Scandic Hamburg Emporio

Great breakfast - huge range of cold meat cuts, cheeses, gluten-free (Schar range) and lactose free milk, butter and yoghurt, as well as the usual warm (eggs, bacon, sausages etc) and cold (fruit bar, yoghurts, muesli, cornflakes etc) food. They also had DIY pancakes and sweet toppings. Coffee (and juice) only from a machine but was good quality. Very friendly and helpful reception staff. Large size bedroom and very comfortable beds.

Chaos at breakfast - no one greeting you (so if you haven’t booked with breakfast there’s nothing to stop you eating it anyway). But there’s just too many people having to search for place to sit in what’s clearly too limited a space and so many end up sharing tables. You have get everything yourself (cutlery, napkins, water as well as breakfast itself) and as they only have dessert size plates you end up walking up and down a fair nr of times. Also as everything’s quite hidden - had to search for water (in some grey square grey dispenser in a far corner). Breakfast Staff not very helpful or particularly friendly, when asking where water was, waved vaguely in a direction. When clearing away dishes didn’t acknowledge us at all nor us saying thank you. So definitely not a nice relaxing feeling despite the great food. The room while large and comfortable with great beds just had zero character - very minimalistic interior decorating and too much light wood floor/furniture/bathroom paneling. We booked a double room and were disappointed that we had twin beds pushed together which had separate mattresses and toppers as well, and which slid apart very easily. We asked about this at reception and they said they couldn’t do something about it though offered us to change rooms. As we didn’t feel like having to pack up everything we declined. That night we noticed they had replaced the separate toppers with a single one as well as somehow tying the beds together. So that was a very nice unexpected action on the part of the staff. Ultimately I think it’s too expensive though for what you get. And for them having an ecological water theme also felt there was der more they could have done to give the place character.

The space in the room The garage in the basement

No room service No double quilt, just two singles for the double bed

The location was good for walking most places in Hamburg, felt safe at night. The room was spacious, and light with big windows, and had lots of storage with all the built-in furniture. The bathroom was great, and spotless (not sure why the bottle opener was mounted on the wall in there though)

In the bar they would not bring tap-water - even as an addition to other, pricier, drinks. The barman implied I was tight, saying 'you don't want to pay for water' but I dislike the ecological effect of purchasing plastic bottles, or a heavy glass bottle which has been transported when there is perfect water in the tap anyway. Coming from a hotel which sees itself as eco-conscious this was disappointing.