Carat Hotel, Monschau

This hotel advertises itself as a wellness hotel, yet the minute you arrive in reception you are hit by cigarette smoke coming from the tables in the bar, as well as in reception itself. On our first night we decided to visit the restaurant for dinner; the ambiance was awful and we were placed at a table for two a couple of centimetres away either side from more tables for two - very romantic to share your dinner with 4 strangers so we left..... as well again as being near cigarette smoke despite seating in a no-smoking area!!! Breakfast was no better - no room in the supposed no smoking section and in fact struggled to find a table at all!! Unless you speak German the claim of cable TV is irrelevant - there is one non-German channel which is CNN. The place was relatively impersonal and you knew you were in a chain hotel - and for the money it cost us it was certainly not value for money. And to top it off we had a lot of snow whilst in Monschau - all roads had been cleared - but the car park of the hotel (also not big enough for the size of the hotel by the way) was left to gather snow and ice and became a skate rink - we experienced and witnessed a lot of problems with people digging their cars out and then getting stuck on the ice!! When reception was complained to (not by us) they claimed they did not have the equipment to clear the car park - and the next day once the hotel was quieter after the weekend there was a staff member out with a snow shovel and spade clearing the car park...Certainly not the relaxing break we had been hoping for.