Hotel Brandenburger Tor Potsdam

If you don’t have blue eyes and blonde hair, don’t expect a decent room here.

This so-called four-star hotel barely qualifies as a three-star. The property is old, poorly maintained, and in dire need of renovation. My first assigned room (023) on the ground floor was a disaster—smelling of sweat and grease, with a “balcony” that turned out to be a glass door opening into a parking lot. It didn’t even have a proper lock, making it unsafe.

After requesting a higher floor, I was moved to a room with filthy carpets, mold in the bathroom, and twin beds so uncomfortable I couldn’t sleep, even after a 10-hour flight. Pillows? Flat and unusable. Despite showing photographic proof to the receptionist, I had to wait until the afternoon to change rooms, losing half my day.

The third room was marginally better—cleaner carpets but still smelled like sewage, with a broken shower door and a non-functioning telephone. I had to keep the window open in cold weather just to air it out. Meanwhile, my white colleague was assigned a clean, well-furnished room with a great view from the start. A conversation with another guest, a woman of color, confirmed this pattern—she had also been given a subpar room and was considering leaving the hotel entirely.

Room 300, in particular, is unfit for any guest until the carpets are replaced, the walls repainted, and the bathroom properly cleaned.

The only redeeming features of this hotel were its convenient location and the breakfast setting—not the food itself, which was repetitive and uninspiring, served with what felt like reheated leftovers every day of my four-night stay.

This place is not worth your money—or your dignity. Avoid it.

This hotel was my worst experience in Potsdam! We reserved a room from the hotel's website for one night. We asked for a non-carpet room and anti-mite bedding (due to allergies). One of the staff called us back within couple of minutes, and told us that if we want a room with no carpets we can "upgrade" to a studio which has no carpets (as can be seen in the hotels photos). Stating that the room is bigger, quieter and courtyard facing. On arrival, we were 'greeted' by receptionist very eager to just go home. On our way to the room the courtyard view turned out to be a parking space. Inside the room, there were TWO large, dusty unclean carpets, no bathrobes and an old bottle of water. The bedding was not anti-mite, nor fresh. Above all, the toilets were not cleaned - with brown feces marks on them. Going back to the receptionist - it seemed that she cared more to go out before traffic than our situation. She said, that this is the only room "without carpets" and that "these are only small carpets and you could deal with those" - nothing to say about the toilets, and that we won't be able to find another available room in all of Potsdam in such a short notice. Needless to say that we left. So, go and see beautiful Potsdam, but stay away from this place.