The Hotel, Location, Price

I was only staying here overnight on a recent business trip to Luxembourg. So I’ll be reviewing this hotel through the lens of a business traveller. After all, I imagine about 90% of the guests here are probably here for work. First of all, the location is great, I got a taxi straight from the airport and it took under 10 minutes (but still somehow cost about €60 (there were 3 of us in the taxi).

In Sofitel’s own words:

“The only 5 star Hotel on the Kirchberg Plateau, surrounded by the European Institutions and a short walk from the new exhibition centre, the Sofitel Luxembourg Europe is the ideal place to stay for business or leisure. Unwind at one of the nearby cultural attractions, or simply enjoy the many dining options on offer at the hotel. Our hotel is conveniently situated nearby Luxembourg’s international airport Findel, Luxembourg’s central train station and the city centre.”

The below prices are pretty typical for a one night stay with breakfast included. I was just looking at a random one night stay here and it ended up being even more expensive than the rate of €330 per night for my stay. Though is you’re a member of Accor’s Loyalty Programme (free to sign up) you will get a 10% discount so that definitely worth doing.

Room

During my 1 night stay here I stayed in a “Superior Room” with a king bed. This is basically the standard room at the Sofitel Luxembourg Europe. At 37 m² / 398 sq.ft. it’s quite spacious for a city hotel. You can read the full room details and compare to Sofitel’s other room types here.

The bed is King size and very soft. If anything it’s a bit too soft but that’s more my personal preference than a critique. The pillows were comfortable too and the duvet was nice and thick so overall, a nice place to sleep.

The room is quite well furnished with a large leather armchair and a table with two chair which I suppose you could use as a desk. In the wall next to the desk/table are some power sockets and ports (USB, HDMI, aux) to plug your laptop into the tv. There’s also a bose sound system/alarm clock by the bed and each side of the bed has a power socket and 2 USB A ports.

As you can partially see from the image below the view out of the window is nothing to write home about. From my room I just had a view of the car park and surrounding offices. Though the large window is good for letting in natural light which I appreciate.

As for the mini bar, the fridge has a few pricey soft drinks. There’s also a coffee machine, kettle and good selection of coffee and tea. The coffee is standard Nespresso pods so nothing special, but it was nice to have in the morning, especially considering how a cappuccino at breakfast costs €8 as I’ll cover later. The room also comes with two free fancy glass bottles of Evian.

Bathroom

The bathroom doesn’t win any awards in the design department but it is very functional and clean. There’s a bath and a seperate walk-in rain shower. You also get bathrobes, slippers and plenty of towels, which were large and soft. They also give you a small amenity kit, but it isn’t very useful. It didn’t have a toothbrush kit, which I think is something every 5 star hotel should have. The toilet is also found in a room seperate to the main bathroom, so that’s useful for isolating any unpleasant smells.

One nice luxurious touch was that the bathroom was filled with Balmain toiletries. Now looking online I found similar sized bottles of Balmain shampoo and body wash selling for £60. And given both the bath and shower had 3 bottles each and there’s another by the sink that means there’s about £420 worth of toiletries in each room (assuming they paid retail price). But don’t get any ideas as the bottles are all locked in place to avoid theft.

Breakfast (and the Restaurants)

The main restaurant is called Radici, in the morning it’s used for breakfast and in the evening it’s an Italian restaurant. As you can see below, the decor is extremely flamboyant, but I quite liked it. And it was a pleasant place to eat breakfast. I arrived at 7:30am and it was already quite crowded with one waiter struggling to serve the influx of people. That made ordering a coffee quite difficult and I ended up having to ask her twice before getting the coffee after about 10 minutes of waiting. As far as I could tell there is no self serve coffee/tea machines.

Compared to many 5 star hotels I’ve stayed at, breakfast was a bit disappointing. Whilst the buffet food quality was good, the selection was meagre. Just a standard choice of Continental or Full English Breakfast. And even more disappointingly, the croissants were a bit stale. The cooked breakfast and fruits were good though. And they had a great selection of drinks, inlcuding an “anti aging smoothie” which I though was amusing.

They also have an a la carte menu (which you can see in my video) but you have to pay extra for that I believe, at least the menu showed prices. I ordered a cappuccino which the menu says is €8 (yes, you read that right, €8 for a coffee). But the server didn’t take my room number and didn’t give me a bill and I just went back to my room. So I’m not sure if they charge or if I just happened to slip through the cracks and avoid paying.

For dinner you have three options:

• Radici – Radici is an Italian restaurant with very colourful decor. They also serve breakfast here.
• De Feierwon – on the other hand focuses on local Luxembourgish cuisine. You can check out their full menu here but it’s mostly French and German style food.
• SixtyFour° Bar – mainly a bar but they do also serve snacks and some classic meals like a burger, club sandwich or caesar salad.

I didn’t try any of them out but I get the impression they’re just typical fancy hotel restaurants. Probably average food but overpriced.

Other Stuff

There’s a gym on the top floor which, judging by the picture from their website below isn’t very well equipped. I didn’t get a chance to look but it’s something at least. The Ground floor (lobby and restaurants are on floor 1) also has a bunch of conference centers. Again, I didn’t have a look so can’t really comment.

That’s pretty much it for my Sofitel Luxembourg Review… Scroll down a bit further to see my final thoughts and more reviews I’ve done.

Final Thoughts

Overall, the Sofitel Luxembourg Europe is a good hotel, though at €330/£280 a night, wildly overpriced. The location is great, especially if you’re visiting the European Convention Centre or one of the nearby offices. The room is also nice and very spacious compared to many city hotels. Though besides that there’s really not much else. Just a small gym and a slightly lacklustre breakfast.

It is true that Luxembourg is a very expensive city, but I don’t think they offer enough to justify the price. But considering this hotel is probably 90% business travellers, most guests will be claiming the cost from their employer and not paying themselves. And Sofitel clearly understands this so can get away with charging sky high prices.

More from me…

If you liked my Sofitel Luxembourg Review, please feel free to check out other some of my other reviews:

• Luxair Business Class Review – London to Luxembourg in a turboprop
• The Danna Langkawi – One of Malaysia’s best beach resorts
• The Intercontinental Saigon – Luxury city hotel in Vietnam’s biggest city

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