Review of Excelsior Hotel Ernst, by Jamie Dunford Wood

Sister hotel of the Hotel Bauer au Lac in Zurich, the Excelsior Hotel Ernst is the smartest place to stay in Cologne, and one of the few buildings, alongside the famous Cathedral which is across the road, to have survived the war. This is a city of conferences, trade shows and conventions, so most of the business is corporate, but Cologne also has a wonderful Christmas market, so visitor numbers swell in December.

The facilities

The reception area sets the tone - highly polished and elegant in marble, with rich gold and blue carpeting and fabrics, but spare and understated. Behind, there is a magnificent cocktail bar of polished mahogany and mustard yellow banqette seating, like a compartment from a 20s luxury steam train. The mahogany theme continues into the large restaurant, the mustard seating replaced with cool creams, a place buzzing with prominent Kolner luminaries.

The rooms

Upstairs you sink into the carpets. Corridors are wide, suggesting spacious rooms, which is the case. The decor is restrained - modern classic German, with good inlaid mahogany repro furniture (chipped in places) and the odd flower print on the cream walls. Fabrics tend towards the neutral - dusty pinks and beige - and bathrooms are tiled with, mostly, twin sinks.

Deluxe rooms have pink cream marble bathrooms, although they are not a lot bigger. The renovated rooms have introduced more interesting hand painted and antiqued cream furniture, and some modern prints, together with separate showers in the bathrooms entered by engraved frosted glass doors. The whole feel of the rooms is one of comfort and rest in undemanding and elegant surroundings. The only drawback is the busy road outside - still, that's Cologne.