Qube hotel Heidelberg – a review

On a recent visit in Heidelberg, I stayed at the cool, contemporary Qube Hotel. This award-winning boutique hotel is privately owned and has a particular focus on the environment as well as allergy sufferers. Walls are painted with a special ecofriendly (and allergy-friendly) paint. Natural plaster rather than wallpaper, wooden- and stone floors rather than carpets, the list goes on… Here’s the lowdown:

Qube hotel review: Parking

Upon arriving, the first order of business is parking. Because Autobahn!

Parking is limited, so Qube Hotel has a so-called tief-garage, a ‘deep garage’. Only here, that doesn’t just mean a parking garage. It’s a small double-rack garage, with room for 12 cars x 2, one level on top of another, just tall enough for my rental car.

It’s the first time I’m seeing this, and I scratch my head wondering how the top car can come down without crashing on top of the ones underneath. Of course, after I’m told how it works, it’s glaringly obvious. A turn of a key, and the entire level of 3 cars underneath is sunk beneath the floor. An ingenious solution with parking at a premium. I’m glad I don’t have to park like this frequently, as it’s a bit challenging. I’m also intrigued. But enough of the parking talk. If you’re not coming by car, I concede you have to be a bit of a geek to be fascinated.

Qube hotel review: Reception, restaurant and roof terrace

Entering the reception, I’m met with purple and pink lights.

Next to the reception is the bar and high-end restaurant. Breakfast is served here as well. At €18.50 (there’s a €2 discount if you make a reservation the day before), I forego breakfast, because frankly, it’s a bit much to fork over for coffee and a croissant, which is about all I can stomach in the early hours. It does look tasty though: a wide selection of sweets and savouries, sour dough bread from slow-food baker Peter Kapp, one of Germany’s best, and organic coffee, freshly roasted here in Heidelberg.

The roof terrace has lovely views of the city, the river, and Heidelberg Castle high up on the hill. Also worth mentioning is the various changing art exhibitions around in the hotel.

Qube hotel review: The rooms

Qube has 70 individually furnished rooms. Mine is in the adjoining Qube Villa, a turn-of-the-century listed building. Again I’m met with pink and purple lights. That could easily have been too cold for my liking, but is offset by warm colours elsewhere. The entrance hall has a cool, sliding minibar section/wardrobe.

The main room is a whopping 40 m2, with floor to ceiling windows, light oak parquet floors, a comfortable king size bed, a sofa with a rustic table, a leather arm chair in a corner, a desk and a large TV screen.

Pink lights emanate from spots in the ceiling; these can be regulated from the bed. Electric plug-ins are at either side of the bed for your devices of various kinds. Otherwise, there’s one in the desk. I have two laptops along, as well as a mobile, a camera, and a power bank that all needed charging, so a few more would have been even better.

From the main room, I can see into the bathroom, as there’s a large window, practically floor to ceiling between the two rooms. It is possible to close the wooden shutters if you prefer privacy even from your nearest and dearest while in the bath. Of course, this ain’t no one-way mirror, so when soaking in the bath it’s also possible to see what’s going on in the bedroom/main room.

View from both sides of the divide

The spacious bath has a large open shower, a large stone bath and Philippe Starck details. Another interesting feature, new to me, is the colour-coded shower head. Again, the geek in me is drawn in. Red means hot water, blue means cold and green is just right, after some pre-set standard. Fine for Goldilocks, perhaps, but not entirely for me, so I shower in the red light.

What I especially liked about Qube Hotel

• Large windows affording lots and lots of light – and not least, windows that open!
• All the cool hi-tech
• The visual communication possibilities between the bath- and bedrooms
• Wooden floors
• Underfloor heating
• Plenty of clothes hangers and not the non-theft kind!

What else

• At € 18.50/16.50, breakfast is on the expensive side
• Parking is also not free: € 19.50 per night
• I would have liked a few more electric sockets in the room

Specs can be found here.   Disclosure: I stayed at Hotel Qube as part of the campaign #Luthercountry, created by iambassador in cooperation with the German tourist office. Any opinion is mine, all mine. As always, as ever.