Excelsior Hotel Ernst — Hotel in Cologne

I feel like my review will just blend in with all of the other amazing reviews but I have to comment. The place was a super big surprise to us from the second we pulled up. For some reason, we expected only a half decent place but these guys went above and beyond the second we walked in. We were immediately greeted by the valet gentleman who wouldn't allow me to lift my own bag (So nice!) and the gentleman that checked us in was amazing as well. Took the time to give us a map and make some recommendations right away and he was so happy to do it! I also had a package mailed here and they had it up front waiting for me. The hotel is extremely beautiful, a flower shop right in the lobby! The elevator is authentic for it's time, and the room was outstanding! Gorgeous set up, clean and spacious bathroom, even gave us an extra towel! (Throughout our stay in Germany, the towels were hard to come by it seemed, so we were so happy). Bottled water by our bed both nights, juice in the morning available to us in our room. My husband, who is a grump and hard to impress, was saying "wow" repeatedly as he walked throughout the room. This is a huge accomplishment! The view was just outstanding. Koln is an interesting town, sort of a busy place and known for the night life and young crowd, so it can be kind of crazy. This hotel sat right across from the Cathedral and right by the train station. The restaurants located in the hotel are SUPER Fancy, we ate at the Japanese (?) Place on the lower level and were also wowed there. But perhaps even our most exciting recommendation, given by the amazing Italian bellman, was a darling Italian place a block away. Again, we spent the big dough at the hotel restaurant and were not disappointed but truly appreciated the bellman's genuine recommendation at another great place. We associated our wonderful experience there all to this bellman. I wish I would have got his name, he is a good part of why we just adored our stay. (Older gent, from Italy, thin and distinguished). Then, unbeknownst to us, there was the major Cologne Marathon taking place RIGHT in front of the hotel the morning we had to check out. The finish line was a block away from the hotel. This hotel handled the chaos LIKE A CHAMP. With our valet and our bags and all of the comotion from the marathon, we were not inconvenienced AT ALL. We had turn down service, anytime we were in the lobby wandering around, the staff was AMAZING! Like, seriously guys, a smile and genuine willing to help from EVERYONE we ran into there... We left feeling super sad because we can NOT find that service in America. We just can't. Not that authentic and genuine in the good ol' USA. We traveled all through Germany and this hotel is THE reason why we enjoyed Koln so much. I want to sincerely thank this hotel. I didn't think a simple two night stay somewhere would make all...

Attracted by the 5-star sign and ideal setting next to the Dom, we headed to The Excelsior. Equally appealing Booking.com-pictures of beautifully appointed suites, I decided to go for the 950 eur / night splurge. ||I have to say that I deeply regretted this as the hotel fails to live up to any modern-day expectation: it seems stuck at 2 decades ago and hasn’t seen maintenance since. ||First the room. On booking.com - it displays 10 pictures of the suite. The first 6 show a beautiful and modern suite. But the last 4 show an old-fashioned, tacky and worn-out room.|I have to admit: I didn’t see the last 4 when I booked. So maybe technically the hotel could say “I told you so”. But I find this practice utterly misleading and potentially even unlawful. And yes - we got the worn-out one. ||And worn-out it was, not just by the looks of the stained and bleak carpet. The rain shower in the bathroom didn’t work so I had to hold the handshower all the time. In the morning I found out why: the rain shower needs a certain amount of water pressure for the switch lever to work and apparently I was unlucky that evening. Maybe the water pressure drops if too many people shower at the same time? Oh yeah - the drain cap was loose, the fireplace didn’t work and towel heater was broken too - all small details maybe but at a certain point you start noticing everything. I informed the reception about it but since it was 11 pm I went to bed. ||Furthermore - I didn’t like that the hotel still had old-fashioned roomkeys. A security risk for sure as these keys can be easily copied by anyone. In addition, the door of the room didn’t close properly. I wanted to go to the gym at 8 am but my teenage daughter was still sleeping… I had to choose between locking her up from the outside (which would be dramatic in case of fire) or leaving the door wide open from the outside. I chose to stay in the room… if this hotel would have keycards it wouldn’t have been an issue.||Silver lining: I didn’t miss much by not going to the gym in the morning. I checked it out very briefly: it was cramped. As with so many hotels I have to say.||Anyway - it wasn’t all bad of course. The morning breakfast and service at the nicely decorated Stube restaurant was absolutely perfect. And the staff highly attentive. And the location great. But I will return only to this hotel after a huge makeover. I give it 2 stars, similar to the in-room experience and for the fact it’s ridiculously overpriced compared to...

This hotel is amazing from every perspective. My wife, daughter and I had a two night stay. We knew that the Dom was right outside the train station where we arrived, and we knew that the hotel was right across from the Dom. The experience of exiting the train station to see the Dom looming over us was amazing; the reality of just how close the hotel is to the Dom was thrilling.||We booked a Cathedral View Suite. We were in room 301 which had a large sitting room with a sofa bed (very comfortable), several chairs, a small table, a small couch facing the Cathedral, and a lot of room. The bedroom was in a separate room with a door. The bathroom and closet areas were large though only one sink and no bathtub (not an issue for us). The king sized bed was extremely comfortable. The room and entire hotel were in great condition. The best part was three small balconies with large doors; we spent a lot of time out there just looking up at the impressive structure right outside the window. They obviously keep the hotel up very nicely. We saw them replacing carpet on the steps as well as a broken window on the outside of the hotel.||We ate breakfast each morning in the restaurant. The food was very good, not great, but very good. We got pancakes, French toast (so-so) and an omelette (should have asked for it not to be 'runny' eggs). The service was very good.||We had drinks in the bar one night. The bartender was a real bartender, not a drink slinger. It is a high class bar and our cocktails were amazing.||I didn't look at the gym (if there is one).||The location cannot be beat IMO. The walk from the station is about a block, the Cathedral is right across the street, and there is a beer hall next door that serves good German food in a casual environment.||The staff was great at every turn. We couldn't have asked for better service. ||This hotel was one of the highlights of our trip to Cologne, along with visiting the Christmas markets. The view was perhaps the best we have had (except for on the Grand Canal in Venice) in all of...