15 Frankfurt Hotels, Including the Mill Where Goethe Fell in Love
The Kaiserplatz grand dame marking 150 years, the House of Hesse’s hotel reborn under Taj, an empress’s widow’s castle in the Taunus, and the tanners’ mill on the Main where Goethe spent two summers.
Frankfurt’s hotels carry the city’s rebuilding in their walls: a grand dame bombed in 1944 and rebuilt, a 1952 hotel of the House of Hesse reopened under Taj, and a 1976 tower that was briefly the tallest in Germany. This list has the Frankfurter Hof, open since 1876, the Gerbermühle, where Goethe stayed in 1814 and 1815 and fell for Marianne von Willemer, the Westend Gate tower with the highest hotel rooms in the country, and Schloss Friedrichshof in Kronberg, built for Queen Victoria’s eldest daughter.
The list is grouped by character, not ranked. Where a hotel’s own site could be confirmed, its name links there; the rest are listed without one.
Grand dames and their second acts
Steigenberger Icon Frankfurter Hof · Innenstadt / Kaiserplatz
The Frankfurter Hof opened in 1876 on Kaiserplatz to designs by Mylius and Bluntschli, and marks 150 years in 2026. Albert Steigenberger took the house over in 1940 and made it the flagship of his hotel group. It was heavily damaged in the 1944 air raids and rebuilt in stages after the war, and remains the default address for heads of state and Book Fair publishers, by the hotel’s account.
Taj Hessischer Hof Frankfurt · Westend / Messe
The Hessischer Hof opened in 1952, built and run for decades by the House of Hesse, with porcelain and antiques from the family collections in the public rooms for most of its life. It closed in 2020 during the pandemic, was sold to Peakside in 2022, and reopened in 2025 as the first Taj hotel in continental Europe.
The Florentin by Althoff Collection · Sachsenhausen / Kennedyallee
The Florentin is built around the Villa Speyer of 1901, the banker family’s mansion on what is now Kennedyallee. It ran as Rocco Forte’s Villa Kennedy from 2006 until Rocco Forte ended operations in April 2022. It reopened on 1 December 2025 under the Althoff Collection, the name a nod to the villa’s Florentine Renaissance style, by the hotel’s account.
Le Méridien Frankfurt · Bahnhofsviertel / Wiesenhüttenplatz
Le Méridien’s historic wing is the Parkhotel, the Wilhelmine-era palais that opened on Wiesenhüttenplatz in 1905. It traded for years as Le Méridien Parkhotel before the shorter name, and reopened the palais after a gut renovation. It is one of the few Frankfurt hotels where a pre-war facade survived the bombing of the station quarter, by the hotel’s account.
Schlosshotel Kronberg · Kronberg im Taunus (outside, about 15 km)
Schlosshotel Kronberg was built between 1889 and 1893 as Schloss Friedrichshof, the widow’s residence of Empress Victoria, Queen Victoria’s eldest daughter, who died here in 1901. It was used as a US officers’ club after 1945, when the hidden Hesse family jewels were stolen in one of the era’s best-known theft cases. It has been a hotel since 1954, about fifteen kilometres from Frankfurt in the Taunus hills, and is still owned by the Hesse family foundation, with the Empress’s paintings and furniture in the public rooms.
Old houses with a story
Gerbermühle · Oberrad / Main riverside
The Gerbermühle is a former tanners’ mill on the Main that the banker Johann Jakob von Willemer used as his summer house. Goethe stayed here in the summers of 1814 and 1815 and fell for Marianne von Willemer, the Suleika of his West-östlicher Divan. It was rebuilt and reopened in 2007 as a small hotel with a restaurant and a riverside beer garden.
Hotel Palmenhof · Westend / Palmengarten
The Palmenhof occupies an 1890 Gründerzeit house on Bockenheimer Landstraße, a short walk from the Palmengarten. The hotel recounts that Elias Canetti lodged in the house as a teenager in the early 1920s. It is still family-run, with an Art Nouveau facade and period-style rooms.
Hotel Nizza · Bahnhofsviertel / Elbestraße
The Nizza is a nineteenth-century town house on Elbestraße, in the middle of the station quarter. The rooms are furnished with antiques and flea-market finds, each one different, by the hotel’s account, and a planted roof garden gives a skyline view over the Bahnhofsviertel rooftops.
Hotel Robert Mayer · Westend / Robert-Mayer-Straße
The Robert Mayer is an Art Nouveau town house of 1905 on a street named for the physicist Julius Robert von Mayer, a few blocks from the Messe. It markets itself as the Art-Hotel Robert Mayer, with each room designed by a different Frankfurt artist.
Mid-century and skyline
Flemings Selection Hotel Frankfurt-City · Innenstadt / Eschenheimer Tor
The Flemings Selection is a post-war office block at Eschenheimer Tor, converted into a hotel in 2006, by the hotel’s account. Guests can still ride a working paternoster lift, one of the last in a Frankfurt hotel. It has signed a franchise agreement to join Marriott’s Autograph Collection.
Frankfurt Marriott Hotel · Westend / Messe
The Marriott occupies the upper floors of Westend Gate, the 159-metre tower completed in 1976 as the Plaza Büro Center and the tallest building in Germany from 1976 until 1978. It opened as the Plaza Hotel and claims the highest hotel rooms in Germany, up to the forty-fourth floor.
Lindner Hotel Frankfurt Main Plaza · Sachsenhausen / Deutschherrnufer
The Main Plaza is a brick-clad tower by the Berlin architect Hans Kollhoff, finished in 2002 on the south bank of the Main. It is modelled on the stepped Manhattan skyscrapers of the 1920s, with a lit crown visible across the river, and is now part of JdV by Hyatt, with rooms styled after New York apartments.
New builds with a story
Jumeirah Frankfurt · Innenstadt / Thurn-und-Taxis-Platz
The Jumeirah opened in September 2011 as the group’s first hotel in Germany, part of the PalaisQuartier development. It stands beside the reconstructed Thurn-und-Taxis-Palais, the 1730s palace that housed the Bundestag of the German Confederation from 1816 to 1866 and was destroyed in 1944. The upper-floor rooms look straight across at the bank towers.
Sofitel Frankfurt Opera · Innenstadt / Opernplatz
The Sofitel opened in 2016 at Opernplatz 16, facing the Alte Oper, to designs by the Frankfurt architect Christoph Mäckler. It was built as a modern take on a nineteenth-century stone town palace rather than a glass tower, with Lili’s Brasserie on the Opernplatz side.
25hours Hotel Frankfurt The Goldman · Ostend / Hanauer Landstraße
The Goldman opened in 2011 on Hanauer Landstraße, the Ostend strip of former industrial yards now lined with galleries and design showrooms. Each room was designed with a Frankfurt godparent, a local personality whose story shaped the decor, by the hotel’s account. Its sister, 25hours The Trip in the Bahnhofsviertel, opened in 2008 as a Levi’s-themed jeans hotel before Levi’s pulled out.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are these hotels ranked?
No. The groups sort them by character, and the order within each group carries no meaning.
What made a hotel interesting enough for this list?
A story. Every entry was a grand dame with a documented past, an old house with a name attached, a tower with a record to its name, or a new build on a site that mattered. Comfort alone did not qualify.
Why are there no prices?
Rates change daily and a priced list goes stale in a month. Where a hotel runs its own site, its name links there, so you see the current rate and book direct.
When do these hotels fill up?
The Frankfurt Book Fair in October and the big Messe trade fairs through the year fill the city and double rates for the week. Outside the fairs, Frankfurt is a business city and weekends are quiet and cheaper.
Which hotel puts me closest to the day trips on this site?
Most day trips from Frankfurt run to Heidelberg, to the Rhine Valley and its castles, to Rothenburg ob der Tauber, or to Würzburg. The hotels around the Hauptbahnhof and the Innenstadt sit closest to the trains and the coach pickups.