Hotel Telegraphenamt — Hotel in Berlin

We stayed 2 nights at the Telegraphenamt. Our room had a view onto the Fernsehturm – stunning view by night. Overall, a 4 star stay. My review in detail see below with a noteworthy comment regarding food for babies and pricing.

#1 Value for money Yes it’s pricy and to me and my wife this price was not met by the level of service and customer centricity. Location wise the hotel is absolutely sublime.

#2 Service The service was – in my opinion – stereotypical Berlin-quality. The staff barely smiled, had good punchlines, were dedicated to their task, and were very easy to chat to and interact with.

Fun fact: They give babies/kids as a gift. It’s a teddy bear wearing a T-shirt lettering Telegraphenamt.

This is where I deducted the 1 star: We had a used underwear in our wardrobe and let the reception know. It took us to attempts to have the management make up reasonable compensation. They brought a bottle of sparkling wine in the middle of the day. I find it quite funny that they think we would do day-drinking with a little daughter with us. Well, Berlin I reckon. Also the service staff in the restaurant was nice and friendly but not capable of delivering all orders at the same time. Also they just straight up lied about the amount of time it still takes to have the food at our table.

#3 Restaurant Decent, nothing fancy. Quality is good and expectable for the prices they ask. Attention for food for babies: We don’t serve our sub 1-year-old daughter food with salt. The kitchen had only carrots as a non-already prepared veggie without salt. Not even a simple potato was available. That to me was a little unexpected for this level of hotel.

#4 Architecture and interior It’s all so well thought through, executed, and modernised. Especially the little details throughout the venue and room made me smile. Check the photos for details. One example: They place a little card next to the telephone in the room. This card is a reminiscence to the old capsule pipelines of the...

This hotel just doesn't work. ||We chose it for its great location and interesting history, but its desire to be cool sacrifices any real comfort. Almost everything is dark and is trying to be what? Mysterious? Not sure. This includes the lobby, making check in... interesting. The only area that's bright (during the day) is the beautiful restaurant. I think that might be the reason there are so many photos of it in the other reviews. ||We booked a suite that included 2 small balconies with a fantastic view of the TV Tower. But even with the large windows open, the room was dark. So dark in fact, I had to put on makeup in the teeny room for the toilet. Oh, and about that toilet room - it was inches from the head of the bed. Another design decision that didn't take into account how people actually live. ||But what about the electric lights? Surely they were bright enough to put on makeup? Nope. The bulbs were a glowy, antique yellow, used to evoke a time gone by. I guess a time when lights weren't very bright? These bulbs were controlled by odd steampunk switches that never really worked. ||Speaking of never working, may I introduce you to the air conditioning? It was a warm, not hot, few days in Berlin, so we hoped opening the windows would be enough. But the combination of the heavy comforter (we asked for a lighter one and were told there was only that one kind) and the heat rising to the top floor made the room very hot at night. Despite being incredibly loud, the A/C never worked. Hot air poured out. A visit from maintenance didn't change anything. We were told that the units were "temperamental." Not what you want to hear when you're staying several days. ||There are so many lovely hotels in Berlin. We've been before and have been very happy. Don't spend the night here. Why not have a drink in the moody bar? Or dinner in the unique and lovely restaurant? Just don't stay here. You won't...

Air conditioning doesn’t work and the management of the hotel is reluctant to offer a solution that can fix that. The original room was dirty when we first checked in and we had to change it. The problems remain and we have a long stay. I don’t recommend this hotel.

UPDATE: the manager approached us and was very kind and understanding, genuinely trying to help. We were moved from the 6th floor to the 3rd in the room of the same category. The rooms of higher category were discussed but were not available as the hotel was fully booked on the weekend. The AC was finally working at the new room. Apparently, despite the great views of the upper floors, the air conditioning is not working properly on the 6th and 7th floors in some rooms (we tried two rooms there). The lower floor didn’t have the same unobstructed view, but the ceiling was higher and the room felt more spacious.

Overall, after switching into the third room after two nights, the AC issue has been resolved. We were also offered a free breakfast for the duration of our stay as a gesture of good will.

I’ve updated the original 1-star rating to 3 stars as many issues could have been avoided on the first place. Not only the AC, but the leaking water from the shower, not working soap bottles in all three rooms we’ve tried. And I whisked the communication was more clear from the start as we were told that the technician will check the AC and we’re waiting for that but it turned out that the tech can’t fix it and that was the fault of the building. It could have been resolved more quickly and without the stress. Thank you though for trying to help us with out stay! We have 4 more nights to go.

UPDATE 2: the hotel went above and beyond to make up for the initial issues and make...