Let me begin this review by stating that I like this hotel. It is very well maintained, the staff are beyond friendly and helpful, and it is perfectly situated right in the heart of the city. This being said, there are a few downsides to this hotel, which I will get to in a moment. You should probably consider these before you actually decide to book a room here, as they may affect your stay.
To begin with, I want to discuss the location. As mentioned, this hotel is perfectly located right in the heart of Berlin. You are easy walking distance to Museum Island, to Berlin Tower, The Bauhaus, cathedrals, shopping, and dining. Plus, you are located right along the Spree River
This brings me to their rooms. I really suggest that you book a river-view room. It really makes the whole lodging experience so much better. You open up your window, and there it is, the Spree River. All of the flavor of Berlin flowing right at your feet.
As I am speaking about the rooms, there are a few things you need to consider. The rooms are all very well-designed and they're very well-maintained. They're very clean, and every time that you leave your room in the morning you can be sure that it will be made-up by the time you returned.
One of the downsides to this hotel, however, and this fact really blows my mind, is that they do not have USB connections in the room. Thus, there is no place to charge your phone, your computer, or anything else unless you have an AC adapter. It's almost hard to believe that a hotel, in this day and age, would not install USB ports. But the Meliá does not.
This brings me to one of the negative points about this establishment, providing me with a real bone to pick with this hotel. I live in the States, and expecting there to be USB ports in the room, I didn't bring a European electrical adapter. I have traveled the globe for over forty years and there has never been one time, at one hotel, that I asked for a power converter that it was not happily provided to me (for free). This hotel, however, does not provide those. The only way I could get a power converter, that fed into a USB cable, was to buy one from the concierge. I really think this NOT a good policy! I mean, come on! With the price of the rooms, and the level of the service this hotel supposedly provides, the guest should at least be provided with a power converter if they need one.
The other thing I would like to discuss about this hotel is that you should really get a room that offers their Lounge Service. Their Lounge Service is really a good thing. Not excellent. But pretty good. Yes, with this service, your room will cost a little bit more, but you will provided with breakfast every morning and snacks throughout the day and well into the evening.
The Lounge changes their offerings at various times during the day. In the morning they offer breakfast style food. And, it's pretty expansive. Not like a full-on breakfast buffet, offered by some hotels, but a nice integrated offerings of various breakfast items.
During the day, they offer appetizers. Plus, all day long and into the night you can grab bottled waters, coolers, and beer.
In the evening, they provide what they call a pre-dinner offering. With this, the guest are provided with very nice appetizers that are very well prepared. I've noticed that many guests come in there to eat their entire dinner from the Lounge. You can do that if you want. But, that's not really my style.
During the afternoon and into the evening, they also offer a nice selection of wine and self-made cocktails.
The other minor beef I have with the hotel, and it's kind of amusing, is the fact that for the first three nights of my week-long stay, they did not give us washcloths. But, on the fourth day, amazingly the washcloth did appear. Why didn't they leave washcloths every night, I do not know? One would think that would be standard protocol. Then, the next thing that happened is on the fifth night, the washcloths were gone. So, I don't know what's going on with that?
Additionally, in terms of their housekeeping services, they have a note posted in each room that if you need a toothbrush or a razor they will provide them to you. We had run out of toothpaste, so we thought instead of going and buying some from one of the local shops, maybe we could get some from the hotel, since they were offering it. We called housekeeping services a total of seven times over two days and not one time did anybody answer. Thus, I'm not quite sure what they're offering, or who is manning their stations, but we were not provide with what they claim to offer.
All this being said, I have good things to say about this hotel. Yes, there is a few downsides, but overall staying at the Meliá was a very pleasant experience. read more