NH Neue-Messe, Munich > Reviews > How to travel 4* on the cheap!

Author's product rating:   

Value for Money	Good
Quality of Rooms	Good
Standard of Service	Good
Quality of Facilities	Good

Advantages:	Cheap, nice rooms
Disadvantages:	Located a little outside of city centre

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Anyone who has read any of my previous reviews will have probably realised that I will use any excuse to travel. This year the plan was to spend most of it at home as we are saving money for our wedding, but when one of my friends announced that he was being seconded to Munich for 4 months, I was straight away planning a trip away!

Having spoken to some of my other friends, we soon decided to make a weekend of it and I was tasked with planning flights and hotels. Despite the fact that we are now all working, we're all still students at heart so I was looking for a cheap hotel, but something above a hostel. Having searched the hotel sites that I can get a discount at, I still hadn't found an ideal place so I tried lastminute.com and came across the NH Neue Messe. I had never heard of the NH hotel chain before although subsequent searches for a future hotel have shown it to be quite a large chain on the continent and one I am sure that I will use them again in the future.

The NH Neue Messe is a 4* hotel situated about 6km outside Munich city centre. It has 253 rooms and has 9 conference rooms that can take up to 300 people. Coupled with the close proximity of the Munich Exhibition centre, it is no surprise that the hotels primary clientele is the business traveller and you would expect the rooms to be quite pricey. This would be true during the week when the rate (booked direct) is 100€+ but at weekends you can get a real bargain. Given that few conferences take places at the weekend, and it is a little way outside of the city centre, you can get a real bargain and we got rooms at £29 a night.

So what do you get for your £29?
The price of your room when booked through lastminute.com is room only although a good quality breakfast can be added to your bill. This costs 17€ per person which is a bit steep but the choice of cereals, breads, pastries, fruits, meats, cheeses and cooked produce means that you can get a good fill, a real plus before a days sight-seeing! The room is of a good size with the continental twin/double where two single beds have bee pushed together to create a double. I have never understood the logic for this as it is an inconvenience when being used as a double, as there is a gap in the middle, and is a pain if (like my friends) you are sharing, as you can't separate. The rest of the room was well prepared for the business traveller with a large desk, comfortable seating and a more than adequate bathroom. Facilities such as WiFi are also available at an additional cost. The hotel itself has plentiful underground parking if you are driving and once inside it has a sauna, restaurant and a reasonably priced bar amongst other things.

So what's the catch?
The only problem with the hotel, and the reason for its low price at weekends, is that it is found somewhat outside of the city centre. This is only an issue if you aren't a fan of public transport but you can get to Mariensplatz within half an hour. When arriving at the airport you can catch the S8 in to the town centre and then it is about 1km walk from the nearest train station to the hotel. This isn't particularly great although I would assume that most of the guests would travel by taxi or private transfer that takes only 30mins from the airport. When travelling in to the centre your best bet is to catch a bus from outside the hotel lobby before transferring on to the underground system. Some may take issue with this but I would always prefer to save money provided I can still get to the centre within half an hour.

Overall, I was really impressed with the NH Neue Messe. The primary reason for choosing the hotel was it's low cost but the fact that it was a 4* establishment meant that the trip was extremely comfortable and much better than some previous experiences. Its distance from the city centre wasn't ideal but as someone who doesn't mind catching trains and buses overseas, this was a minor inconvenience. If I was visiting the city again then I would most definitely consider this hotel and I would heartedly recommended to anyone visiting Munich in the near future. Likewise, based on my experience here, I would also happily try another NH chain hotel in the future.