After you've dragged yourself around Dortmund from hotel to hotel in the burning sun and no one has a cool place for you to lie down and rest....This is it!
You literally will just lie there enjoying a survivable temperature, during the drought of 2018.
The rooms may be tiny but you don't care. You have AC. And I had a great view of the amazing Catholic Cathedral a hand's reach out my window - I was totally thrilled about it. It was as if I were staying in the Cathedral itself.
The staff is also coffee shop staff, serving espresso but also hotel rooms, so you have to wait a bit, but when you get your room, it has AC.
The elevator was broken, and more than one kind employee offered to carry my luggage up 4 flights of stairs, and I would not let them, because I was so happy to have AC.
The breakfast buffet is minimal, and too expensive for me (1/3 of the cost of the room!) so I went to McDonalds. But I was refreshed and not grouchy about it, cuz...AC.
I made a special request to keep my favorite room, and I was granted it!
There is no minibar, no restaurant, you bring your own. But you can actually sleep at night because you have AC.
Germans seem reluctant to accept the reality of global warming, proven by the workplaces and hotels that do not offer AC. It's time, Germany, to think about the fact that it is too warm to function without AC.
One little detail that perplexed me about my room's AC unit - it was set to "economy" and would turn itself off every 20, 30 minutes. Then I'd become a baked chicken again on my bed (just like my time at the Dortmund hotel Novum Excelsior). I'd get up, turn it on, go to sleep, and then have to get up an hour later soaking wet in sweat and turn it on again.
One employee showed me that there is a setting to fix that, that it stays on all night, but during the room cleaning my maid switched that feature off, so I had to get up through the night again to turn it back on. Not complaining, it's awesome to have AC, but I think it's unethical to set the AC to turn itself off regularly. Would you do that to the radiators in the rooms? Make people get up in the night, freezing cold again, and switch the heaters back on?
A huge design flaw (built-in, so not really a "design flaw") of this hotel, now you know. Please ask about it, so you don't have to get up all night to help them save energy.
Also, the entire lobby level (and coffee shop) was not AC'd and there was no way I could sit down there and enjoy a coffee (even though they give you free drink coupons). The poor employees had fans blowing on them, it was sweltering down there with all the espresso machines. I hope the hotel owners decide to be as kind to their workers as they are to the guests.
Especially nice were the employees Nancy and Alex. But they were all great.
Next time I'm in Dortmund, I'm not messing around with other hotels. Get the Internet price (60Euros) and book Coffee Fellows, if you are in Germany in Summer.
Thank you guys!!!!