Catalonia Berlin Mitte

The Catalonia Berlin Mitte is, if you’ll excuse the analogy, the opposite of a mullet: party in the front, business in the back. Only in Berlin would you find this particular mix, with edgy industrial-chic public spaces, graffiti-strewn corridors (painted by some of Berlin’s best-known street artists), and… rooms that are nothing if not restrained, sedate, valuing practicality above all else.

It’s a bet on the proposition that outrageous design is all well and good when you’re out and about, but comfort demands that it be left at the threshold to your bedroom. We know quite a few design-hotel devotees who secretly agree. In a budget-friendly city hotel, comfort is at a premium, and there’s no sense in subjecting guests to the disorienting estrangement of a total reinvention of the hotel-room experience. What you’ll find instead is a room that’s restful, quietly stylish, contemporary, yet functionally transparent — everything you expect to find is exactly where it should be.

Downstairs is where you go to for a bit of stimulation. The name of the restaurant, Kunstwerk, might overstate its case a bit, but it’s an attractive space, to be sure, and the lobby is a fine example of the vintage-infused style that’s currently the norm in Berlin. And from there you’ve got the city at your feet — the U-Bahn station is right in front of the hotel.