Altstadt-Pension-Potsdam

Stayed for a few days over christmas and were more than happy. The very reasonably priced room was not only very large but also bright and quiet. The whole accomodation is very clean and staff was very accomodating and friendly. Nice place to come back to.

After waiting ten minutes outside in the freezing cold, we ventured across the road to ask the lovely gentleman in the shop where the petrol station was. My worst thought was "we have no where to stay tonight," and I half wished that this was true. After ringing the only number available at least 5 times, we finally got through. We were told to return to the apartment and call when we were outside, only then would he be available to let us in. So we returned, called again and, surprise surprise, there was no answer. After another 10 minutes we finally got into the building where our apartments were, only to discover that they had only booked us one room, not two like we had asked for and werent like any pictures we had seen on the booking.com website. They were unbelievably small, the beds werent comfortable and the "double bed" was two single beds pushed together. The whole place was also freezing and even after asking twice about the heating ("its very hot, just give it time," was the only answer we received) the heating was still luke warm at best. The bathrooms were tiny, the shower cubical was too small to really wash yourself in and there was an odd smell in the downstairs apartment toilet. I returned to my own apartment on the second floor to find the fridge was switched off and a lovely smell of off pizza floating around the room; someone hadnt wanted their frozen pizza and left it to defrost and go off in the freezer. I was also very disappointed by the lack of communication between us and the landlord as I was kept up most of the night due to the trams being outside. I knew that the tram would be out on the street but I hadnt expected it to be so loud and think it should have been mentioned earlier. I also had two very big windows with small curtains. Waste of money and unfortunately but a dent in our good mood for our holiday.

After receiving confirmations about my booking and instructions for wiring money over for my 8-day stay, I did not receive any confirmation email that provide me with any instructions of how to check-in. After receiving no replies for 2 weeks and it was getting close to my travel date, I resorted to having to call them to ask for confirmations and instructions on the day of arrival. I was a little stressed out about the lack of communication from the owners since I was arriving late in the evening and I wanted to make sure that I could get into the building! Aside from all that, as previous poster has mentioned, this is an old building with stairs only. It was a bit difficult hauling my luggage up to the 3rd floor in those narrow staircases. Overall, the room was clean and sufficient. WIFI is stable but access is limited to the first 2 floors. So I had to hang out in the main hallway on main floor whenever I need to have email access. If you are traveling on business, make sure you are asking to be on the first 2 floors. One morning, the owner stopped by the building and saw me hanging out in the hallway for WIFI, he kindly allowed me to sit in one of the main floor empty suite. I only wish they would apply the same kind of friendliness in emails! This is a very basic guesthouse with basic furniture. I wouldn't say everything was super clean but acceptable. The best part about this guesthouse is that it is very centrally located. There are plenty of coffee shops, and a grocery store close by. If you are only planning a very short term stay and do not mind the lack of WIFI, I would recommend this place for sure. If you are traveling on business, the lack of WIFI on the upper two floors would be a big issue. And for the owners who might be reading this, if you keep up with the email communications after we made the reservations, that would make your guesthouse very appealing for those of us who have plans to come back to Potsdam for short business stays.