Ginn Hotel Berlin Potsdam in Teltow

I booked this property on booking.com for the 24th - 25th October 2025 and arrived at 3.30am.

When I arrived, I was greeted by a receptionist who informed me that the system had cleared my booking and put me down as a 'no show', resulting in a 'no-show' charge being issued by booking.com

Confused as to why I would be put down as a 'no show', when I showed up before the reservation ended at 12.00pm, I asked the receptionist what options I had left available to me.

Given that there wasn't an option for the receptionist to reverse the 'no show' on the system, which to me, seems absurd and is something that the management of this hotel should change, he advised that I pay for the room privately, take an invoice and dispute with booking.com.

I followed his advice, stayed for the night and had a wonderful time, submitting the invoice with booking.com at the time of receipt.

With ten days having passed since I put in the dispute, having paid the property privately and having received zero notification of the 'no show' fee being cancelled, I was confused as to why no resolution was being displayed on booking.com

In response, I called booking.com on 4th November 2025 and was informed that the hotel had claimed no cancellation of the 'no show' was to be given because I supposedly made multiple reservations and didn't turn up for them.

This is an outright lie - I did not make multiple reservations, unless they consider the private booking that I made with them, after following their advice, a separate reservation.

After hearing this news, on 4th November 2025 I traveled directly to GINN to ask what had happened.

I was greeted with a receptionist who already knew about my claim, who doubled down on the false accusation that I had made multiple reservations, instead of acknowledging why a private booking was made, which is due to their own system inefficiency.

It took me standing firm and repeating my case to finally get the receptionist to call a manager, who made a 'one off exception' and eventually issued a cash refund.

This would have been a five star review, had GINN not taken such an unfair approach to my case - dealing with it by merely acknowledging the issue and by communicating with me properly, instead of prolonging what was a simple dispute with a repeat customer at their hotel.

This was clearly an issue of misunderstanding with an honest customer acting in good faith, not malice, when checking in at the hotel early in the morning.

Had I left Potsdam before 4th November 2025, I would not have been able to get my cash refund back, given that they refused to acknowledge my position when working through booking.com

The entire situation has left a sour taste in my mouth.

I hope that the management at GINN take this review seriously, working to implement a system change that allows front desk staff to change 'no show' guests to 'arrived', who may reach the hotel early in the morning without informing the property.

This would not only leave a better impression on guests, but would also make the process easier for customers like me who attend functions until early in the morning, who have every intention of arriving at the hotel but are faced with an unnecessary disputes process for making the mistake of showing up at a time that GINN set outside of their strange binary curfew.

I would recommend the hotel, but if like me you are likely to make an early morning / late night check-in, just be conscious of how GINN will approach your situation.