Zur alten Krone

I needed a place to stay in the Bochum region for one night. This visit was technically business, but I needed to offer a good first impression of Germany for a first-time traveler that was with me. Zur Alten Krone was exactly what I was looking for. This hotel is located in the middle of Altstadt Hattingen. I've enjoyed their restaurant on previous visits, but I did not know that it was also a hotel. The rate was very reasonable given the location of the hotel. I loved this place, because I really enjoy staying in privately owned hotels when I visit Germany. If you are not accustomed to this, you must understand that this is not a chain hotel, like a Hilton or Holiday Inn property. You will have to contend with some of the "character" associated with this type of hotel. The benefit of staying at this type of hotel is that you are dealing with either the owners, or their long-time employees. They have a real interest in making your stay enjoyable. I would rather spend my travel Euros/Dollars with private individuals. The hotel staff was VERY friendly and very accommodating. They went over the top to make sure that they helped us with the check-in process. Anything that we needed during our stay was delivered just by asking. The room was very clean and very comfortable. The Weihnachtsmarkt was going on right outside our window. Step out the front door of the hotel and you were right in the middle of it, but from our room we did not notice any noise that would have disturbed us. We ate dinner in the hotel, but I'll make this a separate review (spoiler alert - it was good). In the morning there was a wonderful breakfast in the restaurant. Everything that you would expect in the breakfast room of a German hotel was there. We were allowed to sit and enjoy our breakfast conversation, and we never felt as if we needed to rush or leave our table. Breakfast was included with our room, but I'm not sure if this is normal, or if it was a result of the type of room that we booked. As I said previously, the staff was very friendly. There were some staff that spoke very good English and helped us. There were a few that only spoke German, but If you know some of the basics you should have no trouble communicating with them. The German-speaking staff was very tolerant of my attempts to speak German with them, and they seemed happy that I tried. I will definitely stay at this hotel again if I have the opportunity. I would definitely recommend this hotel to a friend.