This is the Worst Hotel I have ever stayed stayed in!!! I spent five horrible nights in July at the Hotel Monaco. It was recommended in a travel guide, which has always been reliable in the past for decent hotels at reasonable prices.
The minute we arrived at the Hotel Monaco, the owner greeted us and acted like it was such an inconvenience to have three of us in a room with a shared bath for 115/euros a night plus 45 euros for the third person. Our room, was tiny and somewhat clean, but dusty. The curtains were only for vanity purposes, as they blocked out no light! Also, this hotel is in one of the seediest neighborhoods south of Amsterdam. Our room overlooked a seedy casino. Since, the Hotel Monaco does not have air conditioning and it was 90 degrees Fahrenheit, we were forced to have our windows open! All night long you could hear the street noise from the strip clubs, bars and casinos surrounding the hotel. Then at about 7am you are awakened from whatever sleep you managed to secure with the jackhammers working on the subway lines. Each morning, I walked through the Botanical Gardens, I would see people sleeping in the grass next to their suitcases and I was jealous that they were sleeping in a quiet and cool spot for free and I was paying a ridiculous price for a hot and noisy room. Also, there was about seven people using the one bathroom,which was really inconvenient.
We were going on a bus tour to Ludwig's castles and opted to do the breakfast instead of grabbing something before our tour. The breakfast was such a disappointment, plus we asked if there was eggs included. The eggs turned out to be hard boiled eggs that were kept warm in dirty bunny rabbit holders. The egg warmers definitely need a good wash. If you decided for some masochistic reason to stay at Hotel Monaco, please save your money and don't get the breakfast.
On trip advisor, we had read that the sign at the front desk about cash only is only to keep street people out. However, this is not the case!!! We decided to just make sure and asked the owner about the credit card/cash payment. She assured us that we had to pay cash, and that since there was a Cardiology convention in town, she would have to add a fee to our nightly rate if we were to use a credit card. I KNOW that no American physician from the Atlantic to the Pacific would stay in that kind of hotel. Well, since we did not have very much cash on us, we asked her what the credit card fee would be. The owner stated that it would be an additional 40 euros a night!!! So, if we could not get the cash, we would be paying for one room with no bath/no air conditioning, about 200 euros a night!!It was a scramble to get the 795 euros we needed to pay the hotel bill in cash, and it really ruined our last day in Munich. At checkout, the owner was not present and we complained about the hotel's cash only policy, and desk clerk was like you can pay by credit. We replied that the owner had informed us that it would be an extra 40 euros a night. She seemed shocked, but said that she was the owner.
Please do not be taken in as I was with the high reviews on trip advisor and the cute pictures of hearts and cupids everywhere. I question all good reviews, because as it was posted in the elevator, any reviews or tips added to the Hotel Monaco website would earn a free breakfast. Also, if you did not have a computer but wanted to post a review to their website a free laptop was available. read more