Review: JW Marriott Hotel Frankfurt, Germany

I recently spent a couple of nights at the 218-room JW Marriott Frankfurt, and wanted to share my experience. This hotel has an interesting history — it used to be the Jumeirah Frankfurt, before rebranding as a JW Marriott in 2022. I had stayed at this property before the rebranding, and was looking forward to seeing what had changed under new management.

So, what’s my take on the JW Marriott Frankfurt? I’d say I have a moderately favorable impression — I’d gladly stay again, but wouldn’t go out of my way to do so.

On the plus side, the hotel has a central location, the rooms have been updated a bit and are modern and comfortable, the hotel offers access to a real gym, and the breakfast was good.

However, beyond the basics, there’s really not a whole lot to this hotel in terms of dining and amenities, and there’s not even a club lounge. Still, I certainly prefer this being branded as a JW Marriott rather than a Jumeirah, since I can at least take advantage of elite perks, and earn and redeem points. And it’s not like Frankfurt is some amazing hotel city, despite the amount of business travel the city sees.

Booking the JW Marriott Frankfurt

For the nights we were staying, the JW Marriott Frankfurt was charging €230, which I found to be fair. Ford was even able to book us through the Marriott Luminous program, offering extra perks, like a $100 food & beverage credit, complimentary breakfast, an upgrade subject to availability, and more.

As you’d expect, rates do vary considerably, especially when there are big conferences in town. Frankfurt is very much a business city, so you’ll find the lowest rates on weekends and during holidays.

As a point of comparison, if I had redeemed Marriott Bonvoy points, the cost would have been 41,000 Bonvoy points per night. Personally I value Bonvoy points at ~0.7 cents each, so paying cash was the better value for this stay.

JW Marriott Frankfurt location

If you’re visiting Frankfurt for leisure, the JW Marriott has an unbeatable location, right in the heart of the action. You’re just a few minutes walk from Frankfurt’s Hauptwache (a central square of the city), and you’re also right next to the pedestrian zone where the MyZeil mall is located.

I think the location of the JW Marriott is ideal. In fairness, there are also more budget friendly Marriott options in the immediate vicinity. Right next to the JW Marriott is the Moxy Marriott Frankfurt City Center and the Residence Inn Frankfurt City Center.

If you’re coming from Frankfurt Airport (FRA), you can expect it’ll be roughly a 20-25 minute journey to the JW Marriott, whether you take a taxi or public transportation.

JW Marriott Frankfurt lobby & check-in

The JW Marriott Frankfurt has a luxurious-feeling lobby, with lots of marble, and an impressive chandelier. However, it feels kind of bland and out of place as a JW Marriott. The lobby is also really dark, as it has no windows, aside from the lobby lounge by the entrance. The lobby has a handful of seats, but there’s nothing more to it.

Reception is located inside the lobby and to the right. We arrived late at night and were helped in no time, but I noticed that the front desk was otherwise severely understaffed. During the day, I often saw five or more parties lining up to see a front desk agent, which is unacceptable, in my opinion, especially when you only have one or two people working.

Our check-in experience was efficient, and the agent went over all the Marriott Titanium Elite perks, plus Marriott Luminous benefits. We had been upgraded to a grand deluxe room, as no further upgrades were available.

With keys in hand, we headed to the elevators, located just down the hall from reception.

The elevators have one of those systems where you need to select the floor you want to go to before entering the elevator, and you also need to scan your key. Personally I find these systems to be a total pain to use, and it seemed a vast majority of guests struggled with figuring out how to use this in anything resembling an efficient manner.

JW Marriott Frankfurt grand deluxe room

We were assigned room 2401, located on the 24th floor (guest rooms at the hotel go from level six to level 24). Upon exiting the elevator and turning left, our room was the first one on the left.

I was pleased to see that some updates had been made to the hotel since it was a Jumeirah property, as it was really quite tired at the time, while it felt pretty fresh now.

The grand deluxe room we were in was 495 square feet (46 square meters). It was impressively sized, and bordered on what I’d consider to be a junior suite, in terms of there being a separate living area and bedroom area.

Anyway, inside the entrance to the room was the small living area, with a couch, chair, and a couple of coffee tables, plus a glass desk with a chair.

There was then a swiveling TV separating the living room area from the bedroom area, so that you could view it from either side of the room.

On the console between the living area and bed was a Nespresso coffee machine.

There was also a minibar. It contained a couple of waters, a couple of juices, four sodas, and two beers. It’s complimentary once per stay, and then if you want it refilled, you have to pay €18.

There was also a cute welcome amenity waiting in our room, consisting of three chocolates, plus the JW Marriott logo in powdered sugar.

The bedroom had a super plush king size bed, among the most comfortable I’ve had in Germany.

I found the separation between the bathroom and the rest of the room to be a bit strange. The space was totally open, so that you could fully look from the bed to the bathroom.

However, there was also a sliding door with wooden panels, offering some privacy.

The bathroom contained double sinks, a soaking tub, a walk-in shower, and a separate room with a toilet.

Toiletries were from Aromatherapy Associates, and were in reusable containers.

Our room had pretty nice views of Frankfurt. Admittedly Frankfurt doesn’t exactly have the most picturesque skyline, and for that matter, our room wasn’t looking at the city’s few skyscrapers. But still…

All-in-all, I was happy with this room, and thought it was spacious, especially for a non-suite. I also appreciate the updates that have been made compared to when this was a Jumeirah property. While the room had air conditioning, I didn’t find it to be all that strong. It wasn’t an issue for me, but if you’re someone who demands an ice cold room, this hotel might not be for you.

JW Marriott Frankfurt gym & pool

The JW Marriott Frankfurt has an interesting gym setup. Since the hotel is connected directly to Fitness First Frankfurt (a proper membership gym), hotel guests get access to that, rather than the hotel having a dedicated gym.

You can access Fitness First by taking the JW Marriott elevator to level six. At the end of the hall you’ll find a door leading to the gym, and next to that are some towels and bottled water, that you can take with you to the gym.

Currently Fitness First is open from 6AM until 11PM on weekdays, and from 8AM until 10PM on weekends. So while I personally enjoy working out at very strange times (like 4AM or so, when traveling), these hours are at least decent on weekdays.

The Fitness First gym is massive, and has every kind of equipment imaginable. There’s also a proper pool, a sauna, and a steam room, but I didn’t dare photograph any of that.

I’m curious how others feel about this kind of setup? On the one hand, it’s great to have access to a “real” gym, in terms of the variety of equipment. At the same time, personally I’d prefer a hotel having its own dedicated gym, so it’s accessible 24/7, and also because while I enjoy working out, I don’t particularly like working out in “real” gyms.

JW Marriott Frankfurt spa

The JW Marriott Frankfurt has a spa on level four, known as Harmony Spa Frankfurt. Since the hotel uses the adjacent gym for most of its services, this is specifically for those who want a treatment, like a massage or facial. I didn’t get any treatments here or check out the spa, but you can find the spa brochure here.

The spa has limited hours — it’s open from 3PM until 9PM on weekdays, from 11AM until 7PM on Saturdays, and from 9AM until 2PM on Sundays.

JW Marriott Frankfurt breakfast

On level two, the JW Marriott Frankfurt has its breakfast restaurant, serving breakfast daily from 6:30AM until 11AM. It’s a nifty space, and I’m surprised it’s not open for lunch or dinner, since you’d think this could be a real restaurant (and back when this was a Jumeirah, it was a full service restaurant).

Breakfast at the JW Marriott consists of a buffet, which can be supplemented by a selection from the menu. The buffet was quite good by German standards, with a variety of bread and pastries, smoked salmon, cold cuts, yogurt, dips, fresh fruit, cereal, and veggies.

There were also several hot options, including sautéed mushrooms, baked beans, hash browns, and breakfast sausage, plus several juices.

Below you can find the menu, which you can use to supplement the buffet (I just realized I photographed the pages in German rather than in English, not realizing that this probably isn’t useful for most OMAAT readers — my mistake!).

Coffee was provided by the restaurant’s servers, and was reasonably good.

I also enjoyed an excellent veggie omelet, plus a (less excellent) shakshuka dish.

JW Marriott Frankfurt lobby lounge

The JW Marriott Frankfurt has a lobby lounge, located just inside the entrance, and there’s even a bit of outdoor seating. It’s open daily from 11AM until 1AM. It primarily serves drinks, but also has a small selection of food.

Despite the pops of color, thesetup just feels kind of bland and generic, and the design also doesn’t match the rest of the lobby. With so many cute cafes nearby, we didn’t actually have anything here.

JW Marriott Frankfurt restaurant

The JW Marriott Frankfurt doesn’t have a permanent all-day dining restaurant. As you can see above, it has a breakfast restaurant, plus a lobby lounge. However, on the first floor there is a temporary restaurant. Heritage Restaurant has a pop-up at the hotel, with the company otherwise having restaurants in Basel, Berlin, and Hamburg.

We didn’t eat at the restaurant, but you can find the menu here — as you can see, the prices are steep,

Bottom line

I’m happy that we now have the JW Marriott Frankfurt as part of Marriott’s portfolio. The hotel has a central location, comfortable and well appointed rooms, a solid breakfast, and access to a legitimate gym.

However, there’s not all that much to get excited about with this hotel otherwise. There’s no club lounge, the lobby space is tiny, and aside from a pop-up restaurant, the only other dining options are the breakfast room and the lobby lounge.

I’d consider returning to this hotel if the price is right, and thought we got a fair value. It’s also not a hotel I’d seek out, though. Then again, Frankfurt is a particularly uninspiring hotel market, in my opinion.

What’s your take on the JW Marriott Frankfurt?