Holiday Inn Berlin-Esplanade - Berlin, Germany     

I was rather disappointed by this hotel. Despite its 4-star rating and ambience - lots of glass everywhere - there were several flaws. The rooms had white curtains - a simple mistake that means waking with sunrise - very annoying. The rooms were not very comfortable. The staff were not very friendly, and seemed very stressed. And the breakfasts, although initially appearing to be well appointed, were actually quite limited. You can do a lot worse than this hotel, but you can also do a lot better. As regards location, you're fairly near the airport, but not near anythign else of use. About five minutes away from Rohrdamm U-Bahn station, which can get you into town in about 20-30 minutes.

We stayed for seven straight nights at this hotel during the cold last week of January in Berlin. Temperatures went down to almost 20ºC. In fact, we stayed here because last year we were at the Grand Hotel Esplanade and I mistook while doing the reservation. Still, it was a pretty good experience (even if it was not planned this way). One of the reviewers complained about the plastic matresses. They were indeed plastic matresses but it did not matter at all. Not to us. The room was nice, bigger than the one we had at the Grand hotel esplanade last year and the pool is also better, very proper and clean. The room service food was ok, the burger was terrible though. The hotel is fine if you want to do nothing in Berlin, like us, we were there just to go to the Deutsche Oper to see some Puccini operas. But it is far away from the city center, to get there you pay about 14 euros (Gedächtniskirche). About 16 euros to Potsdamer Platz. You can also take the underground, it is pretty close to the hotel, it is just a 5 min walk though the way is not very nice. In all, we had a good time.