Hotel Sofitel Berlin Gendarmenmarkt, Berlin, Germany

The Sofitel Berlin Gendarmenmarkt is a luxury hotel that manages to mix contemporary design, comfort and corporate efficiency. Business travellers favour it for its fabulous food and facilities and well-heeled leisure guests love it for its excellent location near to Friederichstrasse, Berlin’s smartest shopping street, and the city’s major sites including the Reichstag and the Brandenburg Gate.

The facilities

The luxury hotel’s sleek, angular lobby is an elegant space clad in frosted glass and black marble. Behind it the Atrium Café serves one of the best breakfasts in Berlin (a little pricey at €25).

Aigner restaurant and bar, which serves regional German and Austrian dishes, has original, wood-panelled interiors taken from a turn-of-the-century café in Vienna. It is popular with the guests of the Sofitel Berlin Gendarmenmarkt, but is usually packed full of well-heeled Berlin businessmen who often book the themed Billiards Room for private dinners and power-meetings.

The Delphinium ballroom is more Seventies disco than standard conference space as it has a square-panelled, uplit floor. Thanks to these unusual interiors, the luxury hotel often plays host to glittering parties, weddings and launches.

An impressive spa with skylights and views over the French Cathedral in Gendarmenmarkt takes up the top floor of the Sofitel Berlin. Polished floors and suspended gymnastics hoops from the Thirties give it a retro feel, whilst a sauna, steam room, power showers and foot baths cater to the sophisticated modern traveller.

The rooms

The luxury hotel’s 92 rooms are smart and contemporary with a monochrome palette and accents of charcoal and grey. Black and white prints of plants and flowers by photographer Karl Blossfeldt line the walls and every room has a book of his work.

All the mod-cons expected from a luxury hotel are discreetly incorporated into the design. Sophisticated mood lighting, Wifi and generous wardrobe space come as standard. TVs have an excellent range of satellite channels and are housed in glass boxes.

The marble bathrooms are sleek and spotless and furnished with yellow rubber duckies, hairdryers and Roger and Gallet toiletries from Paris. All have separate bath and shower.

Rooms on the 5th floor of the Sofitel Berlin Gendarmenmarkt are the best as they have balconies with great views over the square.