The Niu Flash

That's been a while I was so unhappy about a hotel. First, the staff at the reception was particularly unfriendly, avoiding eye-contact and trying to speak to my male colleague (who obviously had nothing to do with my booking) instead of me. Second, my booking was nowhere to be found in their system, even though I had received a confirmation email with a room number. Given the late hour of my check-in (around midnight) I was really looking forward to check in quickly and rest, while it took an hour to find a solution for my booking. Booking was made directly with the hotel, by the way. Third, once I finally got a room (different from the one started in the confirmation email), i was surprised to find the "Do not disturb" sign on the door. The room inside was in total disorder and was clearly occupied by someone. It took another 15 minutes to get this sorted. Fourth, when i finally got a room, the desk was full of oily fingerprints. given the late hour I decided to surrender as the rest of the room was ok. The awkward communication with the receptionist did not make it any better. The service is terrible.

Reception staff at check-in are slow and absent, leaving people standing in a queue with no service. Staff insisted I must pay for the room that was already paid for, so I had to pay twice to be allowed to check in to the room. After a 24 hour trip from the bottom of Africa, I was not impressed, even though the second payment was refunded. No body wash/soap in the room on arrival and it was not replaced after the room service cleaning. Luckily I packed my own body wash! The room was not cleaned properly, the bin was overloaded but never emptied. The lighting in the room is poor but that's probably so you can't see the dust. The bed is comfortable and it's nice to have a shutter for the late sunset. The breakfast spread leaves much to be desired. It's definitely not worth the price for stodgy egg cake. The coffee machine provides many options though and the breakfast staff are quite efficient. Getting a drink at the bar is a lengthy process even though there are no other patrons there. Apart from all that, the theme is cool, if that's what you're in to.

Clean rooms and easy check in. The stuff tried to wake me up so hardly at 12:30 although I had made a reservation for one extra night. I have never experienced something like that before. Really good breakfast. The Hotel located in a nice and calm area. Near TU berlin and some other offices. Its just 5min to near Bus stop and 10 min walk to the U bahn station .

The hotel was clean and had some cool features like the bluetooth speaker and electronically controlled blinds in the room. The bed was also comfy. Other than this, the room was still pretty small/basic and too expensive for what it was. The water pressure was really bad, location isn't optimal, and we were woken up early each morning by a cleaning lady. Hotels usually have a better overview of who is in which room and when they are due to check out (cleaning a room every day isn't necessary for guests staying for just two nights).