A good value choice for an airport hotel (Holiday Inn Dusseldorf Airport-Ratingen (Ratingen, Germany))

Member Name: koshkha

Product:	Holiday Inn Dusseldorf Airport-Ratingen (Ratingen, Germany)
Date:	15/02/09 (119 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Pleasant staff, only 10 mins from the airport

Disadvantages: Like most airport hotels, you wouldn't want to stay too long

Dusseldort is a handy airport for me because there are direct flights from Birmingham and Lufthansa are good at slick connections so I often use it if I need to get to somewhere else in Germany and there are no direct flights. But last week I actually went TO Dusseldorf rather than just through it. For complicated reasons I found myself needing to stay near the airport and our travel secretary picked the "Holiday Inn Dusseldorf Airport - Ratingen". Quite a mouthful of a name and enough to get me a very patronising lecture from the taxi driver about how flughafen meant airport (like I didn't know - duh) and Ratingen was somewhere else entirely. I'd had a long day and a long train journey and I was feeling snappy "Do you know this hotel or don't you?" I asked with a degree of rudeness that wouldn't normally slip out as he continued his lecture, and reassured that he did, I shut up and sat back for the 10 minute journey for which he happily charged me a ridiculous 12 euros. Feeling I'd been a bit short I told him to take 13, at which point he took 14 and left me annoyed again and feeling suckered.

The hotel was in darkness when I arrived so I can't say too much about where it was or what the surroundings were like - only that I was relieved to see the big green Holiday Inn sign at the end of what had been a long day. The receptionist was friendly and welcoming and quickly checked me in, told me when the restaurant would close and took down my name for a place on the shuttle bus the next morning. With my key in my hand I headed off to drop my bag and grab something to eat.

The room was on the back of the hotel and upstairs. As far as I could make out, there didn't appear to be a lift. On the way I'd passed a tiny swimming pool half of which was indoors, and half of which was outside. I'm not sure how that works. There was also a suite of meeting rooms.

My room was large with more than enough space for two double beds each with a thin duvet and a couple of much too squishy pillows. What is it with German hotels and their soft pillows? I figured if it got cold I could always steal the second duvet. There was a table and two arm chairs, a bed side table between the two beds, a desk with a TV on top and a minibar under and - joy of joy although I didn't need them - not one but TWO suitcase stands. I sometimes feel like a one-woman campaign for suitcase stands and am always pleased to get one but really impressed to get two. There was a trouser press fixed to the wall and a wardrobe with a large hanging space as well as plenty of shelves. The two things I was surprised to find missing were a room safe and a kettle.

The bathroom was a mix of styles and appeared to have been semi-renovated. The vanity unit had an attractive dark stone work top but the bath was an old grey one that must have been a few decades old. There was a shower over the bath with one of those curtains that you know instinctively will flap around your legs when you use it. Toiletries-wise, the provisions were meagre with just bulk dispensers of soap and shampoo.

The room was clean, didn't smell and was in good condition - so no complaints but nothing to get too excited about either.

The restaurant was just off the lobby with a bar to one side. When I arrived at about 9.45 pm it was almost empty and the waiter told me I could sit wherever I liked. He was a very pleasant and attentive chap, chatting away enough to be friendly without crossing the line towards being annoying. We debated which type of beer I wanted until he guessed right and brought me a large cold glass of Weissbier and then took my order for a pasta dish with three types of fish.

Whilst I was waiting for my food, I was given a basket of sliced baguette and two tasty dips. One was some kind of pesto and the other a fairly bizarre pink sauce with a Germanic interpretation of what curry should taste like. The background music was fairly irritating tunes from folksier times- some anonymous chap singing Joan Baez favourites or something similar.

My pasta dish arrived in good time and the waiter offered me a spoon 'just in case' which I thought showed a lot of foresight - he wasn't to know I was as likely to end up wearing my noodles as eating them but he had obviously worked out that an extra eating utensil never goes amiss. Whilst I didn't need the spoon, I was so touched that he'd thought to bring it that I took it anyway.

The dish consisted of a bed of tagliatelle noodles which I think were supposed to have some kind of pesto influence but were served with big sprigs of rosemary (always a favourite herb in Germany it seems). On top of the noodles were three small fillets of fish - one was salmon, one red snapper and the third a white fish which, if memory serves me right, was probably zander (pike perch).

After my bowl had been cleared the waiter bought me a lightly scented and scorching hot face towel and I ordered a coffee and asked to have it with milk. There are times when I think that asking for milk rather than cream (kafee sahne) is treated as a major insult to the national culture. I'm not trying to be difficult (honest), I just don't like cream in my coffee. But with no need for further begging or explanation, my very nice cup of coffee arrived with a small jug of milk.

The meal clocked up at about Euro30 for a half litre of beer, the pasta dish and a coffee plus a tip. I went back to my room and bought an hour of internet time for a quite reasonable fee of about Euro6. In the morning I discovered they had proper BBC on the TV (i.e. not the intensely irritating BBC World, but real genuine BBC1) so I was able to catch up on the weather news back home and learned I'd probably be stuck in Dusseldorf because of snow. With just a few minutes to spare, and skipping breakfast, I went back to the reception, checked out with a charming and efficient receptionist, and found the shuttle bus for the airport.

It wasn't a life-changing hotel stay, but at Euro99 per night, it served a purpose and if I'd been able to find the shuttle to the hotel as well as the shuttle from the hotel, then it would have been a relative bargain. However, the snitty taxi driver from the night before had put me off somewhat.

Summary: 50 Euros a night cheaper than staying right at the airport