Central Molitor Hotel - Luxembourg
By Neville Blech
Sometimes you want to stay in a place that is not too flash or luxurious, but nevertheless
affords a good standard of comfort at a reasonable price in quiet and clean surroundings.
Such a place I have discovered when visiting the vineyards of the nearby Moselle
river, both in Luxembourg and Germany, with the advantage of being in a historic
city centre location with good shopping and eating facilities. Luxembourg is, after
all, one of the hubs of European Union administration and does cater for the pragmatic
as well as the sybarite and the epicurean.
Such a hotel is the Central Molitor Hotel, situated within easy walking distance
between the railway station and the old city centre with the added comfort for Brits
that there is an English pub across the road. Access to and from the airport is also
easy as there is a direct bus which stops almost outside the hotel. The hotel is
part of the Golden Tulip Association of independent hotels, run by an Englishman,
Colin Shepherd and his Luxembourgeois wife, Elisabeth, so those who only speak English
should be well catered for, although all the reception staff seem to be pretty multi-lingual.
Although the hotel was originally constructed in 1913, a substantial renovation was
done during 2006, so the hotel is brimming with modern facilities.
All 36 rooms are equipped with en-suite bath/shower, hair-drier, wall-safe, mini-bar,
cable tv/radio, tea & coffee making facilities, direct dial phone with a modem connection,
electronic locks, smoke detectors. Three of the four floors of rooms are non smoking
rooms. There is parking nearby in one of the communal car parks with reserved supervised
spaces for the hotel. On the mezzanine floor, a business centre with computers, printer,
credit card fax/phone has been created at an additional cost for its use. You can
also use your computer in your own room thanks to wi-fi connections throughout the
hotel, but again, these are subject to fairly steep additional costs. The ground
floor restaurant doubles as the breakfast room and there is an outside terrace used
in summer. Rates include a buffet breakfast and all taxes.
Rooms are not particularly spacious, except for the ones that are on the front corner
of the building (rooms 104, 204, 304 and 404) which are quite a bit larger than the
others. The buffet breakfast is quite plentiful with good choices of local and international
fare. The restaurant itself is pretty standard hotel fare, but at lunch times there
is a good price/quality ratio lunch menu and the restaurant gets pretty crowded with
local users so you will normally need to book lunch.
The hotel is a little cut above what might be described as “dull but dependable”,
but it does its job well as a no-nonsense, value-for-money hotel in a city which
is not noted for it. We do have a couple of little gripes, though. Charging for using
the internet is something that is being phased out by most business-oriented hotels
these days and it is becoming rarer to be hit with a charge of €2 an hour/€15 a day
(not that most businessmen would stay for 24 hours anyway) and also the non reduction
of the room rate for single occupancy. Still, I suppose singles would be fully entitled
to eat two breakfasts for their money!
Hotel Central Molitor Avenue de la Liberté 28 L- 1930 Luxembourg, Luxembourg
Tel: +352 489 911 Fax: +352 483 382
Bedrooms: 36
Room Tariff: €140 per night including breakfast (single or double occupancy) There
are discounts - particularly for regulars. See their web site for these.
Garage: €12 per night
Credit Cards: All major cards taken
Ratings..............
Rooms 39
Breakfast 12
Service 9
Atmosphere 5
Value for Money 11
Total 76
For an explanation of the ratings click here
