With only a quick overnight scheduled in Frankfurt, I decided to pick one of the many airport hotels available. As I’m a Hilton guy, I went with the Hilton Garden Inn Frankfurt Airport. Connected to The Squaire business center, it’s quite convenient to the airport terminals and rail connections. While hardly earth shattering, it’s a clean, comfortable hotel for a short stay. I paid €166 cash for a standard room with one queen bed for this stay.
After walking a bit, you’ll see a sign for the Airport City Mall. Continue down the escalators here.
Head down and you’ll find…more escalators. This time, though, you’ll actually see a sign directing you to the hotel.
Continue down the long corridor towards the airport hotels and The Squaire.
Eventually, you reach the Deutsche Bahn station, with the corridor splitting between long-distance and regional trains. Here, follow the signs to the long-distance trains and hotels.
Meanwhile, continue past the station and…yet another escalator. But rejoice, because a sign of civilization lies just ahead.
Head up the escalator, and you’ve reached the hotel at last. Note that the Hilton Garden Inn is right next door to the Hilton Frankfurt Airport. So make sure you’re heading to the right one.
Hilton Garden Inn Frankfurt Airport – Review
Check-In and Common Areas
If I have one complaint about this hotel, it’s the inefficient check-in process. For some reason, while I successfully checked in via the Hilton app, the digital key failed to work in the elevator. That necessitated a visit to the front desk before heading to the room. And one issue with this hotel is, there’s a line at the front desk pretty much all the time. I waited about 15 minutes to check in. Then when I came down a couple of hours later to pay for a snack, I encountered the same long line. The convenient location to the airport attracts a lot of traffic, it seems, including flight crews.
Anyway, the lobby has a unique cube-shaped formation in the center, along with a variety of seating.
Like HGIs in the US, there is a selection of toiletries and snacks for purchase behind the front desk.
The hotel also has a full-service restaurant on site. However, with a morning of lounge hopping, followed by the promise of a feast on Singapore Suites, I didn’t eat here.
Meanwhile, there is a small business center available for guest use. It is quite small, just a single workstation and a printer. But it did come in handy to print my itinerary for the next day. (Call me old fashioned, but I like to keep a hard copy of my confirmation just in case.)
From the higher guest room floors, you can see the hotel’s cube-like design. The guest rooms surround an open atrium, a throwback to Embassy Suites in a way.
The guest room corridors themselves are kind of dark, but the square design makes it hard to get lost. Even if you make a wrong turn, you can just keep walking and get to the same place the long way.
Guest Rooms
With only a short overnight stay, I kept things basic and booked a standard single room with one bed. While a little cozy, it’s actually not that small by European standards. Upon entering, the closet is to the right. This actually is pretty small, a tight fit even for one standard suitcase.
To the right is the bathroom, with a standard tub-over-shower setup. I for one appreciated the tub, which can prove hard to find in European hotels.
The room itself is fairly basic, with a queen bed and a chair by the window. For single occupancy, the setup is fine. However, if you’re sharing a room, and both of you use multiple pillows, you might find the number provided on the low side. I did find the bed comfortable; more importantly, it seals out the noise of the airport quite well. Blackout curtains also keep out the light nicely for those long summer days in Germany.
The TV is easy to watch from the bed, and there’s a good sized desk underneath the TV. Helpfully, multiple plug types are provided, including North American, European, and UK outlets. If you forgot your adapter, like
You’ll also notice a coffee/tea set with a single cup coffee maker at the edge of the desk. Nothing special there, but annoyingly, there weren’t nearly enough sugar packets provided. While certainly not unique to this hotel, when traveling with the family, I really hate it when we get 2 packets of sugar for 3 people…
On the nightstand farthest away from the window is another set of power ports, though only European style.
As with all other Hilton properties, WiFi is free for all Hilton Honors members. I found it fast and stable enough to handle a FaceTime call back home. Additionally, the room was well-maintained and
Final Thoughts
While nothing particularly special, the Hilton Garden Inn Frankfurt Airport provided a clean room and comfortable bed just a 20-minute walk from baggage claim. And it’s available at a lower price point than the standard Hilton next door. That’s about all you can ask for from an airport hotel for a single night stay.
