BAEREN

I stayed at this hotel as part of a coach trip with Leger - from the pictures I am wondering if this hotel has two buildings in the town, because some definitely don't match up with the location I was in! Location wise this is very off the beaten track and there is nothing going on in the town - it felt more appropriate to people visiting relatives in this locale than a coach trip - and this was backed up by the lack of coach parking without annoying the locals! The part of the hotel we stayed in was interesting - as it was on a hill you walked down a slope to reception, the stairs to the other floors were back up that same internal hill, and the rooms were on floors that didn't match their numbers! E.g. Rooms 40+ were on floor 3, rooms 1-11 were on floor 2 and I didn't work out where floors 12-29 were! I will say this was advertised in the lift, so as long as you could recall your room number there was a guide as to which floor you were on. Sadly we didn't get a balcony, though the room right next to us did. As my Mum was a smoker this was a shame but could not be helped. The room was spacious and nicely laid out, with the bathroom being almost the same size and featuring his/hers washbasins! The bathroom and bedroom seemed clean, I think the main fault here was that the age meant it didn't *sparkle*, but there was no dust or anything. The shower wasn't the quickest to heat up but it did have good water pressure. As is often the case in Germany the twin beds were pushed together here, there was a high end to the bed which you could walk into whilst walking in the room, but the bed was firm enough. I think had it not been for the heatwave I would have slept okay, but unfortunately it was SO stuffy, even with a fan that I requested, you just could not sleep comfortably. The staff at this hotel tried, but they just were not equipped for a coach trip of British people. The staff had little to no understanding of English, and I think they spoke a German dialect that the few German speakers in the group struggled to understand. That said, if you were patient you could be understood - I asked for a fan for the room and got one! There was no bar at this hotel, though I think there may have been one elsewhere in the town - drinks were not included in our evening meal. They had one staff member allocated to taking our drinks (per table), then also pouring them and delivering them. As such drinks service was very slow. It may not have helped that they appeared to have a large local party in at the same time which had a number of staff attached to it. The food was... fine. It wasn't to everyone's taste but I don't think anyone left hungry and the lady who seemed to be the owner did her best to accommodate - in fact I think they were the best hotel we stayed in that understood the requirements for vegetarians and vegans! This is an old-fashioned hotel for the most part (I still don't get the magician's on the downstairs toilet doors), and as the name suggests you will see a number of bears in the building, some of which used to roam the local area. To align with the old style hotel, we had actual physical keys which were attached to a large carved bear - so fine for an overnight stay like we had, but not ideal if you were going out somewhere and taking the key with you! Given the only seating area was right by the reception and acted as a throughfare to the rooms/outside/dining room there was no real atmosphere here. Whilst it was quiet, mostly thanks to it's out of the way local, I wouldn't stay here again personally. I'd also be very disappointed to see it on a future Leger itinerary.

Because it was so hot 40 degrees and this hotel has no air conditioning it was bedlam in the bedrooms. Some people didn’t even get a fan in their room.The hotel was clean single rooms very small. The continental breakfast was passable, but the evening meal was garbage. And the service just as bad, I had no plug in my wash basin did ask for one but never got it.as for speaking English, if they did they chose not to hear you.

Very enjoyable stay. The staff, especially Reception, were outstandingly helpful, good food and entertainment, people were treated with exceptional kindness here. I would recommend it.