Le Méridien Munich — Hotel in Munich

I recently stayed here for 3 nights on a business trip. Check in was easy enough. They recognized my Gold status and asked what amenity I wanted, so all is well. I don't expect any suite upgrades, but I do expect (and typically get) something higher than what I booked, but no luck here.

First night I went down to the bar and ordered some food to take up to my room. I specifically told the bartender I wanted to take it to my room. She said it would be about 20 mins, and I was fine with that. Instead of bringing my food in some boxes, they served it to me there. When I told the lead bartender I had ordered it to go he told me there would be a €5 delivery charge. Ridiculous! Strike One...

I always choose the green option when it comes to housekeeping. This hotel's guidelines stated that your stay needed to be more than 2 nights to qualify. Ok, I'm staying 3 nights, no problem. I hang the card on the door and get a card in the morning. I didn't think to look at it but simply put it in the room, assuming I would collect a couple of them and turn them in at checkout for some extra points. However, it wasn't until I came back from all day meetings and my room had been cleaned that I checked the card they had left me. It said I was ineligible for the program...stupid. Strike Two...

The following morning, after a good workout in the fitness center (which was one of the pleasant portions of the hotel), I came back to take a shower. The first morning the water was hot almost instantly. This time, not so lucky. I ran the water for a couple minutes and no hot water. I got out and called the service line and they confirmed they were having issues and their engineers were looking at it but didn't know when it would be resolved. Considering my timing, I couldn't wait, so a cold shower it was. After coming back to the room a few hours later there was a note in my room saying to accept the hotels' apologies for the inconvenience and to enjoy this treat from the kitchen. But there was no treat from the kitchen anywhere to be found. So I assumed it was perhaps a certificate to be redeemed at the restaurant. I went to the front desk to inquire and spoke with the manager on duty. I asked specifically if this was because I had to take a cold shower in the morning and she said yes. Then I asked what the note was for and she said there was supposed to be a plate of 'sweets' that accompanied the note. I told her no such plate was anywhere to be found in my room. She was embarrassed, apologized and said she would send it right up. At this point I'm starving for lunch but decide to wait for my sweets. After an hour of waiting I decide to just go get lunch, and good thing I did. The apparent 2nd plate of sweets never showed up either. So cold shower plus botching the apology twice...Strike Three.

All that said there were some positives:

the location is pretty good. While it's close to the main train terminal and what is considered some of Munich's shadier streets, it's only a 5 minute walk to some pretty great retail and dining options.

the breakfast buffet was pretty good. The staff was attentive, but maybe a little too quick to clean your table if you went back for a 2nd serving.

as mentioned earlier, the fitness center was better than I anticipated. 3 treadmills, 2 different types of stationary bikes and a recumbent bike, plus a number of weight machines. There was also a pool that people were swimming laps in. It looked to be less than 20 meters however.

they did have a loaner power converter since I forgot mine

From a location perspective, it's pretty good. From a service perspective, there was much...

The main reason I selected this hotel was for location - location- location. We flew into Munich to start a river cruise that started in Passau. I choose this location because is was close to the train station. Easy walk once you don't pay attention to GPS on your phone because they will bring you in circles. That's another story.

Quality was a Le Meridien design very modern, elegant and yet historical. Rooms were well appointed, but pillows were flat as can be and the beds were horrible. I should have ordered off the pillow menu but that's my bad. Front desk staff was superb. I requested 2pm late check out since our train did not leave until later in the afternoon. No problem with front desk - so we thought.

As far as housekeeping, that is a whole different story. My husband read the reviews online. I didn't really read them I went for the name and location, but boy I wish I read the warning signs.

1. Morning 1: They started vacuuming and spoke really loud starting at 8am. That vacuum was loud. What house keeping starts at 8am?!?

2. We went to explore the city and put the PRIVACY SIGN UP - My husband even turned it to the German side. To our surprised, we walked back into the room and the room was made. What's the point of the sign. We currently do not feel comfortable with the Covid situation with people coming into our rooms. So, we were not planning to get housekeeping since we were only staying for two nights.

The thing that bothered me the most was that the house keeping touched our stuff and opened the cabinets. I took the shoe horn out of the closest and placed it on the table under the tv. It appeared back in the closest were I had a Louis Vuitton bag in there. If I planned to have housekeeping come I would have locked it up in my luggage.

Housekeeping also touched all our toiletries and put it back inside the cosmetic bags.

3. Morning 2: At 8am, I was awoken by housekeeping unlocking our door to clean it. Once again, we had a do not disturb sign. My husband forgot to chain the door. I immediately called the front desk and confirmed that we had late check out for 2pm. They apologized and asked what they could do. I didn't want anything but to make sure they knew we were down for 2pm and why was someone trying to enter the room. She said that they would talk to housekeeping.

4. 1pm before we left - they opened the room AGAIN. No knocking..nothing. I yelled that we had 2pm check out.

This is completely unacceptable for a...

While the hard product at this hotel is good, the service and Platinum recognition leave a lot to be desired. Further I have mixed feelings about the location.

1- The room was nice and generally new and bright. the bed and pillows were comfy enough and the bathroom was decent enough as well.

2- The gym is small but usable for a day or two.

3- However, the service at this hotel was quite lacking:

(i) Room was not ready when I arrived at 12:30pm, which is no big deal although the front desk would not text or call me when it was ready. Just told to "come back later".

(ii) As a Platinum Ambassador level I'd imagine I'd at least be given one of the nicer base rooms if no upgrade was provided (which there was no upgrade). However, I was provided a room right next to construction on the 8th floor. Hammering and drilling all day. There was no construction anywhere else in the hotel - just next to my room. Why was I, the top customer at the chain placed there then? Good unanswered question.

(iii) Further the Internet did not work in my room as the room was too far away from the wireless router. As their IT person was gone for the day, I had no internet until the 2nd day of my stay when he returned. Absolutely unacceptable.

(iv) The front desk is overwhelmed with people. It needs to be staffed properly. At check-out I had a train to catch and yet the lines were long so I handed my key someone behind the counter (a manager perhaps?) and told him to hand to one of the agents when they were free to check me out and email me the receipt. The receipt never came. I still wonder if I will be charged correctly. Ugh.

(v) The breakfast hostess couldn't be more slow at checking people in. And she was all alone. This created a line 30 deep for breakfast. I kid you not. Not 29 people, not 28, 30! It took almost 20 minutes to get seated for breakfast which required me to swallow and not chew my food to catch my train. Absolutely unacceptable. At least once seated the breakfast options were good and delicious.

Re the location on the positive side it is a 2 minute walk to the train station. On the negative side, this area of Munich isn't all that nice and so if you want better food and a better area you are forced to walk 15-20 minutes into town. The LM isn't alone in being in this area as many hotels surround it. Still if I were to return I'd think long and hard about staying away from...