I spent one night at the Hotel Merit in July 2007. While the room and the breakfast were definitely excellent value, the attitude of the hotel reception staff was most unsatisfactory. I found them to be off-hand and unhelpful. This was not a problem of language as I speak fluent German. My major issue with the hotel though was the outrageous charge for phone calls. I made one local call from the hotel room to book a taxi to the airport for the following morning. The length of the call was at the very most, 2 minutes. I also made a call to the local German directory assistance number listed in the telephone book. The charges were listed in the telephone book as .20cents for a connection and .99 cents per minute thereafter. My call again was very short, at the most 2-3 minutes. While I realize that hotels all make a charge for calls from the room, I find it hard to accept that my charge for, at the absolute maximum, 5 minutes of local calls was 30 Euros. When I asked for a print out of the calls made, the hotel was unable to produce it. I was so angry at the attitude and the outrageous exploitation of tourists that I related my experience to a German friend living near Stuttgart. She has also contacted the hotel and received the same arrogant and offhand attitude and the same answer that the hotel was unable to provide a print out of calls made. We have taken up this case with the Stuttgart tourist bureau, who incidentally, told us that the 3 stars the Hotel Merit displays are quite bogus as the hotel does not belong to the association which gives the official star ratings.

This was a great basic hotel in a great location. Our room was spacious and clean, and we got a really good rate online. It is a few minutes walk to the main section of town and easy access to the s-bahn. The breakfast in the morning was excellent. The room was simple and clean.