Nora Hotel Berlin

Lovely hotel! The rooms are all different shapes and designed quite tastefully. Only downside is the wifi signal was non-existent from our 5th floor room. Note that there is no reception, the restaurant downstairs serves as the check-in counter. My friends raved about the restaurant’s vege/vegan options though!

The room itself is really nice and it's close to alexanderplatz and all the tourist attractions but there are a few problems that just cant be over looked. You have to check in an Asian restaurant downstairs and there is no check in desk so it's basically apartments with no kitchen/living room. When we arrived we were given a key and sent up to our room. Got upstairs and opened the door to find a a man in only his boxers in the pitch black on a laptop. Promptly closed the door and went to the restaurant to ask what was going on. We were offered no apology or consideration the man just started scrolling through his phone frantically calling numbers, I'm assuming the man in the room was possibly a friend. Given our second key and finally in the room which was nice but the lighting is awful and stage lights that make the room very dark and you can hardly see. One towel per room, no hand soap, and two single duvets for a double bed. Pillows aren't pillows they are lumpy duvets that have been cut in half and put in duvet covers. The corridors are disgusting. Also on our last night our room key wasnt working so at around 10:45 we went down to the restaurant to sort another problem only to find all the lights off and no one in just a number to call so we phoned and a few minutes later a woman showed up and sorted our key luckily. However if it had been 2am we would be have much luck. Also there are some considerable road works going on outside they are adding more tram tracks in and we have been woken every morning at about 6am to drilling and shouting. For the price we payed and how close we were it wasnt the worst but next time were just gunna bite the bullet and book a proper hotel.

The staff were beyond unhelpful. We asked if we could check-in early, and were not given an option to even pay for this. Upon checking in, we asked was it possible to use the printing facilities to be told no, there was no printer. Upon being led through the back of the restaurant (??) to go to the lift, we spotted a huge printer/fax machine combo and was then told this didn't work. When we got to the room, it hadn't been vacuumed well and the bathroom sink wasn't cleaned. We also asked for an ironing board to be brought to the room, and iron, and were told the hotel didn't have these facilities, however when we were out, I got a phone call from the hotel saying they had found an ironing board and left it in the room, but no iron was left (we got that a day later) The next day, we followed the instructions to leave towels we wanted replaced on the floor of the shower. When we came back from a day of sightseeing, the room had been made up, but the towels had been taken but not replaced. I went to the 'reception' area, but this was closed and a handwritten sign saying 'reception closed, for check in phone [a number]'. I phoned that number and the person who answered said they hadn't had their fresh towels delivered today and were hoping for them soon. My partner and I were hoping to shower and get ready to go out for the night, so I went back to the room and killed some time (the TV didn't work) and phoned an hour later to be told we wouldn't get any towels and I asked if I went out and bought some, would they be reimbursed and I was told this wouldn't be an option, and so we had to shower that night and the next morning with a hand towel. The person on the other end of the phone just hung up when I asked why, for a €100/night hotel, this was the level of hospitality they thought acceptable for a supposed 4* hotel. The cleaning staff let themselves in, even when there is no sign on the door asking for the room to be made up, and I was in my underwear and my partner was in the bathroom about to step into the shower. No coffee or tea in the room to even make yourself a cup, but yet there was cups and a kettle. A/C was useless and did little to cool the room down. This isn't a hotel and shouldn't be marketed as so. It is more of an Air BnB style or apartment room you are renting. No customer service or reception to even check out properly when we attempted to check out at 8am. The restaurant was closed and the door locked, so we had to leave our room key on a table outside on the street