I did a quick layover crash at the Courtyard Frankfurt Messe last week, so I thought I’d give a few impressions.

Finding the shuttle bus station at FRA took a bit of searching, but once I found it and the courtesy phone, the shuttle showed up in minutes. It’s still a fairly long(-seeming) ride though, and there are plenty of other, closer and possibly cheaper hotels on the way…

Check-in was fast and efficient, but unlike any Courtyard I’ve stayed in before, us Marriott Platinum members actually get to choose between 250 pts, a “sweet snack” or “salty snack”, which is then delivered to your room afterwards: a minor annoyance if you just want to take a shower and hit the sack as soon as humanly possible. (And yeah, I should’ve taken the points, but I wanted something to eat in case I got hungry…)

The room is a little old-fashioned but clean, functional and surprisingly large. The bathroom had your basic range of amenities (no toothbrush/paste) though and lots of hot water, so I showered, took delivery of my “salty” mini-can of Pringles and bottle of carbonated water still wrapped in a towel, and went to bed. The bed was a generously sized queen and there were good thick curtains too, so you can make the room almost pitch black if you want to, and I slept solidly for six hours. I meant to hit the gym/pool too, but realized only too late that I’d forgotten to pack my swimsuit or workout clothes in my carry-on. D’oh.

And then the grumbles. There is indeed wifi in every room, but you have to pay for it, which is annoying but regrettably standard in FRA. Also, while the shuttle from the airport is complimentary, the shuttle back is 7 euros, which is a bit of a rip-off. But I prebooked it on arrival, it showed up on time and I was back at the airport in under 15 min.

In all, out of my ten-hour layover, I spent a bit over an hour traveling between the airport and my hotel (incl. transit/immigration in the airport), six hours sleeping, an hour not-sleeping at the hotel and two hours at the lounge/gate. Total cost after taxes, shuttle etc around 75 euros, which is not the cheapest deal in town, but still under a third of what doing the same at the airport’s own Sheraton would have cost me.