HOTEL ZOO BERLIN — Hotel in Berlin

Travel warning!

On 19th of February, my wife and I arrived at Hotel Zoo Berlin with a confirmed order made through an online website,

We arrived in the hotel before noon and checked in with the confirmation voucher we received from the website, paid 400euro deposit for 4 nights, and received a room according to the order,

On 20th of February, we arrived back to the hotel from a long day of traveling just to discover that our room is locked.

When I went down to the reception to understand what is the problem, the receptionist told me that the front desk manager told her to lock me out of my room, and if I want to stay I need to pay 300euros for the coming night and 300euros for the previous night.

I told her that this is not the order I made and I do not wish to pay 300euros per night and if this is the case, I would like to take my things and move to another hotel.

Moreover, I told her that if I go online at that time I could get the room for half the price that she wants to charge me now.

She told me that the instructions she has are not to open the room for me unless I pay the 300euros for the previous night, or that I can stay in that room, give a deposit for 600euros as a guaranty with my credit card until I would speak with the front desk manager the following day.

As I had no choice, I stayed in the hotel and gave a deposit with my credit card.

On January 21st, I went to speak with the front desk manager and told him that I checked in according to the reservation I held in hand and he can’t charge me retroactively on a price that we didn’t agree upon.

He told me that there was a mistake with the booking and the confirmation and this is not the correct price, while I am showing him online that my reservation is still online and valid, and not only that, my credit card was charged with the money on this reservation with the website!

I told him that I would complain to my credit card company to cancel the charge made without my consent. He replied me with all of the rudeness in the world that the hotel is their own property and they can charge how much money they want while I am showing him online on other websites that if I now make a reservation I pay half of what he demands me to pay.

If this is not a fraud or a scam or any other name you want to call it I don’t know what is.

Beware when you make a reservation with this hotel, who knows how much you going to...

We stayed here several times for business, booking mutiple rooms from normal rooms to suites and even the whole event location at the rooftop. At this price point and the ambition that a hotel like this should have, the service was just horrible. For example: Every time we wanted to order drinks while waiting in the lobby, it took ages for someone to show up to take our order (mostly we asked some other staff to call someone), and ages for the order to be served. Standard rooms vary in size, from just acceptable to way too small. The suites are better, but for the price point still small, and the bathroom is not even separated. Be careful: Especially during exhibition time, this hotel hosts evening events very often at the hotel bar which is connected to the lobby. All the event guests will be waiting in the lobby, making it crazy crowded, which you still have to pass as a hotel guest to enter the elevators. So that is super annoying, especially when they have black tie events and you walk by in casual dress wanting to relax, which can be a bit embarrassing to some people. Moreover, even if you are a hotel guest, they will sometimes not let you into the hotel bar if not dressed properly. Obviously this hotel bar is quite hip, and the hotel seems to be prioritizing outside visitors to hotel guests. This is extremely unprofessional and a short-sighted business move. Go to one of the hotels of the big luxury chains, and the staff will be trained way more professional. You can really feel that this is a privately owned hotel that doesn't seem to invest much in staff training. On the good side, the location of the hotel is very central and convenient. The design is pretty cool, and the rooftop bar is nice as well. However for the price you are paying for everything from rooms to drinks to food, it is a real...

The hotel looks fab, modern but classy with old school vibes. The lady who checked us in was very nice. But as a person who doesn't use lifts due to claustrophobia it was frustrating that they had no public access stairs, and I had to ask reception every time I got back to let me through a staff door so I could walk up to my room. I could walk down without needing staff to open a door though. If it was busy at reception it was frustrating when after a long day exploring the city I had to wait to be granted access to my room in this way. Also when I tried to ask other staff to let me access the stairs who were not on reception, due to the long wait while reception dealt with other customers checking in, they told me I couldn't use the stairs and had to use the lift. Mid weekday nights it was fine but on a Friday the noise from the bar club was deeply annoying. A constant thumping baseline that made sleep difficult. I think you are a hotel or a club, not both. This is a hotel that seems to value style over substance in many ways. While there are nice touches to the place it is not enough to make it a hotel that feels like it really cares and I would never choose to stay again, and I fully intend to be in Berlin again just never here. Once...