It is the many small details that make the heart beat faster at the Henri Hotel Berlin in Meineckestrasse: the large pale blue windmill made of stucco on the ceiling of the Red Salon, the beautiful wooden mosaic parquet with original inlaid furniture in room 311 or the well-preserved and lovingly restored Stained-glass windows in the stairwell of the Wilhelminian style building. All these details tell of the history of the house, which was built around the turn of the century and 2016 lovingly restaured now a gem among the boutique hotels of Berlin.
With pride and enthusiasm hotel manager Lee Jourdan and project developer Boris Dreher show her Henri in Berlin. “Stay as simple as Henri” is supposed to be the concept, making sure “the guest is welcomed as a friend and feels at home”, explains Lee Jordan. This is made sure not only by the loving restoration of the building itself, but the tastefully arranged interior with many antiques of the time make the house comfortable. Some lamps date back to the time of the former Residenzhotel, others were supplemented by Scherler, a specialist retailer for antique lamps. Small secretaries, side tables and Wilhelminian time cabinets come from Jens Vehrs antiques from Hamburg.
“No two rooms are alike,” says Boris Dreher, “some have original wood mosaic parquet flooring, others have herringbone parquet, floorboards or even terrazzo flooring”, depending on which area of the house your are in. The building consists of two former Wilhelminian style residential buildings, each of which had a spacious apartment on each floor, which is still recognizable today on the letter slits. Both houses combined are now the Henri hotel, offering about 70 different sized rooms of different sizes. The individual touch is underlined by the fact that all rooms are furnished differently and with high-quality antiques.
An eye-catcher is the historic kitchen on the ground floor, where in the morning the breakfast buffet is established. As a boutique hotel, the Henri does not have its own restaurant. In the evening, the guest can also have a snack in the breakfast area, a “Berliner Abendbrotstulle”, a Berlin type sandwich, according to Lee Jourdan.
The Henri is located centrally and close to the Kurfürstendamm in the City West and is a four star hotel. It offers a very good price-performance ratio for its equipment and location, which can be achieved by dispensing with expensive extras such as room or luggage service and car parking.
