For our two nights in Heidelberg, we booked direct by ourselves given the relative dearth of upmarket brand properties, and oscillated between the very vintage-looking Marriott, the NH, where we had a prior less-than-wonderful experience in Brussels, or what looked to be a very pleasant premium double room at the PLAZA Premium Heidelberg (capitalising as part of their branding by the way) – all much of a muchness price-wise, approx. 200 Euro per night.
Overall, we had a pretty troubled stay, and to save everyone time, I wouldn’t be recommending a stay here based on our experience.
Arrival went smoothly which we were grateful for after a long day travelling, and we were quickly checked in and sent to the 4th floor to what would turn out to be our first room of two. The room was spacious, with the bathroom to the left upon entering, nestled behind a sliding glass door, and then…twin beds?
Anyway, we reckoned this wouldn’t be too much of an issue to resolve and a phone call to reception was quickly made. Honestly, service would have to have been the most consistent let-down of this stay and this was the first of several poor experiences – first the receptionist tried to insist the twin was a double, then that there were no double beds left, then that rather than come up and help resolve the situation, we should instead traipse back downstairs with our luggage to retrieve a new room card, but only as long as we hadn’t ‘messed’ up the room we were standing in.
So we dragged our luggage back to the lifts, and then downstairs, to be re-assigned Room 103, just literally a room away from the breakfast lounge (which thankfully, despite the proximity, didn’t actually trouble us).
Sure enough, our new room was a double bed and as I say, having had a long day travelling, it was time to freshen up – when we quickly discovered the sliding glass door grated horribly and impossibly along its rail. I was certainly not about to have another room change, if such a thing was even further possible, and so I stood there attempting to close the sliding glass door when, to my great surprise, the metal cover fell off entirely landing half on the floor and the other end on my arm. If there could be an award for poor first impressions, this was surely it.
Oddly, for those staying there, the second set of towels is stored in the room wardrobe in case you’re looking for it (but check first, for reasons I’ll come to in a moment) – you’re welcome – and I was quickly able to avail of the shower, which, continuing the trend of substandard maintenance, was mostly leaking from above the shower head creating a surprise rainfall effect not part of the original design.
We quickly departed to the market for the evening, letting reception know about the sliding glass door problem and rail cover, which he suggested he could fix, but otherwise certainly wasn’t troubled to offer an apology for our continued issues.
At a point, we just decided that for the sake of two nights, as long as the key issues were fixed, maybe it wasn’t worth much further complaining much as the prospect of spending over 400 Euro on such a poorly maintained room and having to endure such shaky service weighed heavily on us.
Next morning brought a brand new, highly unexpected issue. Breakfast, despite having three coffee machines scattered around the dining area, was down to just one and the queue was absolutely shocking. Bear in mind many larger groups simply dispatched one or two of their party with several cups, and it was the world’s slowest procession of coffee-making you’ve ever witnessed.
Thankfully this was resolved the next morning, in fairness – though again, some level of information, or an offer to prepare and bring the drinks, or even just an apology would have been wonderful. Instead, guests were largely ignored with one even having to ask for the machine to be refilled.
In terms of food variety and selection, breakfast was otherwise fine with the expected mix of bread rolls, salami’s and cold meats, fruits, and juices.
Service at breakfast, again, was a real mixed bag. On our first morning we walked inside to declare our arrival at the counter, and the lady kindly found a table for us. On the second morning however, we went in, and the colleague ticked us off and then just stared back at us until we asked should we find a place ourselves and were told ‘yes, just find a place’.
Thankfully for the remainder of the day, we were out enjoying Heidelberg, returning only late in the evening for a quick shower before bed. Remember I said to make sure you check for the towel set in the wardrobe? Well I didn’t, and it hadn’t been replenished by housekeeping – actually, the set from the day before had been taken away, so we now had one bath towel to go around.
So it’s probably pretty obvious by now that we were, sadly, extremely delighted to be checking out the next day – to what was actually a very friendly check-out service and an offer to store our luggage, a level of hospitality we could’ve probably done with a little more often.
But overall the apparent poor maintenance, service, and general careless attitude just made the stay not enjoyable.
