CALMA Berlin Mitte

5 Marie Goß - a month ago

Nice, clean rooms, friendly staff. We really liked the patio and the fact that you can get tea and coffee (really good one too) for free the whole day! Definitely recommend!

5 Floris van der Lingen - 2 months ago

Just about perfect from beginning to end. Great value for money, very friendly service and can easily be reached from the Hauptbahnhof. They even called me to inform me about the latest time we could check in. Unfortunately, we only stayed for one night, but I would definitely recommend the hotel, even for a longer stay. I'm very sure I'll be back!

5 Heather Still - 4 months ago

Charming hotel and a great way to start our trip in Germany. The staff were very friendly and helpful and the breakfast was perfect. Within a 100 feet or so were many restaurants, but the Vietnamese place Xinh Xinh was our choice spot.

2 Miguel de Baca - 3 months ago

The frustration with digital check-in is very real. Please see a spot-on summary of this nuisance in Angela Zhu’s Google review (I do not know her but agree with what she’s saying).

The quick version is that there is no front desk staff outside of business hours and you have to check in with your phone. (I arrived promptly at 21:00 and there was no one in sight.) Your phone is also your room key. This is very annoying: international roaming data (there is free WiFi available, but it can be slow to connect and/or kick you off the network), what if you have a low or no battery (which happens to travelers all the time), etc. The online check-in system didn’t recognize my reservation number for the first seven attempts. The online check-in system did not recognize that I prepaid with a (business) credit card. So: basically the digital check-in is awful and Calma should re-evaluate this practice immediately. I wouldn’t stay there again for this reason alone.

The rooms are small… tiny, even—but hey, it’s Berlin—I wasn’t so undone by this fact and I did book the “extra small” room after all (it was the only one available). Apparently the larger rooms are nicer. Americans especially take note: there is NO AC. There are no amenities of any kind, actually… no iron (also annoying because my clothes were wrinkled from a long trip) and no indication of where to obtain one if possible. No closets. Not nearly enough outlets to plug in devices, and in awkward locations in the room. Be aware that if you have a courtyard-facing room, you will hear the door buzzing all night long. Berliners stay up late in the summer and there’s activity until 1-2 AM very audible from the courtyard rooms—but that’s Mitte for you nowadays. I basically got no sleep.

Breakfast was fine, nothing special; I didn’t object. In sum, it was not worth €400+ per night (!!), not even by a long shot. If you have the choice to stay anywhere else in Berlin, definitely do. The location is amazing but that’s about it. I’d rather sacrifice location for a little more comfort.

The worst part — worst — was the digital check-in system. They need to fix that for sure.

5 Sabrina Seelherr - a week ago

Great central place. Cozy and very clean rooms, super friendly staff!
Would definitely recommend staying there.

1 moe asaf - 3 months ago

One of the worst hotel rooms I’ve been in in a while! To begin with there was renovation and the whole floor smelt paint, super small rooms and the desk barely fits two a4 papers! Location is ok and cleanliness is ok as well

1 Angela Zhu - 5 months ago

Had an absolutely awful and completely frustrating experience with them today.

They’ve switched to digital check-in and have signs at the front saying that and also offer wifi for you to use while checking in, which is all fine in theory.

In practice, this did not work well. The wifi was very weak, so I had to turn on my international roaming data plan. Then even when I did, the link they sent me for checking in didn’t work. I had to email them for another link and then restart my phone and browser before it finally loaded (very slowly due to the wifi). Both wifi and LTE (via O2) were so weak in the courtyard it took me 20 minutes to check in.

After finally checking in, the system required you to go to another page on the website to unlock the doors. They’re essentially smart doors that you need to swipe on a website to open. Again, I had major connectivity issues - their wifi was slow and the LTE in the courtyard was weak. It took me another few minutes to unlock the first door and then I would have had to unlock another door for the floor I was on and then a third for my room itself.

While going through this process, I had simultaneously called the number on the door and after being on hold for 10 minutes, gotten through to someone who was able to unlock the doors for me remotely from afar so that I could get into the room.

At this point, I was extremely upset and frustrated. I told the customer service representative that this was a major safety issue since I would be going back out that night and as someone unfamiliar to the area and a solo female traveler, I would not feel comfortable standing at the door for several minutes waiting for the website to load in order to unlock the door through their website. I asked if there was a way to get a keycard for the doors; however, there wasn’t one in the room and they said I would have to wait until the next day to receive one since reception closed at 3 pm.

At this point, I was in the room but frustrated to the point of tears. I told the representative again that this setup and inability to immediately enter the building / room felt unsafe and uncomfortable to me. To his credit, he agreed to refund me in full and waive any cancellation fees.

Overall, I do not see how this hotel can remain in business without fixing their system. If the system relies on digital check-in and keys then the wifi must be strong enough for everyone to be able to still enter the spaces they have paid to have access to immediately. For the record, I also observed three other small parties having the same problem that I was as I was going through this ordeal; however, they were small groups and not solo travelers so maybe this was not a dealbreaker for them.

One star for the willingness to refund me immediately and make this situation right, but I would not recommend this hotel to most travelers.