The Fontenay — Hotel in Hamburg

This luxury hotel in Germany, as mentioned in some YouTube videos, was my home for seven nights. Here’s my review.

This hotel is located in a quiet neighborhood by the lake. Unlike most hotels near town hall, which are close to shops, restaurants, and tourist attractions, this hotel is situated in a beautiful, lush park area. I took a walk by the lake on a sunny day, and it was a lovely experience.

Room: I had the “Europa 2” suite which is “inspired by the Hapag-Lloyd luxury cruise ship, the EUROPA 2. It features a separate living room and bedroom, a dining table for four, a walk-in wardrobe, a desk, and a guest WC, all decorated with bright, earthy colors and warm wood veneer for a nautical feel. It also includes a private 5 m² balcony with views of the park, and the spacious bathrooms are made of natural sandstone with a bathtub, rain shower, and separate toilet” from AI description. Everything is true. It’s very enjoyable to stay in this room.

The front desk, concierge, and bellmen team were polite, friendly, and provided prompt services. Before my arrival, I sent an email to the concierge to ensure we wouldn’t be in a noise room and to have the bed made to our preference. They promptly complied with my requests. However, I did encounter a malfunctioning speaker in the room, and they promptly sent a technician to fix it.

Breakfast restaurant: Park View I usually don’t post a review right away, but the first morning was such a terrible experience that I decided to share it on the restaurant review section. The restaurant responded and asked me to revisit, and since I had already planned a seven-night stay, I had to go back for six more times. Here’s a detailed account of every breakfast I had during my visits.

On Thursday, I signaled the waiter, but he clearly ignored me. Meanwhile, the dirty dishes were left on my table for over 30 minutes while the waiter cleaned every table in the dining room right in front of me. That’s why I posted a review right away.

Friday’s service was okay, but it’s still not great.

Saturday: I noticed a slight improvement, but I would give them a pass because it was evident that they were understaffed.

Sunday: Their performance returned to the average.

Monday through Wednesday: Finally, they showed better results.

The buffet section offered the same food every day, so by the third day, I had lost my appetite. It might not be a restaurant issue, though. I’ve been in Germany for six weeks and have noticed that most hotels’ breakfast buffets offer the same items. I think it’s just average. However, the egg dishes are a different story. Please check the photo for my comments.

Overall, I would stay again if the breakfast options improved. Otherwise, it’s challenging to stay in this hotel since there aren’t many breakfast...

The communication and service is a disaster! My husband booked two rooms of the hotel for our wedding. I’ve called the hotel a week ago and spoke with Mr. Lehrke and Mrs Busch from the reception explaining we need to check in early that day since my husband booked the hotel for our wedding and I need to get ready, need to have the stylist early in the morning in the room and mentioned we also have a photographer why we need to check it for both rooms as early as possible. Mr. Lehrke kindly informed me the hotel won’t be fully booked during this years Xmas and a early check in might be possible but to be on the safe side he suggested I should get in touch with the booking& reservation team of the hotel. Which I’ve done last Friday. The lady from the booking/reservation team said she can see a note in our reservation but needs to discuss with her manager and will come back to me as soon as possible . She also noted my contact details. For almost a week I didn’t hear back from the hotel and decided to call the reservation team back. Which I’ve done today and surprisingly the lady now told me we aren’t supposed to take pictures.She was kind enough to check with her PR team just to call me back and saying the regulation of the hotel is to avoid any kind of photography inside the hotel, because guests have felt disturbed in the past. Which I would totally understand if she wouldn’t continue saying the hotel only allows couples to have photographers inside the rooms, if they get married in the hotel ballroom. And when I asked her about all “the influencers” having pictures all over the internet from the inside the rooms she agreed this is allowed as well.For me this isn’t understandable at all. It means guests feel disturbed my a wedding couple who isn’t celebrating in the hotel ballroom but not by influencers ? We aren’t talking about a team of photographers, max three people and I’ve seen influencers with a team of 5 in the rooms. The service I’ve got by running after a confirmation and the whole “BS” regulation I’ve got explained don’t match at all to standards of a luxury hotel. We have decided to cancel our stay and will book one of the other luxury hotels for our special day. I’m totally disappointed...

If you just need a place to sleep at, the rooms are the best I have ever been in and I can safely recommend the Fontenay for that. The breakfast (both the spot and the food) was also superb. However, if you want a 5* hotel with all that the 5* should mean, then the Fontenay is a disappointment. My experience might be due to bad luck but I still think it speaks about the hotel in general. We were there with my girlfriend for 5 days, and the public sauna was broken during those 5 days. Those things can happen but every employee had a different answer on when it would be fixed, which just made it feel they were inventing an answer on the spot and that the sauna was not in a hurry to be repaired. There is a hammam (that was still not on at 9am even though the Spa opens at 7am...) and private saunas that needs to be booked (for a cost of course, which can explain the lack of hurry to fix the normal one) but it does not replace the broken public sauna. The hotel tried to compensate us by offering us a bottle of champagne, but we had to send it back because my girlfriend is pregnant and cannot drink alcohol.That was all the hotel did, nothing else. I chose the Fontenay over the other hotels mostly for its Spa so I leave that hotel with a real bitter taste in my mouth. Then, the fitness room is small (probably half the size of our room) and clearly lacking in equipment if you want to do something other than running on a treadmill. Finally, the check-out was also surprisingly cold, the employee just telling us what we needed to pay as extra and that's it. No question on whether we enjoyed our stay or not, but I put that on the young age of the employee who is probably just starting.

It's a beautiful hotel, with great rooms, but everything else is not up to a...