Hotel Alter Wolf in Wolfsburg

The Hotel Alter Wolf was… an experience. The location is promising—close to the castle and the city park. From a distance, the exterior is too: classic German Fachwerk. But once you get closer and the details come into focus, the illusion of a pleasant stay fades quickly.

We booked one night in a three-star hotel for €105 and expected a small, family-run Gasthaus. The attached restaurant—apparently famous in a past life—hasn’t been open for years. The main entrance is also closed. Instead, there are two pin-code wall safes on either side of the door, serving as a replacement reception: you enter your code and it spits out your keys.

The key doesn’t grant entry through the former main entrance. Guests have to use a side door and then navigate a genuinely confusing floor plan and room-numbering scheme. When we finally found our room, opening the door revealed a world of hotel horror: a strong, unpleasant smell—somewhere between old beer, used cat litter, and cleaning chemicals.

The room was furnished with what can only be described as flea-market leftovers. Only one window opened. The carpet was stained and smelled of stale beer. Only two of the six light bulbs worked. The sheets had holes. The bathtub looked like it was falling apart—though, to be fair, the water at least ran.

I would strongly advise anyone considering a stay here to choose somewhere else. This felt wildly overpriced, and the overall condition was far below expectations.

We booked a room for 2 people via booking.com but when we arrived, there was no one, it was dark at the reception desk and empty.
We called number we received from booking and started asking how to enter and where is the hotel stuff. On a phone we got someone working remotely, who couldn’t find our reservation, but after 10 minutes of searching they found it (?) or decided to let us in.
This is not the end! This hotel has a system that you need to get your key from one of those wall lockers via entering the code (which we also didn’t receive in an email from booking.com). In 10 more minutes we finally get a key and went to find our room. When we found it, it was just 1 person bed and because of this we needed to call them again. They even didn’t check how many people are staying.
After one more walk to “reception” outside where we got the right key we were able to check in.
With such unprofessional service I cannot recommend this hotel. We expected it to be old but this quest we got… It was not pleasant at all.
From pluses: you have free parking and quiet place, because not many people are staying there.

Argh… syntes det var meget og levede slet ikke op til forventninger

As with many other reviews, I will describe my situation here. Hotel was booked with breakfast for one night. When we arrived at the hotel the hotel was dark. There is a sign on the door saying the reception is not occupied. On the left there were a few information boards that gave a reference to a number. Scanned the QR code and tried to call via WhatsApp, but no one answered the phone. After further searching, I found two cell phone numbers and tried to call them. The first number only received the message "the number you dialed is currently not available". On the second number, a man with broken German answered the phone and said that he couldn't help me. I should please try the number from the very beginning again, he would let you know there again. So I tried the other number again and someone answered the phone. I was then told on the phone that my key for the room was in the key box and that I should have the code via email. However, I did not receive such an email. He then gave me the code on the phone and I had my key. When asked when you could visit the breakfast, it was said that there is currently no breakfast. Why can this be booked then? Afterwards he had to explain to me where I could get into the building. He was visibly annoyed that I hadn't found it straight away. It was just a side entrance. As I walked into the building I was met with the smell of tons of freshener, probably to cover up the musty smell of the building. There was no elevator and the building had 4 floors. The room numbering didn't make sense. For example, room number 34 was on the 3rd floor and numbers 9-15 on the 4th floor. On the way up the stairs there were used tissues in the hallway, doors and door frames were partly damaged. When we arrived in the room, as already suspected, it smelled very musty. I left the window open all night, but the smell didn't come out. As others have described here, the carpet was stained and the chair to sit on was sticky. To be on the safe side, I didn't want to use the shower because I wasn't sure what the gray spots in the corner were exactly. I didn't feel comfortable in bed either because of my condition. I didn't want to check the mattress under the bed cover. I later spoke to other guests who had the same opinion as me.