I was a bit nervous booking at the Hanse Clipper Haus since the prices were on par with that of your typical Hamburg hotel (e.g., Lindner), but the rooms at the Hanse Clipper Haus were 2-story lofts with a full kitchen. I ended up being pleasantly surprised with my stay here.
The Hanse Clipper Haus is conveniently located in the Portuguese quarter of Hamburg, about 2 blocks from the Landesbrücken S-Bahn & U-Bahn stations, a block from a REWE City grocery store, and in the midst of many Portuguese & Spanish restaurants. I wouldn't recommend renting a car in Hamburg as public transit is really convenient whereas parking is hard to find/expensive. It's also a very walkable city.
We booked a Maisonette Apartment with Terrace that was on the 3rd floor facing the Norwegian Church. It was very well furnished and had tons of storage space (unlike your typical hotel room with 1 drawer). The kitchen is well equipped with a 2-burner range, microwave, sink, dishwasher, Nespresso machine, refrigerator, and all the cutlery/bowls/plates/cups you'd want (warning, knives are a little dull). They have free washers/dryers on the 4th floor, but you need to have your own cleaning supplies or buy them from the reception (probably worth checking the laundry room first as previous guests have left detergent they bought).
I suspect the Hanse Clipper Haus keeps prices in check by not having an on-site restaurant, limiting hours for the reception (7am - 11pm weekdays & 8am - 7pm weekends), and not doing daily room-cleaning service. I'm actually happy about the latter because I find the standard daily replacement of towels/sheets ridiculously wasteful.
Only downsides are that there is no on-site fitness center (they have a 10% discount with the Meridien Spa about 2 blocks away, but that's still $45/day) or free Wi-Fi. The area is covered by a T-Mobile Hotspot, though, that has much cheaper weekly passes than the hotel offers. On the fitness front, just do a couple of laps around Alster Lake. Fair warning to Bay Area residents: it's flat as a pancake. read more