The Wellem offers spacious, apartment-like accommodations with a flair of old world luxury in the heart of Düsseldorf’s Altstadt. This former Hyatt House property is now part of The Unbound Collection by Hyatt and my family greatly enjoyed our stay.
The Wellem Düsseldorf Review
Location
The Wellem is in a historic 1913 courthouse in the Andreas Quarter, within a short walking distance of Königsallee and the Rhine river. A wide variety of restaurants and bars are just outside the property, making the location ideal. And by outside, I mean within a very short walking distance in all directions. The city center is also not far.
The art museum is just a block away and we enjoyed spending part of our morning and afternoon there on our second day.
Booking
This hotel is currently a Category 3 property in the World of Hyatt program, meaning it is 12,500 points per night. This is a particularly great deal considering paid rates often run in the €300 range. I had an expiring free night award that I used to cover our one-night stay on New Year’s Day.
Parking
We were driving and upon arriving, found the parking garage around the corner from the hotel and pulled in. This is a shared parking structure used by at least one of the adjacent residence buildings, but the hotel parking area was very clearly marked with signs overhead.
Parking was included in my stay due to my Globalist status on a free night award, but normally would be €32/night.
Alternatively, there is a U-Bahn (subway) station close by (Heinrich-Heine-Allee) with a connection to the HbF (main train station) or Düsseldorf airport.
Tip: Just have the hotel valet park your car. You can pull up to the front of the hotel, pictured below, and a staff member will be happy to park your car for you. Don’t leave your car there too long, though. I was scolded by an officer from the Ordnungsamt (I find it unbelievable Germany still has what amounts to an Ordnungspolizei, though I guess separate code enforcement officers is hardly unique to Germany) to move my car immediately when I pulled it around the corner after check-out and met my family out front.
Service
I’m not sure how crowded the hotel was, but the only time we saw other guests was at breakfast, and even then, only a few other tables were occupied. As such, we enjoyed exemplary service, often feeling like we had the hotel to ourselves.
For example, I mentioned the designated hotel parking area above. Well, when we arrived I missed the signs and parked in the wrong place. The concierge not only took our bags up to the room, but insisted upon moving the car himself to the proper location then bringing us back the key.
I was also warmly welcomed and thanked for my Globalist status upon check-in by the front desk and told I had been upgraded to balcony suite.
The following morning, service was warm and friendly in the restaurant, with the hostess giving us two warnings that the buffet was about to be cleaned up (we always eat breakfast as late as possible). The waitress was also quite attentive in keeping our dishes cleared and coffee cups full.
The friendly staff were truly a delight at this property.
Guest Room (Balcony Business Suite)
Our guest room, called a “balcony business suite,” included a full kitchen, restroom, sleeping area, and balcony. It was that balcony that separated this room from a standard room, as all rooms at this hotel include kitchens. Note the exceptionally high ceiling in the pictures below.
It’s too bad we were only staying for one night (and all the grocery stores were closed on 1/1), because I love hotel rooms with kitchens and we could have cooked up a nice dinner for our subsequent nights.
Inside the restroom was a washing machine and dryer (combo), which we did use, another great feature that made this hotel room feel like at home.
Several closets provided ample storage space and while the bedroom was not separate (it was more like a large studio apartment), my wife and I had some privacy with a partition dividing the living room area from the sleeping area.
The baby slept in a crib while Augustine stretched out on the large sofa bed.
Staring out the balcony, it was interesting to see several apartment buildings surrounding a large courtyard. These all looked brand new and mark an interesting juxtaposition to the old city which surrounds it.
Kudos to the hotel for great Julius Meinl espresso in the room. The Austrian coffee is featured on Austrian Airlines and very tasty.
There’s also an iPad in the room you can use to learn more info about the hotel or order room service.
A note on the counter welcomed us to the room and included some sugar-coated nuts.
Common Areas
It is hard to believe, walking through the ornate common areas, that this was a Hyatt House hotel, when you think about the cookie-cutter style of most Hyatt House properties in the USA.
I love the majestic lobby, though I’m not sure the projected artwork in the rotunda dome or the red Lego horse is all that classy (though I guess it is hip?).
There’s seating spread over two levels and plenty of artwork to admire.
Have you seen a more ornate landing for elevators? I haven’t.
Lounge
On the second floor of the common area is a lounge, which offers free soft drinks, coffee, tea, or water to hotel guests. We sat here for a few minutes after our trip to the museum and had it all to ourselves.
Breakfast At Pitti
We enjoyed a delicious breakfast at Pitti, located on the hotel’s lower level. A buffet selection featured fresh baked goods, cold cuts and cheeses, scrambled eggs and breakfast meats, fresh fruit, yogurt, cereal, even treats like cookies and donuts.
Eggs and confectionary dishes like waffles and pancakes were made-to-order, as was coffee. A barista was on hand to make the coffee of your choice and I greatly appreciated the cappuccino and flat white.
Finally, a juice bar included not only fresh-squeezed orange juice and other fresh juices, but even shots of a healthy green drink (with a lot of ginger, which made it strong) or freshly-pressed strawberry juice.
The Wellem Market
Adjacent to the lobby is a small market with more complimentary soft drinks as well as snacks and other beverages like wine and beer for purchase.
The Wellem Bar
On the ground floor of the lobby rotunda is The Wellem Bar, which offers pricey cocktails as well as an afternoon tea service.
Other Restaurants
Other hotel restaurants include Frank’s Restaurant & Bistro (the hotel’s fancier restaurant), Mutter Ey Café (named after artist Johanna Ey and connected to the breakfast area, but open for lunch each day and serving coffee, cakes, waffles, and lunch items), and MASH, which stands for Modern American Steak House and, as it name suggests, serves steak.
Fitness Center
The fitness center is small, but adequate for a full body workout with brand new TechnoGym equipment.
The hotel has no wellness area (sauna or steam room) and no pool. As someone who tries to spend 20 minutes in a sauna every day and with a son who loves to go swimming, those are actually two fairly big strikes for me and for that reason alone, I would return to the Hyatt Regency instead next time when traveling with the kids. However, if just traveling with my wife we prefer this hotel.
CONCLUSION
The Wellem Dusseldorf was a great one-night stay and I would have loved to stay longer. This hotel has so much going for it: a superb location, beautiful common areas, kind staff, a great breakfast, practical room, great coffee, and several restaurants to choose from, plus many more within a short walking distance.
Even so, I may return to the Hyatt Regency Dusseldorf next time because The Wellem lacks two of the amenities that are most important to me: a pool and sauna. The good news is that these two amenities are meaningless to most guests. But not to me! But I guess we’ll see. I truly do look forward to returning.
Who is that stunning woman looking over her shoulder on the wall in your room? A model or some historic woman of note? Gives off a 20’s/30’s Garbo vibe but it’s not her. Intriguing…
I wonder why you take issue with Germany to have a dedicated service to enforce a wide range of laws (the Ordnungsamt – not Ordnungspolizei in contemporary Germany since 1945 except in Hessen since 2004 – does not only control the streets but does many other things as well, e.g., food safety inspections, fire safety inspections, but often does not have the duties of the police). If your issue is with the name, as it is indeed reminiscent of the NS Ordnungspolizei (which had some of the same duties, but was also heavily involved in the genocide), then you should also take issue with the name “police” in general, as they too were involved in the atrocities under the name “Sicherheitspolizei” (with both Kriminalpolizei and the Gestapo a part of it, and the Kriminalpolizei is still in existence today, as is the “Schutzpolizei” which are those driving around in “Police” cars).
BTW, the officer was right (in the legal sense) to tell you to move your car, you were parking in the “Absolute Halteverbot” as per your pictures, his other options would have been a fine or the towing of your car. I find it curious that they did not create a small driveway/parking bay to have guests and cabs hold there for a few minutes…
But a beautiful hotel indeed!
Because the guy was nasty – incredibly rude. My first time in all my years of traveling or living in Germany dealing with a cop who reminded me of the USA. He could have nicely told me to move the car and I would have done so.
A humorless German? No way.
I am sorry to hear this! But they tend to be rather abrupt and unforgiving. Him not writing you up was his way of being nice…
Looks fantastic and really excited to try it when next in DUS. Appreciate this review so much, Matthew as I honestly had no idea about it before. It has everything I love in a hotel including the incredible bonus of a washer/dryer….perhaps one of the best hotel room amenities that hotels rarely ever provide.
Looks lovely. Love cantilevered staircases. The finest example of which is at the Taj Mahal a palace Mumbai.
It’s incredible how much better European hotels are than U.S. hotels — now more than ever with U.S. hotels ending housekeeping and reducing the quality of breakfasts and other services. Travel in the U.S. is a gigantic rip-off compared to Europe.
For the most part, I agree. So sad that way limited service and full service hotels have cut back under the guise of COVID-19. A perfect cover for cost-cutting.
I had two staycations at The Wellem. Both times I had to contact MHC to credit my stay. The coffee lounge is now closed for good. Breakfast is meh.
Other than that I prefer it over the Regency (which lacks a real pool, too), mostly because the location is pretty awesome right next to the Altstadt.