Centro Hotel Ayun - Cologne

Centro Hotel Ayun is a mid-budget to mid category (3.5 star) hotel located on the East of Cologne city centre. I do not have any pictures of it since my external hard drive got damaged 1/3 of my way through my travel, so I have pulled these photos from Booking.com and they are a largely similar representation of when I stayed here.

The hotel is about 30 minutes away from the city by public transport, although there is a bus line about 500m away that takes you to the S Bahn, or just 2 stops away from the hotel is the Seilbahn (cable car) that you can take between Rheinpark and the Zoo.

Check In:

The check in staff was busy ignoring me and it took them a while to get to serve me. Since I have arrived rather early, I was allowed to store my bags and check in at a later time.

Upon my return, I got my keys, bags and I was aware that the hotel is located right next to the train track. I asked the receptionist if she knows whether my room is near the train track, she told me that she does not know and I will have to find out when I get there. She either lied to me or she just doesn't care enough to learn the layout of the hotel. I told her that I am sensitive to noise and the trains may be an issue, she told me that even if she placed me to the other side, it will still be noisy and people who come from small city find this "big city" to be noisy anyhow.

Okay, first of all, Cologne is not that big, secondly I have lived in a big city and they are definitely noisier than Cologne. That's not the point, I did not want to be disturbed by trains passing through, so putting me to the other side will definitely help.

Screenshot from Booking.com portal

The Room:

Surprise, my room is 2 steps away from the train track. Nothing I could do about that given they will not be willing to swap my room. Upon entering, there is a large double bed and a small desk by the window. There is no air conditioning in the room, I do not remember whether heating was available but I did not use them during my stay.

The toilet was pretty small but clean, the room also has a TV if you can understand German.

The train track is mostly being used by ICE, which does not run too often and they go past very fast (and quiet) so I actually did not find it to be bothering. If it does bother you that much, closing the window will help with cutting out most of the sound.

The picture that I have attached above is about the same as my room, except that the wood wallpaper isn't as dark (photo editing magic) which makes it less luxurious than what you see from the picture and more worn. My external hard drive was busted during my travel hence I've lost all the photos I've taken, apologies for not having any other reference photos.

There's the usual towels and toiletries, but no kettle or tea/coffee facility which is a bit weird for a hotel to not provide those. There's a vending machine by the lift but of course they are an additional cost.

Conclusion:

Even though the price of the hotel is upwards of 46 Euros for the most basic room, they do provide some much nicer and luxurious rooms (which I could not seem to find on their website), if you are looking for a nice hotel to stay in, I would probably not recommend this particular one. There's plenty of hotels around that area and may offer better amenities and better staff attitude, but for a night stay, I can't be too fuss about it.

If you are on a budget, there's a Lidl supermarket about 500m away, so you can stock up some cheap alcohol and snacks. Unfortunately you won't be able to buy frozen food given there's no food making facility.