Brilliant Apartments GmbH — Hotel in Berlin

We were originally going to use reward points to stay at one of the large, brand-name hotels in the center of Berlin (Mitte), but got priced out (pointed out?) when a 3rd family member wanted to join. In the meantime I read about the Prenzlauer Berg neighborhood and decided it was worth a short subway ride to stay at a trendy/artsy neighborhood. Well this location did not disappoint; It's on Oderberger Strasse, maybe half a block from the Mauerpark, where you can see remnants of the wall, and the street surrounding the apartments are all interesting restaurants. It's a 10 minute walk to the Eberswalde Strasse subway station, which will take you all over Berlin. ||The notion of taking an apartment over a hotel is that for about the same cost or less as two hotel rooms, you can get an apartment which now comes with all these amenities. As well, many apartments (ours was one) have a washing machine which allows one to pack much less clothing; just do laundry partway through your stay.||OK, the location is good, what about the apartment itself? We took one of the Superior two bedroom apartments, it has two bedrooms, 1 bath with shower, 1 bath with sink and toilet only, a kitchen with room for 6 at the dining table. To us, the apartment mirrored the neighborhood with a mix of modern (kitchen and bath) with the old (the floor, the wallpaper, the furniture). The apartment is perfectly comfortable, helping us get over jet lag from the West Coast of the USA in perhaps 3-4 days. The kitchen has a refrigerator, a 2 burner induction stove, oven, coffee makers, hot water pot, and dishwasher. No microwave oven (in any of the units, apparently), but one can easily make do.||If you take a front unit, you may get street noise in the nighttime with the restaurants, plus early morning trash pickup. You have to decide if being able to people watch on the street is worth the extra noise. It won't bother New York City residents, for example. You can tell the front units by their number beginning with a V. The back units begin with an H. The back units will have a view of another building and a courtyard. We liked our front unit, if nothing else you can amuse yourself by watching the fire engines back into their garage through very narrow openings. I believe none of the units have air conditioning/cooling capability (like most of Europe). This is something to note if visiting during the summer, and you are bothered by...

The apartment was lovely but not the experience. First, they provided no reccomendations for Berlin. Second, my daughter arrived first and asked to be contacted when the room was ready. They contacted me instead while traveling and she slept in the park while waiting for me since I didn't get the email , I emailed them about this with no response.|Finally, the tub shower is very dangerous in configuration. I fell once and told them, they provided a piece of "rug slippage material?", then fell again. I wasn't seriously hurt but could have been and had a long trip planned . I did go to the hospital. They didn't seem too concerned, partly blamed me, and were worried about the shower curtain that had fallen. While this was a fluke or partly on me that it happened twice, a bath mat should have been provided immediately, The shower head is not at the end of the tub leaving minimal flat surface. They provided a mat after the second fall but by then I wouldn't set foot in the tub! , I also never heard from them after I emailed about this. Even in a self service apartment, there should be some service or concern, Wouldn't stay...

The apartments were in great shape and conveniently located near trams, restaurants, and a big park. Staff was friendly and responsive with detailed instructions given via email for how to check in. All the amenities were there including a dishwasher, washer, and drying rack. The apartment was quiet despite being next to a bustling street. There’s an elevator to get to the top floors which is nice since our luggage was heavy. They let us store our suitcases after checkout while we squeezed in some more sightseeing before leaving. Excellent hot water and water pressure in the shower.

My one suggestion for improvement would be to install a curved shower curtain bar to give some more space.

We would definitely stay here again and will suggest brilliant apartments to our...