn‘t have my car in Hamburg, so I don‘t know if they offer parking somewhere, but likely not. You‘ll probably be taking a lot of taxis if you stay here.
I‘m unable to comment on the other - probably quite a bit bigger - rooms, but they are likely as ancient looking as the one I stayed in. The door to my room was probably as old as the house (1800‘s?) - optically nice, of course, but just not very practical. I did notice while re-checking for the supposed construction warning that regular rooms were quite expensive (around 140€ per night), which I find to be too much for what you get. Yes, you are right across the (busy) street from the Alster, but so what?
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