East Berlin Lodging Options

Well, for east Berlin, there is the Holiday Inn Berlin City East Hotel which is decent. www.hotel-berlin-city-east.com/en It doesn't cost a lot but isn't a dump by any means.

Have you called or e-mailed the hotels directly to check? Several times I've had no availability (or none for the room I needed) showing on the hotel's automated online reservation. I then e-mailed the hotel, and they had the room; as a bonus, mentioning that I found the hotel in Rick's book often got a small discount.

If you're only seeing "no availability" on a website, it's worth checking directly with the hotel. Of course, if you've already done that, ignore this post, and I hope you find something suitable.

You might want to post your dates - there may be some special event that is booking up all the rooms. I once went to Berlin the same week as the Marathon (by coincidence - I wasn't participating), and had difficulty. That's not to mention the trouble I had once in Frankfurt: my visit coincided with a meatpacker's convention (not a joke) - 220,000 of them were in town, according the to Frankfurt Convention and Visitor's Bureau!

For Frankfurt, I found something on http://www.hrs.de/, which is a German hotel finding site. You may want to look there, then post any hotels you find here as well as looking them up on TripAdvisor, Venere, Booking.com, and Hotels.com; the last three are also places to check for rooms.

Try the Adina Apartment Hotel Hackeschermarkt. Or any of several along Friedrichstrasse, in Mitte. The Maratim gets very good reviews. We liked being on the river at the Riverside City Hotel, with a view of the bridge. The Melia opposite is a nice business hotel. These are halfway between the Museum Insel and the Reichstag building, very central for walking.

We have friends who live there and were advised that Berliners do not use the term "East Berlin" any more, but refer to specific neighborhoods or districts. Mitte,mas the name suggests, isn't the central area. Prenzlauer Berg to the north and east is trendy; our daughter lived there for a summer and liked it but used public transport a lot.

Near the "Gendarmenmarkt" (Berlin-Mitte) are some of the price hotels. My suggestion is the old West Berlin. Near the "Savignyplatz" (Berlin-Charlottenburg) there are also some hotels, restaurants, bars and the S-Bahn station is near be. From here you get very fast everywhere.

Check the listing for "Berlin Habitat", not on my normal computer so I don't have the url. These are a series of studio and larger apartments, all in the area of Hakesche Hof/Rosenthaler Platz (I.e. Mitte) reasonably priced and a great location , very close to Prenzlauer Burg.

If you don't mind a higher-end chain, I enjoyed my stay at the Maritim Hotel on Friedrichstraße, very close to the train station of the same name. It puts you about a 2 minute walk from Unter den Linden, 5 minutes from Brandenburger Tor, 10 minutes to the Reichstag, and about 15 minutes from Museum Island. The neighborhood is a little dead at night, however.

We stayed at Motel 1 in Mitte in 2013. Despite the put off name it was excellent, modern and reasonably priced.
Within walking distance to the museums at Museum and near lots of good restaurants.
It is near Alexander Platz. We would certainly stay there again.

http://www.motel-one.com/en/hotels/berlin/hotel-berlin-mitte/