east Hotel Hamburg — Hotel in Hamburg

Nice hotel - but beware the bouncer!

This is a nice and well-designed hotel - and yet staying there was also one of the worst hotel experiences I've ever had, thanks to a brazenly rude bouncer who told us into our faces he thinks we might not be actual hotel guests.

The whole thing happened on our first of three nights on which we also had dinner at the hotel restaurant. After checking in in the afternoon and exploring the neighborhood a little, my husband and I came back to the hotel for our restaurant reservation. All of a sudden there was Peter W., the bouncer, and asked if we were hotel guests. We said yes and went to dinner. After dinner and a round of cocktails at the bar, we decided to get some ice cream from a little shop around the corner. On our way out, the bouncer who earlier asked us if we were guests clearly saw us. We came back with our ice cream just a few minutes later, and the bouncer stopped us and said we couldn't go inside. We told him we were hotel guests (which of course he very well knew by this point), and he said in this case we would have to go left towards the elevators to the rooms (as opposed to straight ahead where the hotel reception and bar are).

This seemed rather rude to us, and I asked him why he said that given he must have been aware we were hotel guests. To which he responded: "I JUST HAVE THE FEELING YOU AREN'T REALLY GUESTS HERE." My husband and I were stunned. I asked him what would make him think such a thing. He just repeated that he had this "FEELING".

This was definitely the first time in my life someone working at the hotel I'm staying told me he suspected I wasn't a real guest. I can really only speculate what made the bouncer treat us that way. My husband and I weren't drunk or acting in any kind of manner that would make us appear to be troublemakers, and we were wearing totally normal and location-appropriate clothes.

Either way, we went straight to the reception desk and complained about the bouncer. The person there was nice and said she was very sorry we were being treated this way, and she indicated she would speak to the bouncer's boss who would come by later that night (apparently the bouncers are working for an external security company the hotel hired). From the reception desk we went back to the bouncer and told him we wanted to let him know that we just complained about him. He basically just shrugged and indicated he couldn't care less.

The next morning, I asked reception through the chat function on a tablet in our room if there are any news regarding my complaint from the night before. They responded I could come down and talk to the manager. When I did that, the manager was very apologetic, nice and professional, and her apology seemed sincere. I asked her how the hotel would do right by us after this episode, and she said she would look into it. I told her that considering the gravity of the incident I would expect to not pay anything for our stay at the hotel - or be upgraded to a suite.

The resolution they came up with was a more modest upgrade to a higher category (a bigger room with whirlpool), also the manager sent up some chocolates with a written apology for the "not entirely perfect start" to our stay. The hotel bill remained unchanged.

I guess people can have different opinions whether the hotel did enough. In my opinion it wasn't, and as nice and apologetic as the manager was, I still left the hotel with a very bad taste in my mouth and have a hard time imagining coming back. I have never received such a shabby treatment in a hotel, and I think the management should have done more to make up for it. What they offered to us presumably cost them next to nothing. Also, they only offered something after I explicitly asked for some kind of compensation. Until then it was just apologies, so I think they should have been much more proactive from the moment I first complained.

This was definitely a hotel stay to remember - in a very bad way.

UPDATE: The Guest Relations Manager who initially showed concern here ultimately failed...

This is a nice and well-designed hotel - and yet staying there was also one of the worst hotel experiences I've ever had, thanks to a brazenly rude bouncer who told us into our faces he thinks we might not be actual hotel guests.||The whole thing happened on our first of three nights on which we also had dinner at the hotel restaurant. After checking in in the afternoon and exploring the neighborhood a little, my husband and I came back to the hotel for our restaurant reservation. All of a sudden there was Peter W., the bouncer, and asked if we were hotel guests. We said yes and went to dinner. After dinner and a round of cocktails at the bar, we decided to get some ice cream from a little shop around the corner. On our way out, the bouncer who earlier asked us if we were guests clearly saw us. We came back with our ice cream just a few minutes later, and the bouncer stopped us and said we couldn't go inside. We told him we were hotel guests (which of course he very well knew by this point), and he said in this case we would have to go left towards the elevators to the rooms (as opposed to straight ahead where the hotel reception and bar are).||This seemed rather rude to us, and I asked him why he said that given he must have been aware we were hotel guests. To which he responded: "I JUST HAVE THE FEELING YOU AREN'T REALLY GUESTS HERE." My husband and I were stunned. I asked him what would make him think such a thing. He just repeated that he had this "FEELING".||This was definitely the first time in my life someone working at the hotel I'm staying told me he suspected I wasn't a real guest. I can really only speculate what made the bouncer treat us that way. My husband and I weren't drunk or acting in any kind of manner that would make us appear to be troublemakers, and we were wearing totally normal and location-appropriate clothes.||Either way, we went straight to the reception desk and complained about the bouncer. The person there was nice and said she was very sorry we were being treated this way, and she indicated she would speak to the bouncer's boss who would come by later that night (apparently the bouncers are working for an external security company the hotel hired). From the reception desk we went back to the bouncer and told him we wanted to let him know that we just complained about him. He basically just shrugged and indicated he couldn't care less.||The next morning, I asked reception through the chat function on a tablet in our room if there are any news regarding my complaint from the night before. They responded I could come down and talk to the manager. When I did that, the manager was very apologetic, nice and professional, and her apology seemed sincere. I asked her how the hotel would do right by us after this episode, and she said she would look into it. I told her that considering the gravity of the incident I would expect to not pay anything for our stay at the hotel - or be upgraded to a suite.||The resolution they came up with was a more modest upgrade to a higher category (a bigger room with whirlpool), also the manager sent up some chocolates with a written apology for the "not entirely perfect start" to our stay. The hotel bill remained unchanged.||I guess people can have different opinions whether the hotel did enough. In my opinion it wasn't, and as nice and apologetic as the manager was, I still left the hotel with a very bad taste in my mouth and have a hard time imagining coming back. I have never received such a shabby treatment in a hotel, and I think the management should have done more to make up for it. What they offered to us presumably cost them next to nothing. Also, they only offered something after I explicitly asked for some kind of compensation. Until then it was just apologies, so I think they should have been much more proactive from the moment I first complained.||This was definitely a hotel stay to remember - in a...

Unfortunately, I must update my 5 star review to reflect my most recept experience at east, which was unpleasant to say the very least. When i first checked in, i turned on the airco and unpacked. By the time I was finished unpacking, the room still hadn't cooled at all. It's extremely frustrating to not have a phone in the room to be able to quickly reach the front desk. When I did make it to the front desk, they told me that room specifically the airco doesn't work in (I didn't feel I needed to clarify when I checked in, but honestly, if it's advertised and they knew it wasn't working, they should have mentioned it to me at check in). They sort it, by giving me another room. I am already quite late for an appointment, but go and pack my room back up and change to the new room. I hear the fan running, so I think it's all good. Later that night, I get back, the room still isn't cool. I go back to the front desk, they assure me that it is working. I've been travelling the whole day, I want to get to sleep. The entire night, I am awake because it is so warm. In the morning, I go again to the front, and they "assure me", even though the temp I side my room is 27⁰ that the airco is indeed working. I have 3 other sets of friends in the hotel, all with rooms of normal temperature. I know at this point, that it is not working, and they have not even offered to have someone come to my room. This was so unacceptable. At the very least when you stay somewhere you expect to have the minimum standards of booking met, and to be able to have a rest during the night. The above doesn't even address the fact that the bathroom toilet and bathtub hadn't been cleaned on the second room they put me in, including having plasters stuck to the wall of the bathtub and suspicious dried fluid on the seat at the end of the bed. I honestly wouldn't have even been bothered by these things, but feel now that I absolutely must address them. I don't know what has happened in the last year to see such a change in atmosphere, and I won't be back again to see if it improves in the next year. This was such a disappointment because I had been so looking forward to staying during this last visit. To round it all off, if you don't stay at this hotel, you should at least make it a priority to visit the restaurant. It is absolutely...