The Deutz, a Tribute Portfolio Hotel

Imagine booking a 7th floor terrace room in November. 7th floor is the top (penthouse) floor, and you have your own entire terrace. You’ve paid a premium for what’s advertised as the best room in the hotel. You arrive late, around 9 p.m., on a chilly November evening with temperatures at approximately 5C. Excited to settle in, you step into your room—only to find it freezing. You call the front desk to ask how to adjust the temperature and are told the controls are on the wall. Dutifully, you set the thermostat to 26°C, take a hot shower, and return, expecting warmth. Instead, the room is still ice-cold. By 11 p.m., you call the front desk again. This time, you’re met with a frazzled staff member who apologizes but admits he can’t help because he has no maintenance expertise—and maintenance won’t be in until the next day. He’s the only staff on duty, he says, and, as a consolation, offers you a free drink. A free drink? The room is freezing. How, exactly, will a cocktail solve that? Desperate, you ask if there’s a portable space heater. He says no. It’s late, you’re exhausted, and switching rooms at this hour feels impossible. You crawl into bed, shivering, hoping the situation somehow improves overnight. It doesn’t. You wake to the same freezing room. The thermostat, still set at 26°C, has done absolutely nothing. It’s clear the heating is completely broken. Cold and frustrated, you pack your things, eager to escape. At checkout, you relay the issue to the morning staff, who apologize and reveal the final insult: the heating on the penthouse floor has been broken for days. Let that sink in. The hotel knew the heating on that floor was broken and still rented out the room—at top-tier pricing, no less. It’s a blatant disregard for guest welfare in favor of profit. This experience was unacceptable on every level. I will never return.

The hotel is located in a very strange location . It is located at a middle of a scary neighborhood. We didn’t feel safe . Watch out for your surroundings. When I parked our rental car temporarily on the road across from the hotel and left my wife alone in the rental car a sneaky parking meter warden took pictures of our licenses plates and a picture of my wife . How scary! Not a good first impression. When I returned and my wife told me , I looked for the ticket warden and I found him in front off the hotel. I asked him what was going on and he ignored me and keep walking. I then moved the car to the hotel parking lot under the other tower of the hotel and checked in with the front desk . We then proceeded to go to our room . The room was not very big and the bathroom was very small . A small fridge was provided. The fridge didn’t work properly and was very warm . I mentioned that to the not very nice lady at the front desk and she couldn’t care less . The next morning all our food in the refrigerator were spoiled and I had to throw everything away . The bathroom towels were very limited. When I went back downstairs to the car park the nasty ticket warden had placed a parking ticket on my windshield! What a horrible man ! I took the front desk attendant and unfortunately he didn’t speak English very well but I gave him the parking ticket and told him it was unacceptable. He tried to explain to me that he will take care of it . The hotel lobby , restaurant and bar didn’t look very clean . A free low quality rubbery candy station in the lobby didn’t looks very appealing and very messy and dirty. Some tongues and brown paper bags were laying on a dirty wooden shelf. A basket of unappetizing whole fruits mainly pears, oranges and apples was also present in the lobby free of charge. The problem was that most of the fruits were moldy and rotten. The lady at the front desk didn’t spoked broken English and was not very nice . She had an attitude

TL;DR: A fuss-free, worry-free experience that checks all the normal boxes. Stay for its convenient access to Koelnmesse's North Entrance (main gate), the nearby Lidl, good room, great staff and inclusion in the Mariott program. Consider alternatives if you primarily want to explore the west side of Cologne, expect an experiential hotel (e.g. spa, shows in the lobby), prioritise public transport access or want lots of restaurants nearby. When I prepared for my trip to Gamescom, I booked this hotel without thinking much beyond its extremely convenient location. Afterwards, I did have some reservations given the concerningly mixed reviews from others. Particular areas of concern included the condition of the room and the staff, with comments mentioning alleged theft, a complete lack of english proficiency and poor performance. While I can't discount others' experience (especially considering some reviews were from years ago), I am pleased to report that none of these were a particular issue for me. First on location, if you want to be close to the Congress Centre, there is no better hotel to be based in. While on the map it might seem that some of the hotels near the train station could compete, if you've actually gone inside the Congress Centre, you'll know there's a decent walk from the South entrance to the actual exhibition halls. There was one review that mentioned safety issues walking from the train station to the hotel. I've gone along the path at least once a day during my trip, sometimes multiple times, without issues, though notably I did not travel after dark (which is quite late given it's the summer as I'm writing this) simply because of my schedule. This might also have been influenced by the heavy security presence due to gamescom. Within a five minute walk is the discount retailer Lidl, where you can buy cheap bottled water and food. There is also a small convenience store steps away, though the staff there struggle with English (not blaming them, just be aware, they were more than happy to talk through google translate). Prepare around 45 euros taxi from CGN airport, otherwise you'll have to either interchange metro lines or walk roughly half an hour, perfectly doable if you've only got a rugsack but challenging if you've brought a large suitcase. On the staff, as I came for Gamescom, the staff offered to keep my luggage when I first arrived when I enquired online, which was an appreciated gesture. I was surprised that they didn't care about me having a reservation later, suggesting they'd offer this service even for non-guests. While the location means it's likely out of the way for many people who'd use this (presumably people coming for the Koelnmesse centre for exhibitions), it's still nice. I was particularly concerned about staff being uncourteous and not speaking English, but this definitely wasn't my experience. All receptionists I met spoke fluent english and were very friendly, coming out to open the doors when they

The main problem with this hotel is location. It is on the wrong side of river and a long walk to any of the popular attractions. But the feel of the hotel just wasn’t right. The room was good. We didn’t have Breakfast but attempted dinner. We ordered an entree which didn’t come and a lamb dish which was truly almost inedible. We then decided to try dessert but there were none available. If the restaurant isn’t ready to open they shouldn’t be open. The man on the front desk in the evenings struggled with English and was unhelpful.

The property was spic and span. Good comfortable sleep. A small living area. Comfortable bed. It's absolutely value for money and we enojed the 1N stay here. Wifi was also good. The front office was not particularly frontly. May be language barrier. They had some issues with my card and double charged, but it got refunded eventually. So no worries. I would recommend the property for anyone visiting Cologne. Will workout out better than the Airbnb options avaialble.