The hotel also has a small gym etc. for the guest to keep fitness levels up, again with its own range of services sold from its own reception desk. Typically Hilton in the UK would service this in tandem with the companies own brand health and fitness/spa operation ‘Living Well’ but here it is run as a hotel operated facility. The conference facilities, meeting rooms and the restaurant areas are all housed in the podium surrounding the tower. Meeting rooms are well equipped and generous in size and contrast favourably with the cupboards that pretend to be meeting spaces in many UK hotels.

All are located on the same corridor as the main 1500 seater convention and banqueting hall, and most have daylight. The corridor is ‘guarded’ by the business centre reception. The business centre itself is over two floors giving access to the upper breakout zones and the meeting rooms coming off that space.

The restaurant area is large and light with screens taking their design cues from Japanese paper screens enabling the room to be split up into different areas. There are a range of different table types provided, including high table/stool combinations in a kind of ‘captains table’ where single diners may join with others - a communal arrangement pioneered in the first Parisian street cafes to allow travellers to make conversation easily through shared dining space.

There is also an external dining area, which despite the rain when I was there, looked as if it would be a delightful area to eat and drink in when not overrun by lycra clad cyclists…

‘Commercial’ this hotel may be, and business traffic may be its major customer group, but the design is light and cheerful as well as comfortably welcoming. Its position as a good first stop when driving from the UK ensures that I will almost certainly use it again. I’m sure that as a conference and meeting venue both Dusseldorf and the hotel provide an enjoyable location. Not quite a gem, but well on the way to being a pearl amongst hotels.