Excelsior Hotel Ernst

Attracted by the 5-star sign and ideal setting next to the Dom, we headed to The Excelsior. Equally appealing Booking.com-pictures of beautifully appointed suites, I decided to go for the 950 eur / night splurge. I have to say that I deeply regretted this as the hotel fails to live up to any modern-day expectation: it seems stuck at 2 decades ago and hasn’t seen maintenance since. First the room. On booking.com - it displays 10 pictures of the suite. The first 6 show a beautiful and modern suite. But the last 4 show an old-fashioned, tacky and worn-out room. I have to admit: I didn’t see the last 4 when I booked. So maybe technically the hotel could say “I told you so”. But I find this practice utterly misleading and potentially even unlawful. And yes - we got the worn-out one. And worn-out it was, not just by the looks of the stained and bleak carpet. The rain shower in the bathroom didn’t work so I had to hold the handshower all the time. In the morning I found out why: the rain shower needs a certain amount of water pressure for the switch lever to work and apparently I was unlucky that evening. Maybe the water pressure drops if too many people shower at the same time? Oh yeah - the drain cap was loose, the fireplace didn’t work and towel heater was broken too - all small details maybe but at a certain point you start noticing everything. I informed the reception about it but since it was 11 pm I went to bed. Furthermore - I didn’t like that the hotel still had old-fashioned roomkeys. A security risk for sure as these keys can be easily copied by anyone. In addition, the door of the room didn’t close properly. I wanted to go to the gym at 8 am but my teenage daughter was still sleeping… I had to choose between locking her up from the outside (which would be dramatic in case of fire) or leaving the door wide open from the outside. I chose to stay in the room… if this hotel would have keycards it wouldn’t have been an issue. Silver lining: I didn’t miss much by not going to the gym in the morning. I checked it out very briefly: it was cramped. As with so many hotels I have to say. Anyway - it wasn’t all bad of course. The morning breakfast and service at the nicely decorated Stube restaurant was absolutely perfect. And the staff highly attentive. And the location great. But I will return only to this hotel after a huge makeover. I give it 2 stars, similar to the in-room experience and for the fact it’s ridiculously overpriced compared to the quality.

A wonderful 2 night stay with great food in the Hans Stube restaurant and a perfect location to explore the Cathedral and Christmas Markets just a short hop away.

This hotel is amazing from every perspective. My wife, daughter and I had a two night stay. We knew that the Dom was right outside the train station where we arrived, and we knew that the hotel was right across from the Dom. The experience of exiting the train station to see the Dom looming over us was amazing; the reality of just how close the hotel is to the Dom was thrilling. We booked a Cathedral View Suite. We were in room 301 which had a large sitting room with a sofa bed (very comfortable), several chairs, a small table, a small couch facing the Cathedral, and a lot of room. The bedroom was in a separate room with a door. The bathroom and closet areas were large though only one sink and no bathtub (not an issue for us). The king sized bed was extremely comfortable. The room and entire hotel were in great condition. The best part was three small balconies with large doors; we spent a lot of time out there just looking up at the impressive structure right outside the window. They obviously keep the hotel up very nicely. We saw them replacing carpet on the steps as well as a broken window on the outside of the hotel. We ate breakfast each morning in the restaurant. The food was very good, not great, but very good. We got pancakes, French toast (so-so) and an omelette (should have asked for it not to be 'runny' eggs). The service was very good. We had drinks in the bar one night. The bartender was a real bartender, not a drink slinger. It is a high class bar and our cocktails were amazing. I didn't look at the gym (if there is one). The location cannot be beat IMO. The walk from the station is about a block, the Cathedral is right across the street, and there is a beer hall next door that serves good German food in a casual environment. The staff was great at every turn. We couldn't have asked for better service. This hotel was one of the highlights of our trip to Cologne, along with visiting the Christmas markets. The view was perhaps the best we have had (except for on the Grand Canal in Venice) in all of our travels.

We made a reservation for a family holiday for 5 rooms. The hotel send us an invoice and email with a payment request by insecure transfers. The hotel email got hacked and intercepted and forwarded with a fraudulent account. We lost an amount of over, 2500euro because of the hotel insecure payment request. Nevertheless, I understand that Cyber Crime is sophisticated these days. BUT the reaction and action of the hotel reservations manager was horrible. No feedback for days, no call, no any sign of compassion or even plain sympathy. We lost an amount of 2500euro due to their insecure system and hacking. The management does not care about the client, heartless and cold and not any sign of assistance, compensation. Not even a phone call of the manager. This is not the service you would expect at a 5* hotel at all. It's plain unprofessional, impolite and rude. We don't recommend this hotel.

I’ve been around the world on different Hotels but my stay at this hotel was great and above all my expectations. The staff was friendly and helpful making our stay pleasant and special. The Hotel facilities and cleanliness were fantastic.