Holiday Inn Koln Am Stadtwald - Cologne, Germany     

We stayed heer for just 1 night in June on our way from Zagreb to Paris. It is a bit of a treck from the HBF as you have to take the U-Bahn then a tram. There are no signs when you get off the tram so we had to walk for a while to find the hotel. The hotel is ugly from teh outside but nice enough inside. Our room was very nice and if the weather had been better the view over the park and lake would have been lovely. Staff spoke English although they could not recommend any Chinese restaurants in the city! Checkout was a little slow.

I spent 4 nights in the Holiday Inn Stadtwald. The hotel is right in the middle of the Stadwald (city forest/wood) area, which is a green area about 20 minutes from the centre of town. There are good motorway links with the A4 being only 10 minutes drive and the hotel is located on the edge of a lake. There are plenty of walks/cycle rides though the forest and you do not feel like you are in a large city however you can be in the city centre within 20 minutes with public transport. The hotel is the usual Holiday Inn standard with a double bed, minibar, etc. however there were a couple of problems. - When I checked in there were 2 parties in front of me and only one person at the reception desk. I could hear another couple of people in the office btu no-one came out to help so it took about 15 minutes to check in. This was the same when I was checking out however I was at the front of the queue and another 3 parties were also trying to check out but there was only 1 receptionist. - The shower would take 15 minutes to get warm and then it would be constantly changing from hot to cold. This only happened in the morning when lots of people were probably taking showers as in the evening there were no problems. I stayed on the non-smoking floor (6th floor) so I don't know if this is just a problem with this floor. I didn't bother reporting this to the Reception as there is probably not a lot they can do. Overall rating: Location - Excellent Staff - Average due to check-in/out delays Room - Okay, but some (shower) problems. Overall - Okay, but some problems Due to the shower problems I probably wouldn't stay in this hotel again and would go Holiday Inn Cologne-Mulheim. Cheaper hotel and breakfast is included.