Review of Lindner Hotel Hamburg Hagenbeck, part of JdV 4*

Like a themed Hotel at Disney Europe, just not as good… The hotel is located right next to the Hamburg Zoo, which is quite a way outside the city center. Underground Station is close by, providing fast service to the city. Check-in procedures for me and my colleague, where executed quickly, probably as we were the only ones there trying to check-in All the Rooms in this Hotel are themed; mine was on the “Asia” themed floor, making the whole place look like one of them themed hotels of EuroDisney. I am sure that it’s great for families with kids, but I just could not see the real value in that. Mind you, if they would have been consequent in seeing this through, they would have used more authentic or better quality props, instead of those rather cheap feeling re-makes, leaving me with the feeling of being in a ow budget movie. But that is personal taste and, obviously, everybody’s is different The Room themselves had well working air-condition and a large LED Interactive TV Set. All amenities where foreseen, except any coffee or tea making facilities, but therefore including a minibar, stocked very sparsely with extra small bottles of soft drinks and a beer, all at commonly high Minibar prices. The 4 Euro price tag for the “Welcome drink” bottle of Mineral water was also way over the top, but seem to be a typical thing to do, found often in German Hotels. As is this habit to have only “crawls speed” Wi-Fi for free, whilst charging extra for Wi-Fi at halfway decent speeds. Not very business customer minded. The rest of the Room, including the bathroom, that sports a “rainfall” shower, is pretty much standard for a Hotel of this category and can’t be faulted. The Bed was nice and of good size with an excellent matrass. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said about the staff of this Hotel. Whilst, of course, there where exceptions, but generally speaking the staff came over as uninterested at best, to outright rude! Starting with the male staff member of the front desk to the Head Waitress of the Restaurant, attitude seemed to be a problem. When, at 18:00, we decided to frequent the bar for a pre-diner aperitif, we sat for more than 15 minutes without anybody available to serve. Only upon having enquired at the front desk as to verify that the bar was actually open, somebody did come to take our orders. Even then it took us another 15 Minutes to get a simple Gin Tonic, as nothing had been prepped, something which was done as we sat at the bar, not being able to understand each other’s words due to the racket the rather noisy ice crushing machine made. When we decided to make our way to the quite large Restaurant for our dinner reservation, we were greeted by the Head Waitress, expecting to be shown to the table that was reserved for us. Instead, she pointed towards the area at the windows in the near completely empty restaurant, instructing us to choose any of the plenty free tables. When, due to us being worried that there would be too much of a draft from the Windows, we took a table towards the centre of the near empty place, she made it very obvious to us, that she was not happy with our choice. Subsequently we noticed that, despite it only being the start of the dinner service, most tables had been already set for the next morning breakfast service. Not what you expect from an establishment that wishes to be in this class. It has to be said, that the food was of very good quality and the presentation was excellent. Full marks for the chef and his team! The Breakfast Buffet, which was charged separately at 20 Euro per head, was well stocked with a quite large variety of products and the Waitress staff was very friendly. In closing, I can say that the hotel itself is fine and, if you like this themed kind of rooms, you will love them. The staff however needs some to seriously update their attitudes towards customers and, strangely enough, the staff that are clearly non-German Nationals working there are fine, competent and friendly.