Hotel Eisenhut — Hotel in Rothenburg ob der Tauber

I emailed them at 6:00pm the day of my reservation to let them know my arrival would be delayed and asking if it was ok. I got no response. My phone wasn't able to make calls, so family members of mine called the number they have listed online and there was no response to their phone calls. About two hours later, I messaged via their website with the same message and got no response.

There had been a massive Deutschebahn failure. When I finally got to Donbuhl Bahnhoff, the 807 bus to Rothenburg Ob Der Tauber didn't come. Three girls had been waiting for it for 2 hours by the time I arrived. Again, my family tried calling Eisenhut to see if they could help in any way or at least check me in late if I could somehow get there. No answer.

Thankfully, I found a small guesthouse nearby and sent the information to my family so they could call them for me. The front desk from that hotel drove to pick up myself and the three girls. I stayed at the hotel and the hotel's front desk drove the girls to their friend's house near Rothenburg, only charging them 10 euros for gas and time. This was exceptional customer service. I would have gone with them and stayed at Eisenhut, but given that it was after-hours and they never got back to me about whether or not they could accommodate an after-hours arrival, I stayed in Donbuhl.

The next day, the 807 wasn't running again (a nearby shop worker said it's an incredibly unreliable bus line) and I was able to find a different number for Eisenhut. They were unapologetic about not having car service and gave me the phone number for a taxi (Google had turned up 0 taxis in the area the day before).

When I got to the actual hotel, I still didn't have a chance to relax. My room was in the annex, which is across the street from the main hotel. There is no bell-hop, so you hand-carry your heavy luggage across the street yourself (the cobblestones are too uneven for rolling). The annex has no employees aside from housekeepers. The unsupervised front door stays open all day and anyone can wander through, so really the only barrier between your personal space and the public is the door to your room.

The hallway floor has lots of unmarked drop-offs between areas (watch your step, always) and there's no carpet, so it sounded like people conversing in the halls were in my room with me. The gap under the door was very high, so a lot of light from the hall came through at night as I was trying to sleep.

The next day at breakfast, I asked a breakfast room attendant where I could find scrambled eggs (there weren't any) and she motioned for me to sit down. I thought this was strange, but went and sat for a couple of minutes until I realized nobody was coming. I figured I was told to sit for a reason and that maybe egg dishes were made-to-order. So, I went to the front desk where I was blatantly ignored by the front desk associate for about a full minute until I asked for her attention to ask about the eggs (which I had specifically asked about the day before, since I didn't want a ~$20 cold continental breakfast). She looked at me like I was an idiot and said to go to the buffet. I went back to the breakfast room and scrambled eggs had appeared. It turns out they were just temporarily out. If the breakfast room attendant didn't know enough English to answer my question, I wish she would have told me she didn't understand. I speak some German and could have tried to say it in German myself, or I could have used my phone to help us communicate. I didn't need to be dismissed twice and talked down to.

All things considered, I was just going to let it go when I got my bill and was under the impression they hadn't charged me for the first night. However, I was just reviewing my charges from my trip and they did charge me. Understandably, I'm livid. I would never recommend this place. The only reason they're able to run a business at all is because they're in the middle of a busy tourist area. The actual customer service they offer, and the accommodation, are poor and mediocre,...

There were some things I really liked about this hotel, but my experience there was not as good as I would have expected. First off, the location for a tourist, is really nice because it's in the center of or at least close to the activities/sights/shopping that the town has to offer. And, if you have taken the bus or train to town, the walk from the train and bus station is only an enjoyable 15 minute walk away from the hotel. The hotel is charming and very clean; however, when I arrived. the elevator wasn't working and I had to trek my luggage (a suitcase and a backpack) up the stairs to the 3rd floor myself. The problem was, it just happened to be an extremely warm day. And because it was so very warm, my room (although good-sized) was hot and stuffy. In fact, it was even very warm still the next morning despite the window being open and the fan on all through the night. When I went downstairs in the morning, I noticed that the bottom floor was MUCH cooler than my room was (hence, hot air rises, right?) and I mentioned this to the front desk, but all I heard from the employee was "Es tut mir leid", meaning, "I'm sorry". Let's just say, that had I known that the room would be so uncomfortably warm, I would have insisted on a first floor room in the first place. Lesson learned. So, if you are going in the summer season, take heed about the location of your room. There is NO air conditioning, and I suspect that is the same for most hotels in Germany? ||But I will say that the front desk staff were helpful in answering questions about the touristy sort of stuff in town (i.e. The Night Watchman Tour, restaurants, etc). I did partake in the morning buffet breakfast (a bit pricey in my book), but they do serve delicious coffee and also provide a wide variety (it's a very European-style breakfast). Although I loved the variety of fresh fruit, the eggs and meat items left something to be desired, especially as compared to other hotels I have had breakfast at. ||Would I stay here again? Most likely, but certainly NOT on the 3rd floor during summer! And I wouldn't choose the buffet breakfast again either. Just wish I had only known a...

Stayed in Hotel Eisenhut one night during the Christmas Market. This was our third stay in Rothenburg and never have we stayed in a hotel that was so nasty and the staff so rude. When entering the lobby, there was a moderate smell of septic or sewage but it did not extend to the upper floors. Our room was a "standard", small but with a bed, a chair, table with TV, two nightstands, and a small window. The furniture was exactly as depicted in the photos but looks are deceiving. Furniture looked like it was from IKEA or Walmart and not well made.

When we went into the bathroom, we were stunned that it was so outdated and old, and there was NO shower! The tiled walls, the flooring, sink/toilet, and the tub were all different colors and were pretty nasty. The toilet and sinks especially had cracks throughout and were stained badly. We immediately went down to the desk to ask for a room change as we needed a shower (my husband had surgery recently and is unable to take a bath). The desk staff immediately became very rude and we were told there were none available. They said that hotels over 500 years old do not have showers (not true, we've stayed in many that old with showers). When we asked if we could get a refund, they said no. We asked to speak to a manager and she was no help at all. We could not get a room with a shower as there are only five in the building and we could not get a refund for the room so we could go elsewhere.

This is our third stay in Rothenburg and the other two hotels were also over 500 years old but they had updated their bathrooms and they were lovely! There are so many options for stays in Rothenburg, the Eisenhut is not a good one! Neither the Eisenhut website nor their brochure showed photos of their bathrooms. Check out the websites thoroughly before booking and when they don't show photos of the bathrooms, there...