I like to keep tabs on the German hotel market. My family is from Germany, and my entire non-immediate family still lives there, so I go back all the time. Sadly Germany has to be one of the less exciting luxury hotel markets in the world.
With that in mind, there’s an exciting update on that front, as Marriott will be opening its first Luxury Collection property in the country, and it looks super nice (thanks to TravisMT81 for flagging this).
In this post:
Basics of Munich’s new Luxury Collection hotel
As of June 2024, we’re seeing the opening of Koenigshof Munich, a Marriott Luxury Collection property. The hotel is located on Karlsplatz, so has a pretty central location. It was built in the place of a former hotel with the same name, which was demolished in 2019.
It features 108 accommodations, ranging from deluxe rooms (398 square feet, or 37 square meters), to the presidential suite (1,861 square feet, or 173 square meters). The 10-story property also features a rooftop restaurant and bar, a wellness level, and a lobby lounge.
Aside from those points, there are surprisingly few details about the property, when you consider that it’s opening in the coming days. For that matter, somehow I didn’t know up until now that this property would be a Marriott — all too often we hear about hotel openings years in advance, while in this case I’m learning days in advance.
When I do searches about this property online, it seems that the plan was initially for this to be a JW Marriott. That’s puzzling to me, since this looks like a boutique property with cool design, so Luxury Collection seems like a better fit.
The new hotel looks gorgeous, and I can’t wait to stay here the next time I visit Munich. In the context of the Munich hotel market:
- Historically the Mandarin Oriental Munich has been considered the city’s best property, and we also recently saw the opening of the Rosewood Munich, which I think one-upped it; while I don’t think Koenigshof will be quite on that level, it should offer great luxury with the benefit of a points program
- Marriott has an extensive hotel footprint in Munich, though none of the existing hotels are in the luxury segment
Koenigshof Munich rates & points requirements
How much will a stay at Koenigshof Munich cost you? Historically Munich hasn’t been that expensive of a city for hotels, at least by global standards. I’m not sure if that changed, if this hotel is just really optimistic with pricing, or what, but yow… this place is expensive!
Looking at rates in the dead of winter (which I’d assume would be the best value time to stay), the absolute lowest rate I see is 455 EUR… ouch!
If you are going to book a cash stay here, I’d highly recommend doing so through the Marriott STARS program. This will score you perks like complimentary breakfast, a $100 food & beverage credit, a room upgrade subject to availability, and more. It actually appears that there’s a Marriott STARS promotional rate that’s lower than the rates otherwise available to the public.
When it comes to redeeming Marriott Bonvoy points, unfortunately that’s not a much better value either. The lowest redemption rates I see are 70,000 Bonvoy points per night. Personally I value Bonvoy points at 0.7 cents each, so that’s not exactly offering outsized value.
I’m curious if the hotel can sustain these rates. Of course I expect this to be more expensive than the more “generic” Marriott brands in Munich, but this is way more expensive.
Bottom line
Koenigshof Munich will be opening shortly, and will be the first Marriott Luxury Collection property in Munich. The hotel looks beautiful, with modern and elegant design, and a central location. It’s priced accordingly, though, with aggressive rates. I hope to check out this property when I next visit Munich.
What do you make of Koenigshof Munich?
Over the last few years Munich has become quite expensive for hotels IMO. My favorite one, Munich Marriott in Schwabing, has risen three-fold. Typically I am paying well over 300 Euros/night.
It's "on" Karlsplatz in the sense that it has a Karlsplatz address but it's opposite what most people think of when they think of Karlsplatz/Stachus, the semi-circle at the top of Neuhauser Strasse with the Karlstor in the middle. There's easy access underground through the Stachus Passagen shops to get to the more scenic part of Karlsplatz anyway. The building work was pretty well advanced when I was there in December so I'm not that...
It's "on" Karlsplatz in the sense that it has a Karlsplatz address but it's opposite what most people think of when they think of Karlsplatz/Stachus, the semi-circle at the top of Neuhauser Strasse with the Karlstor in the middle. There's easy access underground through the Stachus Passagen shops to get to the more scenic part of Karlsplatz anyway. The building work was pretty well advanced when I was there in December so I'm not that surprised it's getting ready to open.
“Looking at rates in the dead of winter (which I’d assume would be the best value time to stay)”
…errr, no. The best value time to stay there is when one actually wants to be in Munich.
Munich already has so many overpriced Marriotts. If only the Andaz is closer to city center.
Just looked to try and book for some June meetings and it’s not coming up in the Bonvoy app. I mean, it’s June now and was looking around the 17th. I wonder if this announcement was a bit optimistic.
Marriott or better said Starwood used to have a few Luxury Collection properties in Germany, so this is definitely not the "first Luxury Collection property in the country". Hotel Elephant Weimar used to be one, as well as Hotel Fuerstenhof in Leipzig. Marriott is simply re-launching the brand now I think ;-).
He meant currently the first/only under the merged company. Not a biggie.