14 Cologne Hotels, One of Them Inside a Water Tower
The family hotel opposite the cathedral since 1863, the 1872 water tower turned hotel, the neo-Gothic city archive, the round 1950s insurance office, and the hotel where artists paid in paintings.
Cologne’s hotels sit in a water tower, a city archive, a monastery and a round insurance office, and one of them has faced the cathedral since 1863. This list has the Excelsior Hotel Ernst, still in one family’s hands, the Wasserturm, Europe’s largest water tower when it went up in 1872, the Qvest in the neo-Gothic former city archive, and the Chelsea, where artists settled their bills with the works that still hang on the walls.
The list is grouped by character, not ranked. Where a hotel’s own site could be confirmed, its name links there; the rest are listed without one.
Grand dames and cathedral neighbours
Excelsior Hotel Ernst · Altstadt-Nord / Dom
The Excelsior Hotel Ernst opened in 1863 under Carl Ernst directly opposite the cathedral’s west front. It is still privately owned by a single family after more than a century and a half, by the hotel’s account, and its guest book runs from the Kaiser to Robbie Williams.
Eden Hotel Früh am Dom · Altstadt-Nord / Dom
The Eden is owned by the Früh brewing family, whose Brauhaus Früh am Dom has poured Kölsch at Am Hof since 1904. The rooms sit a few steps from the cathedral’s south side, above one of the city’s best-known brewhouses.
Hyatt Regency Köln · Deutz
The Hyatt Regency opened in 1988 on the Deutz bank of the Rhine at the Kennedy-Ufer. The Glashaus restaurant and the riverside terrace face the cathedral and the Hohenzollern Bridge across the water, and the view from the lobby is the hotel’s calling card.
Hotel Das kleine Stapelhäuschen · Altstadt-Nord / Fischmarkt
Das kleine Stapelhäuschen is a small hotel and wine house in one of the narrow gabled houses on the Fischmarkt below Great St Martin. The name refers to the neighbouring Stapelhaus, the old staple house tied to Cologne’s medieval staple right of 1259. The Fischmarkt row was rebuilt after 1945 as the showpiece of the reconstructed Old Town.
Landmarks given a second life
Wasserturm Hotel Cologne, Curio Collection by Hilton · Altstadt-Süd / Kaygasse
The Wasserturm was built between 1868 and 1872 by the English engineer John Moore for the city waterworks, and was then the largest water tower in Europe. It was converted into a hotel in 1990 with interiors by Andrée Putman and won a Europa Nostra heritage award. It reopened in late 2021 under Hilton’s Curio Collection after a full refurbishment.
The Qvest Hideaway · Altstadt-Nord / Gereonsviertel
The Qvest occupies the neo-Gothic former Cologne city archive, built between 1894 and 1897 by the city architect Friedrich Carl Heimann. It opened as a hotel in 2013, furnished from the publisher Michael Kaune’s collection of twentieth-century design pieces; the pointed-arch windows and the old reading hall survive in the public rooms.
25hours Hotel The Circle · Altstadt-Nord / Gerling Quartier
The Circle opened in 2018 in the round 1950s administration building of the Gerling insurance group. O&O Baukunst handled the conversion, with interiors by Werner Aisslinger, and the rooftop Monkey Bar looks over the old Gerling quarter to the cathedral.
Humboldt1 Palais-Hotel · Altstadt-Nord / Neumarkt
The Humboldt1 is a boutique hotel in a nineteenth-century city palais at Kupfergasse 10, which the hotel dates to 1864, near the Neumarkt. It runs its own lounge bar on the ground floor.
Hotel Viktoria · Neustadt-Nord / Agnesviertel
The Viktoria is housed in a listed Jugendstil building near the Rhine embankment, which the hotel dates to 1902. It stands in the Agnesviertel, a short walk north of the cathedral and the main station.
Church houses turned hotels
Hopper Hotel St. Josef · Altstadt-Süd / Severinsviertel
The Hopper St. Josef is set in a former monastery building on Dreikönigenstraße in the Severinsviertel. Contemporary art hangs throughout the house, a Hopper hallmark, and it joined the WorldHotels Crafted collection after a redesign.
Classik Hotel Antonius · Altstadt-Nord / Kunibertsviertel
The Antonius opened under Hopper as the Hopper Hotel St. Antonius, in a former Catholic journeymen’s hostel on Dagobertstraße, by the hotel’s account. It operates today under the Classik Hotel name, a few minutes’ walk from the main station.
Art houses
Hotel Chelsea · Neustadt-Nord / Belgisches Viertel
Werner Peters opened the Chelsea as a hotel for artists, and some guests settled their bills with works that still hang in the house. Martin Kippenberger was a regular and a friend of the owner. The hotel calls itself the hotel different.
art’otel cologne · Rheinauhafen
The art’otel opened in March 2010 at the Holzmarkt in the redeveloped Rheinauhafen, the old river port with the three Kranhaus buildings. Every floor shows work by the Korean artist SEO, the hotel’s signature artist.
The New Yorker Hotel · Mülheim / Deutz
The New Yorker was designed and is run by the Cologne designer Johannes J. Adams around a Manhattan theme, near the trade fair. The adjoining Dock.One event hall opened in 2011, and New York photography fills the rooms and the loft studios across the yard.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are these hotels ranked?
No. The groups sort them by character, and the order within each group carries no meaning.
Why fourteen and not fifteen?
Fourteen was the honest number. The Dom Hotel, the obvious fifteenth, has been closed for rebuilding since 2013, and the remaining candidates qualified on comfort alone, so they were left off rather than added to round out the list.
Why are there no prices?
Rates change daily and a priced list goes stale in a month. Where a hotel runs its own site, its name links there, so you see the current rate and book direct.
Should I stay by the cathedral or across the river in Deutz?
The Altstadt hotels put you beside the cathedral, the main station and the brewhouses, with the Rhine a few minutes’ walk away. Deutz puts the cathedral across the water in your window, with the trade fair and the Hohenzollern Bridge between you and the old town. Both sit within reach of the day trips on this site.
Which hotel puts me closest to the day trips on this site?
Most day trips from Cologne run up the Rhine to the castles and vineyards, to Bonn, to Aachen, to Düsseldorf, or to the Eifel. The hotels around the cathedral and the Hauptbahnhof sit closest to the trains and the coach pickups.