Steigenberger Icon Frankfurter Hof

The Frankfurter Hof has been Frankfurt's answer to the question of where things officially happen since 1876. Its neo-Renaissance wings enclose a formal courtyard just off Kaiserplatz, midway between the Römerberg old town and the banking towers, and for nearly a century and a half the hotel has hosted the financiers, publishers and heads of state that the city's trade fairs and markets attract. During the Frankfurt Book Fair its lobby becomes world publishing's unofficial clearing house.

As the flagship of the Steigenberger group—founded here—the hotel carries its history with continual reinvestment rather than mothballs. Rooms mix classical mouldings with contemporary comfort in a restrained corporate-classic register, the courtyard-facing ones pleasingly insulated from city noise. Service is drilled for the demands of a clientele that measures efficiency in minutes.

Gastronomy has long been a point of pride: Restaurant Français has held Michelin recognition across changing chef generations, while the venerable bar and cigar lounge preserve an old-Frankfurt clubbiness that the city's newer hotels cannot synthesise. With the Städel, the river promenade and the Goethe House all walkable, it remains the city's most complete traditional address.