Berlin Central District Review
Paul‘s Hotel Review for the
Overall Impression: 
Details:
Duration of stay: 3 nights / City Trip
Check-in / Check-out:
Check-in Process:
Check-out Process:
Concierge Service: N/A
Staff @ Front Desk:
Bonvoy recognition:
At Check-in:
In General:
Room / Bathroom:
Bed, quality of sleep:
Bathroom, Shower:
Room Atmosphere:
Housekeeping general:
Cleanliness:
Food & Beverage:
Breakfast:
Staff Breakfast:
Bar:
Staff Bar:
Restaurant: closed
Staff Restaurant: N/A
Lounge: closed
Staff Lounge: N/A
Paul‘s Mix:
Pool, Spa: N/A
Hotel Location:
Mojito Rating 
:
:
General Customer Care:
Staff attitude, interaction and responsiveness:
Social media interaction:
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= bad, a lot of work needs to be done
=not good, you will be busy with corrections
= good & normal, nothing special
= high level, but the icing on the cake is missing
= topnotch, leave me here!
= Half a Point/sheep
—-
This stay was a three-night city trip to Berlin, Germany where we visited our family and enjoyed a weekend in our second hometown.
We did choose the Hotel Berlin Central District as it is a new property to the Marriott portfolio in Berlin which we wanted to give a try.
The rating and review is a little difficult as the Hotel currently is a white flag until the renovation is completed.
The property was taken over from Maritim Hotels by Marriott on 1st January 2021 and it will be renovated and rebranded again as JW Marriott Berlin. It should be opening as JW in early 2022
General Information:
The hotel was opened in 2005 by Maritim Hotels and it is only 15 years old. But the Maritim Brand is very outmoded and caters for the pure German elderly market. This is why this rather new
(15 years) hotel has a complete feeling of a hotel in the 80s.
The most beautiful part of the building is the lobby and foyer.
So for our review we will fully honor the white flag status of the property but never the less as it is a Marriott portfolio property certain aspects must be adhered to as per Marriott standards.
The Hotel Berlin Central District is located in Berlin Mitte in the Embassies district.
There is unfortunately no urban life, bars or restaurants in the neighborhood of the property.
It takes around 15 minutes to walk to get to the Potsdamer Platz and around a 20 minutes walk to Brandenburg Gate. The next convenient public transport station is a 15 minutes walk away and
it is the S-Bahn station at Potsdamer Platz and the bus stations around.
This is why we rate the location as a so so location for Berlin. If you have a car there is no issue to get around and the hotel has a massive underground parking.
If you get here for a weekend getaway and need the public transport then there are better choices in town. Otherwise you have to get around with taxis or Uber.
The Hotel is currently rated as a 4 star property and the rooms & suites are spread over 10 floors and two massive building wings. Many floors are currently out of the inventory as they
are being renovated and rebranded. The good thing is that as a guest you currently don't hear anything from the renovation
The property has 467 rooms and 38 suites and a whopping 18 meeting/banquet rooms with the biggest one for a total of 2300 guests.
Check-in:
The check-in has to be rated in two parts as it was super friendly, welcoming but useless in terms of information.
The agent was friendly, welcoming and helpful. He did talk to the guests, did small talk and made you feel welcome but...
No information received about anything on this property. No information about breakfast and times, no information about the offered Bonvoy Benefits as the lounge is closed, no information
about the F&B outlets or anything else such as spa or pool, no information about WiFi etc.
No Marriott Bonvoy recognition at all at check-in and basically none of the Marriott procedures were followed.
This is super sad to see as we learned from the friendly agent during small talk, that he is actually a Front Office Manager from another property and here to teach the new colleagues about
Marriott standards.
Well better no training instead of teaching them wrong or no procedures.
As said... super good in terms of friendlyness but useless in terms of information and check-in process.
Unfortunately we had a bumpy start with this property. We booked an Executive Suite with two bathrooms.
After receiving the keys we went to the room. It smelled heavily from cold smoke so we returned back to the frontdesk to change the room. We were given a new room and this time no issues with
the smell but this room only had one bathroom. The room was okay for us but it felt like a downgrade and not what we booked. I went back to the reception just to make sure it wasn't a
downgrade.
Unfortunately they had no more Executive Suites with 2 bathrooms but they assured it wasn't a downgrade. They General Manager came and apologized for the inconvenience and we had a really
nice chat about other topics as well.
During our stay we passed the frontdesk quite often and had a few questions. Staff was always friendly and helpful and greeted when passing the front office.
Check-out:
Check-out was good and friendly. The agent interacted with the guests and made sure everything was okay during our stay.
Marriott Bonvoy Ambassador Elite recognition:
No recognition at check-in about the status and absolutely no information received about the property and benefits.
No upgrade, as the property was running on full occupancy for the weekend and absolutely fine with us, as we booked an Executive Suite and this is the way as per T&C's.
The lounge is currently closed but all eligible Elite Members will receive their benefits in the Bar26 and they go even further and you can choose one dish for dinner from the menu.
Finally and thankfully there was a welcome amenity in the room. Well done Hotel Berlin Central District and thank you for that. The first amenity post pandemic in a German hotel.
Water is in the room but hidden in a cupboard and you have to search it. This leaves the impressions as if they would like to save the money for free water they have to offer.
Room:
We booked an Executive Suite for our stay, as we saw whilst booking, that the city must be full as only a few hotels had some vacancies.
As the hotel was running on full capacity there was no status upgrade which was perfectly fine and no issue for us. This is why we booked already a suite.
Our suite was located on the 4th floor. The room and interior was/is still from Maritim Hotels. The furniture and colors have a dated look but it is very well maintained. The colours and
interior have a Maritim touch and it feels like an interior on a cruise ship.
The atmosphere in the room was actually great. Lots of windows with lots of natural light. The suite had a nice sized bedroom, a big living room and a spacious bathroom. To us it feeled like
having our own little cozy and comfortable apartment.
The air conditioning worked perfectly fine and the ambiance was good.
Housekeeping does a good job. Everything was clean and tidy.
The free water bottles were hidden in a cupboard in the living room. You really have to search for them, which leaves a felling that the property hides them on purpose to save the costs of
the free water. No replenishment of the bottles as per house keeping they are only offered once on arrival.
The bed was super comfy, with some awesome bedding consisting of light and soft duvet and pillows. The mattress is really good, rather on the firm side but with an awesome topper. We had a
very good night's sleep during our stay.
The bathroom still looks quite modern. The shower hose is leaking badly but never the less there is still massive water pressure and you can't feel a difference. So the shower in terms of
water pressure is great.
All hotel amenities were stocked in the bathroom for 2 people and all other small items (q-tips, cotton balls, toothbrush etc) were available too.
Due to the massive convention / banquet area they had a big meeting and wedding going on. No noise could be heared in the room and also in the lobby area there wasn't a big issue. They organized the events very well and regular hotel guests were not disturbed.
F&B outlets / Lounge:
BAR26:
Bar 26 is currently the only outlet which is open at the property for dinner.
We did have a few drinks there and also had dinner one night. Needless to say that we also performed our Mojito tasting.
The food was super delicious and tasty.
The big treasure of this outlet is the staff. They offered an absolutely amazing customer service and go above and beyond for all customers. Everyone is served with a top notch service and
you are given the impression to be more than welcome. This department will have no issues with the transition to JW.
Restaurant "the Market" :
The "the Market" restaurant is on the first floor and is used as the Breakfast outlet.
Breakfast was served in buffet style and there were no COVID shortbacks in service.
The buffet was set up beautifully and with passion. The food was very nice and super fresh. You have a great choice in cold cuts, cheese, yogurt and fresh fruits. There is also a big variety
of bred available but due to the mass needed it is all industrial bread and not a single loaf of bread from a bakery. In a bread country like Germany this is a little downturn.
They have a life cooking station where they prepare hot egg dishes on the minute. The omelet was one of the best ones I had in a long time.
In addition they serve bacon and sausage as hot items. There were no vegetables or potatoes available.
Breakfast is still focused on a typical German clientele. There are no international dishes available and for example an Asian customer would have difficulties to find something for his
taste.
A complete no go for us was the orange juice out of a machine. No style at all and exactly the same as in a low budget hotel.
Staff at breakfast is a hit or miss. We had some very good but also some poor waiters. The same with the team heads. One was good and the other one was super gruff and unfriendly. This part
of the team in our eyes will have issues to transition to a JW Marriott in terms of service and behavior.
The ambiance and the restaurant itself looks like in the 80s and full maritime style. You have actually the feeling you are having breakfast on cruiseship as it is exactly the same ambiance.
Restaurant Falvours:
Already under renovation and therefore closed.
Club Lounge:
The lounge is currently closed but eligible members are getting all benefits at Bar 26.
In our eyes the property goes even further than they have to. Eligible members do get a dinner item free of charge out of the menu and every night they have a daily recommendation as a
supplemental dish to the menu.
As the staff is from Bar26 the service they offer is above and beyond many lounges we have seen.
The pool and spa area were closed during our stay. I can't tell if it is due to COVID or if they are already renovating.
The social media person or team is quite active and interacts on posts and comments on Facebook and Instagram.
Last but not least they are following all COVID protocols and we havent met a single associate not wearing a mask.
All in all a good stay at this white flag Marriott property. Even with the hickups at the start we did enjoy our stay at the end.
There is lots of work ahead of the entire team to change this cruise ship style former Maritim property in to a JW Marriott.
Some departments will have an easier transition and for others it might be more difficult. Some staff members will identify themselves with the new brand JW and others will most probably not
be able to accept the change.
We decided to follow this transition and come back from time to time to see the exiting and fascinating development of the property.
We can recommend this property for a stay in Berlin if you are aware that the hotel is in a massive change and you aren't expecting already a JW Marriott.
Notes:
- Paul the Sheep does not get any benefits from the Hotels/Airlines etc.
- Paul will always pay for the services in order to be able to rate freely and truly about the experiences.
-If you are interested in more details, please send us a private message and I will be happy to share more information and pictures.