Steigenberger in Rannenberg from NZ$226

"We were excited about this hotel given the pictures and description on Hotels.com. On arrival at 9pm, having had difficulty getting into the hotel (the doors were locked and closed and the place looked shut! There’s also another part to the hotel across the road which looked unwelcoming, we tried there too in case there was another reception) eventually someone came to the door, unlocked and removed the obstacles behind the door to allow us to enter. He then checked us in. The hotel is dowdy and the room was dark, dingy and dated. Not at all what we expected. The ‘feel’ of the place and the area put us on edge, as we are not familiar the locale. We immediately decided to check out and booked another hotel, even though we would lose our money on this one. The hotel we moved to (the Lindgart) was much nicer and welcoming (and the reception was open!) The guy on reception did try to help and offer us another room, but unless he was going to relocate the hotel, decorate and refurbish, there’s not much he could do to put this right. I’d say it’s a fine hotel for contractors, but not quite the romantic getaway the pictures would have you believe. "