Crowne Plaza Berlin - Potsdamer Platz

A great hotel next to a few train stations.

Perhaps my expectations were heightened given the strong rating for this hotel on Hotels.com, but we did not have a wonderful stay here. We encountered a number of issues and some things simply not up to a standard that one reasonably expects from this caliber of hotel. The room we were assigned had a broken window - it would not stay closed, which would be fine if it weren't on the second floor (204), such that cigarette smoke from outside wafted in at all hours. There is also a school or daycare across the street, and so if you are street-facing, you will hear children yelling at most hours of the day. But when the window would stay shut, the room was surprisingly quiet. I did not expect that the only toiletry provided would be an all-in-one shampoo/hand/body wash. No lotion, no conditioner. The beds were also extremely firm. We booked a double room, and were given two singles - again, fine, we pushed them together but simply not what we booked. Finally, the light controls in the room are maddening. You can only turn the hanging ceiling lights and entry way lighting on and off if you have precisely the correct switches by the bed and by the door in the optimal position (in other words, only if the right bedside switch is on already can you use the entry way controls; only if the entry way controls are off can you control the hanging lamps). As someone who spends about 70 nights a year in hotels, I'm quite certain I'll not return to this one.

Lobby seemed nice and staff were friendly. Even at first glance the room looks nice enough. But reality hits hard. There was a dreadful drain smell from approx. 19:00 until 06:00. The aircon didn’t work, but it did offer a dazzling blue light that, with the strategic help of a mirror, both turned the room into a budget rave and managed to burn the back of my retinas from the bed. Shower was broken and there were other people's pubes on the shower wall. Nice touch. Awful pillows. In the room, you can pick from either something unbelievably thin or what seemed to feel like a giant balloon. Getting sleep here was a genuine challenge. Thankfully we only stayed for a single night.

The hotel is very comfortable. The room is large with very high ceilings. There is a subway station a few hundred meters away.

Front desk staff were very helpful.