Hotel Elephant Weimar, Autograph Collection in Weimar

A Masterclass in How Not to Run a Luxury Hotel

Restaurant Anna at Hotel Elephant Weimar — Autograph Collection

Dinner for eight. Five deluxe rooms. A bill of €1,639. And not a trace of hospitality.

The evening began with promise and quickly spiraled into a study in culinary negligence. The duck liver was dry, the lamb aggressively oversalted, and the veal—cold, tough, and, apparently, immune to both heat and management attention. When I raised this directly to the waiter and even as the chef stood at the table, the response was one of serene indifference. My untouched plate was whisked away without so much as an inquiry.

As if to underscore the absurdity, our waiter capped the evening with a five-minute sales pitch for future “gourmet events”—flyers included—while the table sat in collective discomfort. Reading the room, it seems, is not part of the Autograph Collection training curriculum.

Attempting to report the issue became its own comedy of errors. The reception promised the GM would be informed—the weren’t. The next morning: no record. At checkout: still no trace. Three shifts, zero communication, and a hotel operating on the principle that problems evaporate if ignored long enough.

Even the spa, that supposed refuge, failed on basics: no towels, and when more were “sent up,” we received… floor mats. Symbolic, perhaps, of the overall attention to guest comfort.

For context: I am a Bonvoy Platinum guest, though that status, like my complaints, was treated as entirely irrelevant.

In sum: Restaurant Anna and the Hotel Elephant have achieved something remarkable—turning what should have been a memorable weekend into a case study in arrogance and incompetence. A grand hotel in name only, blissfully unaware of the meaning of service.

Verdict: A €1,639 lesson in how ignorance can masquerade as refinement. Never again.

Response to Owner:
Your clarification is, unfortunately, factually incorrect. Yes, we had a wonderful evening — but that was entirely due to our company, not your service. Hospitality was notably absent.

No, I was never offered an alternative for the cold and tough veal. Had that been the case, I would not have had to approach reception three separate times in search of assistance — all in vain.

And as for your explanation regarding the “sales pitch”: there is a marked difference between sharing the history of a house and distributing flyers for upcoming events. The latter, by any definition, is advertising.

Had you invested half as much care in resolving the issue on the evening itself as you have in composing this public rebuttal, everyone might have left both satisfied and impressed.