My partner and I decided to experience a long city break (4-days / 3-nights) in Leipzig, Germany, in order to visit both the famous Christmas Market there and also Colditz Castle. Our main aim was to enjoy a romantic Christmas themed weekend.
As in the past, we elected to search hotels on the Booking.com web site. None of the main city center properties in Leipzig were available for the full 3-nights at the time of booking on 19th October 2016 - we assume due to both the market and a major football match in the city on the Saturday.
However we found on Booking.com a 3-star property advertised as being only 5 minutes from the city center.
The Booking.com web site, acting as a platform for the Adler Hotel to advertise it’s services, describes the property as:
“This welcoming, 3-star enjoys a quiet location in Sellerhausen in the east of Leipzig. Look forward to free Wi-Fi internet access and good public transport connections. Free parking is available.
The modern rooms and apartments at the Hotel Adler Leipzig are comfortably furnished and feature modern amenities, including satellite TV.
In the Adler's lobby, you can us the PC which has internet access free of charge. On request a fax machine, laptop and printer can be provided.
Sit back in the cosy bar in the evening with a refreshing beer or tasty wine. In the Adler's vicinity, you will find a range of restaurants.
The Sellerhausen S-Bahn (city rail) station is only a 3-minute walk from the hotel. From here, it takes just 5 minutes to reach the city centre.
Ost is a great choice for travellers interested in zoos, sightseeing and city trips.
The above description we found to be wholly misleading – a misrepresentation of the current status of the property, and along with the photographs of the hotel, the Booking.com web site totally misrepresented the property to us.
We also took a look at the hotel’s own web site at the time of booking, and it appeared to reflect the report provided on the Booking.com platform. We ultimately found that this web site also totally misrepresented the property.
However, taking both web sites at face value and particularly noting the fact that the hotel appeared to be very proud of an International Award for excellence gained in 2008, we duly booked a double room for three nights, Friday 2nd thru Monday 5th December 2016, paying £187 by Barclaycard Visa. At that value we would generally expect quality similar to a Premiere Inn.
We intended to stay at the Adler Hotel for the weekend, and then leave our bags at the hotel on the Monday morning while we visited Colditz Castle that day, before collecting them and flying back to the UK late on the Monday evening (departing Leipzig at 21:05hrs).
Prior to our arrival in Germany we contacted the hotel direct to reserve the limousine transfer advertised on their web site.
The limousines advertised by the hotel are an Audi A6 for premium economy, and Mercedes S Class for Business and First Class. We did not establish which of the three classes of vehicle we had booked, other than it was to be one of their very new looking limousines.
We were assured on the telephone by the hotel owner / manager, I think a Mr Ibrahim, that our limousine would be waiting at Leipzig Airport arrivals hall, and a fee of Eu45 was agreed for that transfer service.
We arrived on time at the airport at 20:40hrs on the Friday night to be met by a man of Turkish origin. He was very pleasant and he escorted us not to a limousine, but to an old BMW 3 series that was apparently his own personal transport.
My partner and I didn’t speak during the transfer, but as we arrived in a dimly lit street next to a waste site in a very run down ‘Eastern Block’ type of area our eyes met and said it all. The walls around the hotel are strewn with graffiti and rubbish, and smashed beer bottles and glasses were everywhere to be seen on the pavements and in doorways.
The area turned out to a low level housing area, poorly lit, and giving the impression of being much less than safe to go outside at night.
We were welcomed at the Adler Hotel by Mr Ibrahim, and we were shown in through the breakfast bar door - the main entrance appeared to have construction going on, as had the lobby, reception, the stairs and into the breakfast bar area itself. We were the only people (guests) around that we saw that whole evening.
We were in fact greeted with an apology, along the lines of ‘we are being refurbished right now, sorry’.
We were given a room key. The room however was not what we had booked from the Bookings.com web site, but was a box room with a ¾ bed. It was unheated and shabby with little (extremely cheap and tatty) furniture. As I opened the wardrobe door the safe crashed onto the floor of the wardrobe, along with the rest of the shelves – the safe had been / was unattached to anything, and in a position to be carried away.
The room was a stark contrast to the double bed / bedroom depicted by the Hotel Adler on the web site Booking.com. Where it also states ”excellent heating, great location, quiet neighborhood, cosy rooms, comfortable beds”.
We were hungry and returned to the lobby to find Mr Ibrahim and / or his staff to discuss the room that had been provided and to try and sort out a meal, but there were no staff at all working in the hotel. We managed to discuss with the Turkish workmen our situation. They told us that there are no food outlets open within at least two kilometers of the hotel, but we decided to go and look anyway. There is in fact a kebab shop 50m away, but that apparently is in the main for lunchtime trade and does not stay open. There is also a bar 500m away, but as we went in we were hit by a wall of smoke (no Eu smoking ban there apparently). Judging by the looks we got as we went through the door it would not have been a safe bet anyway.
The area all around the hotel we found to be dark and frightening, with drunks roaming the streets, bottles and glasses in hand. We rushed back to the hotel and managed to get a builder to get Mr Ibrahim down for us. He told us that despite there being a room service menu and a small bar and set breakfast tables, the hotel had no facilities for dining and had no food. He did say that we could phone a take away from Leipzig City Centre, but it was by then getting too late as they only deliver up to 23:00hrs. Unhappy at having been disturbed, Mr Ibrahim then retired for the night.
It was late, we were hungry, cold and stuck there for the night, and we simply continued to plan our escape and then got into bed. My partner slept in her winter coat as we both squeezed into the ¾ bed. An old bed with a dip in the middle. The temperature outside was -5c and the room freezing.
We had however managed to get online and book another hotel in the city center for Saturday thru Monday, again using the Booking.com web site. We made a reservation for the Ramada (that had not previously been available for a three night stay).
The builders continued their work through the night, and along with the cold, the main railway line passing right by our room, and the cramped uncomfortable bed, the night was long and horrific - anything but romantic.
We got up early and left. We noted that the building site this hotel was, looked actually worse on Saturday than we seen in the dark of Friday night. Health and safety considerations just did not seem to exist. The paying public should not have to pass through areas with construction going on over their heads and under their feet - it is very unsafe and unacceptable in any First World country.
While there was the advertised breakfast available, and staff to serve it to the few guests, eating in a dust filled environment, while tiling is going on, is anything but healthy or hygienic.
We told the staff that we were leaving and took a taxi to the Ramada (costing Eu12). The booking at the Ramada for the two nights came to Eu 299-80c.
The hotel:
a. was not as described either by the hotel on the Booking.com web site or the Hotel Alder on their own web site;
b. is not in a quiet location it is right next to a loud main railway line into Leipzig that has continual train movements;
c. room was neither comfortable nor modern or as depicted;
d. was unsafe in that the building work caused there to be unsafe walkways, stairs and public areas. There were no provisions for the health and safety of customers during these works;
e. had no public areas as advertised or any normal hotel facilities. Neither were there alternative facilities available anywhere at all near the hotel;
f. room was not a double room as paid for having a ‘large single’ ¾ bed. Neither was the room heated nor did it have safe facilities for valuables;
g. had building works continued through the night;
h. breakfast was served in unhygienic conditions - amongst building works.
A casual look at Trip Advisor upon our return to the UK shows that many visitors booking this hotel have had serious issues and raised concerns. The most popular Trip Advisor rating for this hotel appears to be “Terrible”, with Poor and Terrible masking up 31 of 66 reviews.
Booking.com must or should have been aware of all this. Yet Booking.com continue to allow the Adler Hotel to mis-sell their property to unsuspecting travellers using incorrect descriptions and photographs.
In contrast the Ramada was modern, comfortable, warm and safe. It is ironic that we visited the famous war time prison camp at Colditz on the Monday, as the facilities there appeared to us to be somewhat superior to those at the Adler Hotel in Leipzig. This hotel is a disgrace. Avoid, avoid avoid!!!
