Paul‘s Hotel Review for the
Details:
Duration of stay: 2 nights / weekend City & family visit
Check-in / Check-out:
Check-in Process:
Check-out Process:
Bonvoy recognition:
At Check-in:
In General:
Other F&B outlets
The Bakery: N/A
Lobby Lounge: N/A
Cigar Lounge:N/A
Whimsy: Already closed again
Executive Lounge:
Atmosphere:
Paul‘s Mix:
Pool, Spa: N/A
Social media interaction:
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= bad, a lot of work needs to be done
=not good, you will be busy with corrections
= Half a Point/sheep
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Another
difficult review. The only consistency at this property is the inconsistency.
After a year we are back at this property. The hotel is now more than a year an official JW Marriott Hotel or let's say a wannabe!
We have followed and reviewed the transition from Maritim to Central District to the JW Marriott Hotel Berlin.
In 2,5 years and especially the last year since the official opening on January 3rd 2023 as a JW Hotel the property hasn't really developed or gone anywhere.
The baby steps done are ridiculous but here our review based on our personal experience.
General Info:
The JW Marriott Hotel Berlin is located in Berlin Mitte in the Embassies district.
There is unfortunately no urban life, bars or restaurants in close vicinity of the property.
It takes
around 10-15 minutes to walk to get to the Potsdamer Platz and around a 20minute walk to Brandenburg Gate. The next convenient public transport station is a 15minute walk away and it is the
S-Bahn station at Potsdamer Platz.
Therefore, 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 must get around with taxis or Uber.
The JW
Marriott Hotel Berlin is rated as a 5 star hotel but the property felt short on super basic procedures during our stay which would be mandatory for a five star hotel such as no room service after
22:00 LT or no turn down service. More details below.
The rooms & suites are spread over 6 massive floors and the tower wing is 10 floors high.
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:
Well, the first huge fallback the first minute we were at the property.
We were in contact with the Hotel the. day before arrival to check if they have electronic car charging stations as our rental car might be electric.
They confirmed that they have charging stations and the associate we talked to was super friendly and helpful. He asked, when we would arrive and we told him that our flight lands in the morning
and we would be early. He said, that it is no problem at all and that they would have the room ready for us as of 11AM. We were surprised and thanked him.
So the next morning things were different. Due to a business meeting in the morning we only arrived at the property at 1PM.
As the agent told us the day before the room would be ready as of 11AM we thought we would go to the hotel.
We wanted to check in but the agent told us, that the room is not ready. We were a little surprised but ok, things might changed also from their side. The agent promised it would only take a few
minutes and that we should wait in the lounge, he would come and get us. We thought we'll played and handled and went to the lounge for a drink. At 2:15pm still no one showed up and we went back
to the front desk. The room was still not ready and they couldn't tell us how much longer it will take.
So we stored our bags and went to the city (which we would have done at 1PM if they would have told us).
We returned at 4:15PM and the room was ready.
Such a huge difference to our last check-in here.
Check-out:
Check-out was okay. Nothing of the ordinary. The agent was friendly but no interaction. I had the feeling that the agent has no idea what he was doing.
As our balance was higher than the block they have taken at check-in, I asked him if he could take/transaction the block and make a second payment with the difference. A simple split payment.
He said no and processed once more the entire amount and I have now a block for two weeks on my credit card.
Frontoffice:
Staff at the front office was okay. The hearted hospitality from our last visit has gone.
Staff is friendly and helpful but the interaction and the step ahead in customer service is missing.
Marriott Bonvoy Titanium Elite recognition:
No recognition at Check-in at all or mentioning anything.
No welcome amenity in the room and no welcome card when we arrived.
On the second day, when we returned from the city in the afternoon there was an amenity in the room with a card.
Thanks to our Titanium Status with the Marriott Bonvoy program, we were upgraded from a Classic King room to one of their renovated Executive Suites.
The
lounge is fully open from 6:30AM to 10 PM. It offers soft drinks, coffee, tea and small nibbles during the entire day and happy hour is from 5PM until 10 PM. The lounge is not open for breakfast,
so we were allowed to have breakfast at the Market restaurant and we could choose the welcome gift of either points or F&B credit. We did choose the points for this stay.
Eligible nights and points:
Eligible nights, eligible revenue and points were posted 24 hours after our stay and completely correct as per folio.
Concierge / Bell Boys:
The concierge and the bell boys are super present in lobby and reception area. They are very friendly and helpful. They are still a step ahead of the customers.
Management / Leadership Team:
We did not recognize a single employee from our last stay. The turnover of regular staff at this property is massive. Everyone seems new.
We were happy to see at least 3-4 management and middle management team members who are still here and we were able to chat to them again.
The last GM hast left already again after 1 1/2 years. As described above, during the last year and 2 month where we haven't been here only baby steps have been achieved.
In 2 years not a single additional room has been renovated!
All that was done for the official opening in January 2023 was the redone/upcycled 6th floor.
The beautiful but useless Cigar Lounge was opened. We never saw someone sitting in there. Just thrown out money.
The Market breakfast hall has been partially renovated and opened today, 2nd March 2024 including a temporary buffet so they can start remodeling the other part.
They are also working on a new Executive lounge but no opening date yet.
As we wrote and suspected last time and written in our review, unfortunately not much happened with the last GM.
A lot of blah blah and hot air but ultimately just baby steps for the property.
In addition, the GM allowed to deviate from the JW Marriott Standards and procedures and not even must haves to receive a 5 star rating (no turn down, no 24h room service etc) are followed.
On
Monday 3rd March a new GM will take over the JW Marriott Berlin. We are wishing him good luck.
We think and have the feeling (we wrote it already in our previous reviews) that this property will never ever become a real JW Marriott Hotel.
After 2 1/2 years without real improvements, only 20% of the rooms renovated and nothing done in a whole year also customers loose faith that this property will ever make it.
Room / Suite:
As said above, we were lucky to be upgraded to one of the renovated/updated Executive Suites on the 6th floor.
We have stayed at the exact same room type in one of our previous stays. So please look
here to
compare the "new" and old room style. (the old. Rooms are still from Maritim)
The
entire 6th floor has been updated and looks amazing compared to the old “Maritim” rooms. Unfortunately, also after 2 1/2 years since taking over this property, only the 6th floor has been updated
yet and so the hotel only offers a rough 20% of updated / renovated rooms and 80% of the rooms are still in the old Maritim design and look. A super bad ratio.
I am
talking of updated / renovated rooms because a lot has just been worked up instead of being exchanged. The rooms on the 6th floor have gotten new floors, new wall papers, new curtains, and some
new “movable” furniture. All the wooden work such as cabinets, nightstands, built ins, headboards of the bed, vanity cabinets etc. have just been painted in white and have not been
renovated.
As I
said before, the updated/renovated suite looks great. It is a huge improvement over the old Maritim style and it is definitely more JW Marriott style.
The suite consists of a living room, a bedroom and a bathroom. All rooms and the bathroom lead off a hallway.
Both rooms have massive windows and with the new color scheme the rooms are bright and light. The new tiled floor in both rooms looks amazing but it is a challenge for house keeping, keeping
those glossy tiles clean.
The
living room has a small dining table with 3 chairs, a small sitting area with a couch and chair and a desk with an office chair and a built-in closet.
The
bedroom has a king size bed, a built-in closet, a desk and chair and a big flat screen.
The
mattresses of the king size bed are great. For me, the perfect fit in degree of hardness. The bedding itself wasn’t great. The pillows and the duvet was fluffy and comfortable.
Bathroom:
The bathroom is big in size. It consists of a double vanity, a big bathtub, and a shower. Also here all the floor tiles were exchanged and all the rest just worked up.
The water pressure in the shower was just amazing.
Housekeeping:
Housekeeping does a great job. The room was cleaned properly and the bed was done perfect and impeccable.
Unfortunately the old inconsistency continues.
There was no turn down service which is a must and standard for a 5 star hotel on the first night.
On the second night it was done because we asked at the reception and they told us that currently that service is only on request.
JW Steakhouse:
The Steakhouse is officially the specialty restaurant of the property but it is as well the only real restaurant the hotel offers.
As we loved it the last time, we decided to have dinner once at the JW Steakhouse.
The service was again impeccable, and the staff was super attentive, friendly and offered an excellent service.
The food was top notch, fresh and tasty.
Whimsy:
Already closed again.
BAR26:
Bar26 is the official hotel bar located on the ground floor.
It is a
typical hotel bar. The staff on both nights were super friendly. The drinks were good (not as they used to be but still high level). They took care of the guests and were chatty with them.
Exactly what you need in a bar.
Lobby Lounge Bar:
A bar which is in the central part of the lobby. For us the most beautiful outlet at this property. You can grab a drink or coffee during the entire day.
Cigar Lounge:
An absolutely stunning lounge with a fireplace, lots of wing chairs, cigars, whiskey and cognac and a super cozy atmosphere. Unfortunately always empty, useless and thrown out money for
nothing.
The Market
The Market is the restaurant on the first floor, and it is mainly used for breakfast. On Saturday 2nd March it was the first day where the new hall of the Market Restaurant was opened.
Goodbye Maritim cruise ship feeling, welcome JW Marriott modern style.
The new restaurant is very bright in terms of lights, windows and furniture used.
It is very modern and has a great atmosphere. The colours used are warm and welcoming.
The current buffet in the market hall is only a provisional arrangement until the other section with the real buffet has been renovated.
The cold breakfast buffet itself is big and beautiful. The cold buffet offers everything you can dream and think off. The products are super fresh, tasty and the buffet is done with lots of
love.
The hot breakfast section is okay, offers basic products but the buffet itself is strange. There are simply cast iron pans stuck together but what we find much worse is that the pans are
constantly open and there is no spit protection. The hot buffet for our feeling is absolutely unhygienic.
With the provisional arrangement of the buffet there is currently no show kitchen. Addition hot egg dishes such as omelettes or sunny side up eggs can be ordered.
We were happy to see and being greeted by Mr. B the restaurant manager of the Market Restaurant. At least a familiar face is still around.
I don't know if he remembered us or if we have been flagged but his welcome was hearty and friendly.
On the first morning, he was the only person who was smiling, friendly and interacting with customers
The service and waiting staff itself was a disaster and every employee of the Deutsche Bahn dining car team has more charm.
No one but simply no one was smiling or interacting with customers. Guests greeted staff with "good morning" but no one would return the greeting or say something. Their attitude completely
killed the joy of the new breakfast room and also the desire to have a leisurely breakfast.
A completely different scene on the second day.
There was more and more experienced staff at breakfast and the feeling was 180° different. They were smiling, interacting with guests at the tables and took the time to chat. Also the
teamwork was completely different amongst them.
Executive Lounge:
The lounge is located on the first floor, right next to the market restaurant. The lounge is open from 6 AM to 11 PM and offers soft drinks, coffee, tea and nibbles the entire day. From 5PM
to 10PM is the official cocktail time. The hotel serves red and white wine and two different beers. They do have a small buffet with different cold snacks, salads and some hot items.
The
lounge itself is in an old meeting room. The room only offers a few seating options and is really small for the hotel with so many rooms and lounge entry entitled guests. Currently they have an
overflow part in front of the lounge in the hallway.
Luckily they are currently working on a new lounge in the old part of the "The Market" breakfast restaurant. Work is currently ongoing.
The staff in the lounge is super friendly and helpful.
Pool / Spa:
The pool area and Spa is on the 5th floor. The pool and spa area is so carelessly furnished and designed, you do not feel like you want to lay or relax there.
Social Media:
Social media is okay for a European Hotel. They are active especially on Instagram, not so active on Facebook. Lots of posts from themselves and they do also interact on social media.
The problem we see and our personal feedback is, that their shared postings mostly have nothing to do with a JW Marriott Hotel.
Most of the shared posts are very sexist and show scantily clad models or influencers.
Summary:
The only consistency at this property is the inconsistency.
The Hotel is far away of being a. "real" JW Marriott Hotel and at some points even falls short of keeping up 5 Star hotel requirements.
Some JW Marriott Procedures are not followed at all.
80% of the rooms are still from 2005 when the hotel opened as a Maritim Hotel. So the rooms are old and completely worn out.
However...
Their prices are on the lower side of hotel prices for Berlin (except if there is something going on in the city or if they have a big function). Sometimes they are even cheaper than the Moxy
Hotels.
If you are visiting this property without any expectations of being a JW Marriott Hotel or being a 5 Star hotel then you are getting a good hotel with a good service.
Don't expect a JW Marriott or a 5 star hotel and you will be fine. This is something we have to learn that they were not able to transition this property in 2 1/2 years.
With
this mindset and change in expectations also we might consider to come back as the property sometimes has unbeatable rates.
Notes:
- We do rate and review the Hotels on our personal experience during our stay.
- Paul the Sheep does not get any benefits from the Hotels/Airlines etc.
- We 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.
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