Schlosshotel Kronberg, an SLH Hotel — Hotel in Kronberg im Taunus

We had an extremely upsetting and humiliating experience during our recent stay at your hotel.

After arriving around 3 PM and placing our luggage in our rooms, we came downstairs to find something to eat. In the hallway, we noticed dessert cart with utensils and no staff present. We also saw other guests having the desserts, so we assumed it was a self-service setup after checking around for a while and seeing still no service people showed up. With that impression, our children took a few cakes with my husband’s help.

Suddenly, a man rushed over, aggressively took the cakes from our hands, and threw them into the trash, while he gave us a harsh warning in a very rude manner, that it was not self-service. We, especially our 13-year-old son were startled. My husband asked how we could pay for the cake, and he totally ignored the question and stormed way!!! This was extremely humiliating, especially in front of our children and other guests. We were totally shocked — we had no intention of doing anything inappropriate and acted based on what we observed around us.

When we spoke to the receptionist to report this behavior, we were told the man was the bar manager. He later came to apologize, but again did so in an unfriendly and condescending tone, angrily tapping hard on a sign close to entrance to indicate it’s us who ignored hotel rules which was stated in the sign- which were in German — that we translated through translation app just saying some generic welcome messages! We genuinely couldn’t understand how a few small, ordinary - even unattended- cakes with our kids could escalate into such a serious issue at a five-star hotel. At this point, I was extremely upset, nearly on the verge of a panic attack. I asked him for his manager. He responded several times he was THE MANAGER indicating nobody was above him to communicate with us!!! And he told me he was talking to my husband not me!!!

We immediately requested to cancel our stay and asked for a refund.

Later, two managers visited our room to apologize and offered complimentary drinks and dinner via room service. While we really appreciate that nice gesture, it does not fully make up for the experience we had — especially after such a wonderful and peaceful six-day vacation throughout Germany. This incident left a sour final impression on our trip.

Later that evening, the emotional toll of the experience continued to affect me. I began to feel heart pain and physical discomfort due to the stress and anxiety caused by the incident. This was not only a deeply upsetting moment emotionally, but it also began to take a physical toll on my well-being.

What made the situation even more troubling was the feeling that we may have been treated this way in part because we were the only Asian family. The dismissive, aggressive, and condescending behavior—especially the way I was ignored and spoken over—felt not only unprofessional but also reflective of underlying racial and gender biases. While we cannot know the individual’s intentions with certainty, the way we were singled out and humiliated publicly raises serious concerns of discriminatory and prejudiced treatment.

We chose this hotel expecting professional service, basic respect and hospitality. Unfortunately, what we experienced with this guy was far from acceptable! The rest of the hotel staff we encountered were professional, kind, and welcoming. Sadly, one person’s behavior completely ruined what could have been a wonderful end to our vacation in Germany. I do hope other guests won’t go through a similar experience and the hotel will take this as an opportunity to improve its standards in selecting and...

We had an extremely upsetting and humiliating experience during our recent stay at this hotel.||After arriving around 3 PM and placing our luggage in our rooms, we came downstairs to find something to eat. In the hallway, we noticed dessert cart with utensils and no staff present. We also saw other guests having the desserts, so we assumed it was a self-service setup after checking around for a while. With that impression, our children took a few cakes with my husband’s help.||Suddenly, a man rushed over, aggressively took the cakes from our hands, and threw them into the trash, while he gave us a harsh warning in a very rude manner, that it was not self-service. My husband asked how we could pay for the cake, and he totally ignored the question!!! This was extremely humiliating, especially in front of our children and other guests. We were totally shocked — we had no intention of doing anything inappropriate and acted based on what we observed around us.||When we spoke to the receptionist to report this behavior, we were told the man was the bar manager. He later came to apologize, but again did so in an unfriendly and condescending tone, pointing out some sign to indicate it’s us who broke hotel rules— which were in German — that we translated through translation app just saying some generic welcome messages. We genuinely couldn’t understand how a few small, ordinary cakes with our kids could escalate into such a serious issue at a five-star hotel. At this point, I was extremely upset, nearly on the verge of a panic attack. I asked him for his manager. He responded several times he was the manager indicating nobody was above him to communicate with us!!! And he told me he was talking to my husband not me!!!||We immediately requested to cancel our stay.||Later, two managers visited our room to apologize and offered complimentary drinks and dinner via room service. While we really appreciate that nice gesture, it does not fully make up for the experience we had — especially after such a wonderful and peaceful six-day vacation throughout Germany. This incident left a sour final impression on our trip.||Later that evening, the emotional toll of the experience continued to affect me. I began to feel heart pain and physical discomfort due to the stress and anxiety caused by the incident. This was not only a deeply upsetting moment emotionally, but it also began to take a physical toll on my well-being.||What made the situation even more troubling was the feeling that we may have been treated this way in part because we were the only Asian family. The dismissive, aggressive, and condescending behavior—especially the way I was ignored and spoken over—felt not only unprofessional but also racially biased. While we cannot know the individual’s intentions with certainty, the way we were singled out and humiliated publicly raises serious concerns of discriminatory and prejudiced treatment.||We chose this hotel expecting professional service, basic respect and hospitality. Unfortunately, what we experienced with this guy was far from acceptable! The rest of the hotel staff we encountered were professional, kind, and welcoming. Sadly, one person’s behavior completely ruined what could have been a wonderful end to our vacation in Germany. I do hope other guests won’t go through a similar experience and the hotel will take this as an opportunity to improve its standards in selecting and...

Frankly disappointed with the room, the restaurants, the grounds, and the castle. On our tour of Germany we had lots of different castle hotels to choose from. We liked this one outside of Frankfurt (our entry/exit city) because it offered beautiful grounds, lush rooms, and 4 restaurants—but no. Starting with the rooms. We splurged on a deluxe room with a balcony. It looked nothing like the website photos. It was mostly modern looking. Had no tub. Had no coffee maker. The balcony had no protection from sun or rain and was very tiny and dirty.

Misrepresentation about the restaurants. The main restaurant serves the breakfast but not dinner during the summer. This breakfast was not good. The cheese sat out from the first breakfast to the second and there were lots of fruit flies. The beer garden restaurant was temporarily closed. The terrace restaurant has a limited menus and seats 12 on a good day or whenever they allow it to be open, so we had to sit at the loungers and couches awkwardly eating expensive food off coffee tables. There seemed to be private events going on which amounted to staff being busy elsewhere and groups of people blocking the doorways or taking up the terrace loungers. And the Italian restaurant, we never did find. We were never offered solutions such as eating at the bar—we didn’t even find the bar until day 2. From the reviews it sounds like there was afternoon tea, no staff mentioned that experience to us, we would have enjoyed that. No hard liquor is served before 6 pm.

We were also excited about simply wandering around the castle, but no, that turned out to not really be an option—the entry lounge is closed for the afternoon until 6 pm. The library was closed for some special event that was set up for the 2 days we were there but was never used. I think those were the only places we were welcome to wander. The staff never let us know any amenities of the castle. There isn’t a pool or sauna. There’s a “forest pool” but I think that was that was either the duck pond in the city park or the mucky reflecting pool on the grounds???

The grounds were associated with the private golf club, not the castle hotel. The outside grounds of the castle were closed in various places to repair fountains and roads. We went in late summer, that should be their busy season, right? The rose garden was wonderful—I really enjoyed that. Otherwise, I can’t...