Eurotrip 2014 has been very centered around Club Carlson properties. In fact, I’ve done 80% of it with their properties (4 out of 5 – and 3 of those were Park Inns).

The one in Munich was the first.

The hotel

This Park Inn is located about 100m from the Johanneskirchen stop of the S8 S-Bahn stop, equidistant to downtown Munich and the airport. After landing at MUC, I was at the hotel, door-to-door, in about 30 minutes. Not bad.

The part of East Munich it’s located in really doesn’t have that much going on. It’s a sleepy section with a suburb-like feel. There isn’t much in the way of food and watering holes. Really just the hotel and a restaurant/beer garden across the street. But for what I needed from this stay, a little off the beaten path was perfect.

There is free breakfast and free wifi included in the room rate. The breakfast was perfectly serviceable. Not extravagant, but there were lots of options and they did well to replenish items as they ran out. Plus, it was Oktoberfest, so with that factored in they did a great job. It was loud, and occasionally rowdy, even before 10am. Yes, really.

There was also some hot food like scrambled eggs, potatoes, bacon, sausages, etc. I took those pics veryyyy early – that place got really crowded really fast.

And the wifi. Oh, the wifi. It took a lot of fighting to even connect to it. And, it was ONLY IN THE LOBBY. No wifi in the rooms. There was internet in the rooms, via a cable, but with two people in the room, we had to alternate internet times and pass the cable around. Not having wifi in the room in 2014 is criminal. I would’ve even paid extra for it.

So, each time I wanted to check something, I had to stand in the lobby like a creep while I pulled stuff up on my phone. Grrrr don’t mess with my internet connection.

The room

We had room 308. It had two single beds pushed together, each with its own comforter-wrapped-in-a-sheet thing that some European hotels just looove. The toiletry situation was a pump container in the shower that was both shampoo and body wash and another near the sink for hand soap. That, and a little container of Park Inn brand body lotion.

The room was a good size. There was a desk and table, couch, a kitchen area, wardrobe, and a couple of small tables on each side of the bed. It wasn’t huge, but wasn’t tiny either. A decent amount of room for two people, and clean.

All in all, a serviceable property. Basic, not many amenities. Restaurant on site with reasonable prices. For what it was, I really can’t complain. All I needed was a place to stay during Oktoberfest that didn’t blow the budget, and this was a great free option that I felt lucky to have.

How I did it

Me and my friend both have the Club Carlson Visa. As such, we are both Gold in the Club Carlson program and both receive the buy-one-get-one on award stays. We each redeemed 38,000 Club Carlson points and got 4 consecutive nights in Munich during Oktoberfest.

The going rate at the time was 209 Euros per night, or about $260, making the points worth a shade more than a penny each (.0136 if you divide it out). That does not fit in with my axiom of getting 2 cents of value for each point – I reserve that for airline miles and bank points. Hotel points are very different. In fact, it’s normal to get less than a penny of value for each one.

Getting Club Carlson points was super easy for me though. I get 5 points a dollar everywhere, so had two free nights after $7,600 in spend (most of it manufactured) – not including bonus points earned at previous stays.

Anyhow, my friend and I had ourselves 4 nights at a serviceable property for one of Munich’s biggest annual events. And most hotels, this one included, were full to the brim.

Overall

I’m enjoying getting to know the Park Inns better. So far I’ve stayed in them in Abu Dhabi, Munich, Bratislava, and Vienna – all very different, but I can see the cohesion with them. They’re usually a bit off the grid, and this one definitely fit the bill. If I were to visit Munich again, I’d like to stay a little closer to town, to be honest. This one, though, is a great free option or as a backup when other places are full.

Another good use for this one would be its proximity to the airport. If you happen to have a day-long layover, it would be worth it to spend 30 minutes getting here just to get some rest and breakfast.

Or for this:

🙂

 

* If you liked this post, consider signing up to receive free blog posts in an RSS reader and you’ll never miss an update!