Hotel Goldene Traube

Were it not for its fatal flaw (and it is a fatal flaw: no air conditioning, which makes its rooms scorchingly, unbearably, unendurably hot in the summer), this would be a truly splendid hotel. I requested and was given a balcony room, and was thrilled to have, from my balcony, a fine view of the city’s greatest site: the legendary Veste Coburg, perched atop a hill overlooking town like a fairytale castle. The room itself was marvellously spacious. The drinks in the minibar were free (an outstanding touch, one that I consider to be the hallmark of a truly great hotel). The 6:30 breakfast start time was most welcome (though 6:00 start times are preferable), and the breakfast was generous and diverse, with sausages joining bacon as accompaniments to the scrambled eggs. The location, though rather far from the main train station, is right in the heart of town, so all of the city’s most appealing Altstadt sights are a short walk away. The bathroom was quite spacious, and the free bathrobe was most welcome. Plus, it was nice for once to be in a hotel that more closely resembled an elegant Victorian mansion than a modern apartment building.

Regrettably, the hotel’s fatal flaw — NO AIR-CONDITIONING — cancels out its many, many fine features. I simply don’t understand how a hotel can have a four-star rating and no AC. My room was a absolute oven for the entire four days that I stayed here, which the room fan did but little to mitigate. (I slept with the window and balcony door wide open and still found the room hot at night, to say nothing of its furnace-like conditions during the day.) Also, the distance from the main train station is quite significant, so if one is on foot, one should be aware that one will be porting one’s main luggage a good ways to get here. As a minor point, I found that the staff were not as knowledgeable/helpful as one might expect: for example, I asked the male front-desk clerk if there were a camera store near to the hotel where I could get a memory card, and he told me of a media store way on the outskirts of town (not an option, given that I was on foot); well, I later discovered that, yes, there IS a camera store in the Altstadt, quite close to the Goldene Traube! To say the least, this is basic knowledge that I would expect a hotel clerk to be able to provide in a smaller town such as this. Also, the breakfast staff might be advised that one should remove used dishes when a guest is away from the table, not in front of the guest’s nose in the middle of a meal. But those are small points: it really was the lack of air conditioning that ruined my stay here. I’ve even seen lower-budget hotels affix their rooms with cheap, remote-controlled AC units (not much larger than space heaters), and as temperature control makes all the difference during a summertime stay, I can’t fathom why this otherwise upscale hotel would not be thus equipped.