I booked this hotel for 2 nights .
Very central location, close to U Bahn, and walking. to get to hauptbahnhoff to go anywhere by train in Europe. I was going to Italy.
Parks and very Bavarian. I love it. and will be back. Thank you Munich.

The lobby area is very impressive. If you believe first impressions count, then this makes a very good impresssion. Generally the finish and the decor are good throughout the property. Concierge, door and reception staff all very professional and genuinely friendly.

There is a problem with air conditioning throughout the property. It has a very old fashioned reservoir type tank on the roof which cannot be used until full Summer arrives. So, in Winter it doesn't matter as you need heat not cool. In Summer, with no risk of freezing you have aircon. In Sping and Autumn you just sweat profusely, have a window open and suffer traffic noise - Not acceptable at these rates and not acceptable in 2008. It is a great shame as, otherwise I liked the property. Unfortunately, this issue alone would prevent me returning. If a hotel cannot offer a comfortable night of sleep then something is badly amiss. The lobby area and public rooms also become unbearably hot. I saw several conference delegates looking as if they had been in a sauna rather than a seminar !

Also, at these rates I would have expected a flat-screen TV/entertainment centre - not the large old fashioned CRT unit in my room. It worked but it gave the impression of a dated property needing an upgrade. The bathroom was beautifully appointed and large, with both a bath and walk-in shower. The beds could have been more comfortable but they pulled back brownie points for me on the bathroom.

Food is very good. Best breakfast I have seen anywhere, ever ! The Paulaner beer garden is unusual and does local cuisine at good prices with friendly service. The lobby bar does very good meals again, not an outrageous price.

There is no Wi-Fi in the property and cable internet service appears patchy - I insisted on my charges being removed from my bill.

We used this hotel for driving around Bavaria and Austria. Salzburg and Innsbruck can be reached in just over 1.5 hours. There is underground self-parking at the hotel. I do not recall the fee but I seem to remember flinching when I saw it on the bill ...

There is a Sixt car hire desk in the hotel and the Sheraton Arabella Park, directly opposite has Europcar. Worth noting - both hire companies park and return to Arabella Park NOT The Grand.

I would not want this review to seem harsh but I would expect to see some substantial basic equipment upgrades take place here before I returned. It falls short and yet that is never going to be reflected in the rates.

We choose the 5 star Arabella through bookings.com for only 2 reasons: 1) they mentioned bicycles availble ( and Mucnich is a great biking city) and the lovely pool for the chidlren.

Well, there were no bikes, never had been and they were less than helpful and so there was no biking as was the plan. The pool area was indeed very nice for the family to enjoy.

The 5 star room was so hot! They claim there was AC but I ended up sweating all night and opening the window to the noisy city. The housekeeper checked it and said it seemed ok. I hate sweating when I pay that much money! Well, the front desk donated a token 30 Euros to my disapointment. I thought this was miniscule considing the circles under my eyes for the lack of sleep due to the heat and they also agreed that the bicycles was an error and then tried to say that I should get my money back from the "Booking. com" folks. I looked at her increduosly .. "oh passing the buck is what we say in our country". She got the point. Oh well, so I write this review. This hotel is no 5 star in my book..... Poor service, the door man chats on his cell phone and the roooms are hot and they won't compensate you adequately when thee is a problem !! In this case money and genuine concern could have tempered the situation.

I rarely book a hotel through a booking agency preferring usually to contact the hotel direct. On this occasion I did book through an agency but the room that I was allocated was not in the main tower but in a separate unit at the rear. We arrived in the room in the evening but it soon became apparent that the room could have been cleaner. The most disturbing point was the dirt/dust or whatever that coming from a loose panel in the ceiling, it certainly did not look healthy. During the evening my eyes began to sting. The next morning I complained to the reception and the lady was most helpful and courteous. We were allocated a room in the main tower block which was much better. The style of the decor was similar to the previous room but slightly larger with a separate shower unit. The breakfast range was excellent.
The hotel is about 10 mins from the centre by the underground and the station is close to the hotel, however it would appear that the last train on this particular line leaves the city centre around 8.30pm.