Don't stay at Rick's recommended hotel Manhattan near the train station. The area is surrounded by drug users and homeless who will scream and fight until nearly sunrise. Our room had leaky plumbing and the TV was broken. Management had no interest in helping us. We left at our earliest opportunity.
I've been traveling with Rick's books for 20 years. This is the first bad result.
Posted by
3438 posts
Sounds like a place to avoid. The most recent reviews on Trip Advisor are very consistent with your experience. Did you check any websites for reviews, or did you just rely on the RS recommendation when you picked this hotel?
Posted by
Northamptonshire, England
33818 posts
you have tarred the whole centre of Frankfurt with the title of your complaint. Did you mean to do that? Or just the area around the hotel?
I've never been to that particular hotel but I have walked all over Frankfurt other than the red light district and surround, and never had any issue.
Posted by
Frankfurt, Germany
9219 posts
Considering none of the editors from Rick have been here for over 5 years and the 2 years before that, they were only here for one day, not sure why anyone would stay at one of his "recommended" hotels.
There are tons of posts on here and on Trip Advisor, about the train station area and it certainly is not an area I would stay in. If you had only posted something here on the forum, we could have guided you to a pleasant hotel in a lovely neighborhood or central Frankfurt.
Posted by
London
1251 posts
I don't think they did tar the whole of the city centre. The OP specifically mentions the hotel and the area around the railway station.
I've mentioned it a few times on here, but the area around the main railway station is often a bit sketch in all but the most genteel of European cities. It's often where people will go to score or gravitate to if they're unhoused. Sants in Barcelona, Amsterdam Centraal, Glasgow Central, Brussels Midi. My sister was in Milan recently and it's the same. Kings Cross in London used to be the pits of hell before a stack of public and private money allowed it to clean up. Staying near a main city railway station can be convenient for travellers but generally a bad idea unless you have a habit to feed.
Posted by
Northamptonshire, England
33818 posts
I don't think they did tar the whole of the city centre. The OP specifically mentions the hotel and the area around the railway station.
In the post, yes. The title is quite broad though
Posted by
Southeast US
4043 posts
I think one of the most important things to do with Rick's lodging recommendations is to cross-reference them with another source. On one of my first trips around a decade ago, I checked his recommendations for one city with TripAdvisor, and his picks all had relatively low ratings. Decided then not to really use his lodging recommendations going forward.
Posted by
Sacramento, California U.S.A.
10597 posts
I have twice stayed at Hotel Hamburgerhof near the train station, in March 2022 and December 2023. I didn’t experience anything like you did so perhaps it matters where near the train station the hotel is. I was cautioned about staying on the other side of where this hotel is located.