Hampton by Hilton Berlin East Side Gallery

During our visit of the Country 2 Country 2019 in Berlin, we chose the Hampton by Hilton Berlin East Side as our stay. The hotel is located in close proximity to Verti Music Hall and Mercedes Benz Arena. Here is a review of the stay. The hotel was also used by most of the artists, which was quite interesting to me as a country music fan.

Hampton East Side Gallery – Location

The hotel’s address is Mildred-Harnack-Strasse 15 and is located at the edge of Mercedes Platz (Mercedes Plaza), which also hosts, apart from the two venues mentioned above, a couple of bars and restaurants.

There is a bus station nearby. The key public transport hub for the area is Berlin Ostbahnhof (Berlin Eastern Station), which also hosts long-distance and high-speed trains. In Southern direction, there is Warschauer Strasse station, which is closer to the hotel, but therefore connected by commuter services only.

Hampton East Side Gallery – Rooms

For a three-night weekend stay from Friday to Monday, the prepaid rate some 281 Euro including tax. Breakfast is complimentary for all hotel stays. The hotel is quite new, so that the rooms are very modern and in almost mint condition. The room is quite compact, though. The hotel does not give room sizes, but the room should be about 20 sqm. The workdesk is suffient and the King Bed sufficiently spacious. However, it was hard to travel in with two major and a small suitcase. The room did not feature a minibar or a fridge, but complimentary tea/coffee-making facilities. It was air conditioned and had a lovely view on the East Side Gallery (remainings of the Berlin Wall).

The shower bathroom was very nice as well. The amenities were stored in refillable spenders. Towels were arranged in a small cupboard. Overall, the room was very nice despite its size.

Hampton East Side Gallery – Breakfast / Food

The breakfast is definitely a strong argument to go for that Hampton. The breakfast is nicely arranged and offers quite a nice variety of food. There are also a lot of seats available, so that there was no shortage on that side. However, the service struggled a bit with cleaning the tables on the Sunday morning service.

Parts of the breakfast seating area is also used as restaurant for snacks. We tried out the bar at the first night, but felt much more pleased with the options Mercedes Plaza is offering. The bar closes at 23:00 already.

Hampton East Side Gallery – Services

Checking in at the Hampton East Side Gallery was unfortunately a negative experience. With just one person at the reception, it first took quite some time for a person before us to sort out something, then the receptionist allowed another guest to break the line. Though there were other employees behind the desk, they did not help out during the shortage of people. The check-in thus lasted more than ten minutes.

During the stay, the staff in general was friendly. On the other hand, I experienced during breakfast a couple of times that staff was crossing your way and blocking hotel guests. This should not happen in my point of view. In addition, house keeping stepped in our room at 8:20 in the morning – at check-out day – this is a must-not-happen thing to me. It would be too early on any other day, but at check-out, you just know when your guests are leaving.

WiFi in the hotel was complimentary. I have been granted Premium WiFi, though my Hilton Hotel status is just Gold. However, I had lags in the connection here and there. The hotel also has access to a parking garage and features a nice gym area in the basement.

Hampton East Side Gallery – My View

To me, it is very hard to give an appropriate rating to Hampton East Side Gallery in Berlin. On the one hand, the location is excellent, if you head for Mercedes Benz Arena or Verti Music Hall. The rooms are clean, the breakfast is absolutely nice and the connections to public transport are fine. On the other hand, the rooms are too small (I would have rather liked to have no armchair and more space for luggage, for example). The staff behavior was not too ideal in some points. I am sure some of you will stay there and have an excellent time. I personally felt I had an slightly better than average time, majorly downgraded due to service and staff issues.