Dorint Hotel an der Messe Basel

First and foremost, this is a business hotel, and it feels like one: clean, functional, reliable, but not much personality. The front desk staff speaks excellent English, and personnel were helpful with the questions we had. A nice perk during our stay was the inclusion of Basel tram and bus passes valid for the duration of our stay. We weren’t intending at all to use public transport, but the tram stop is just around the corner and it takes you straight to the tourist-​centric part of town in 5 minutes or so.
The #1 feature of this hotel, for our needs at least, is the underground car park. It costs pretty expensive to use, but can’t be beat for convenience.
Speaking of expensive — the buffet breakfast is $ 25 or so. I’d avoid if you can find viable alternatives.
Finally, the wi-​fi works really well, and is fast, too.

The Dorint Hotel is a very nice place to make a temporary home. Hotels in Europe are so different from the US so they should almost never be compared directly. I liked this better than all of the others I have stayed in by far. Here are the highlights:
Bedroom, this accounts for about 80% of the room space. I asked for a king bed and got it, although it was not one king mattress but to smaller mattresses together. This created a significant ridge down the middle of the bed that reduced the useable bead down to a little more than a twin size. Something else I’ve seen from time to time is the ½ size comforter. The comforter is just big enough to cover a twin size bed, so on a king bed there are two of them side by side. It’s not a horrible issue, but if you don’t stay perfectly aligned with the bed and comforter, so body part is bound to find the cold night air.
Desk Area: About two feet deep along the window side of the room. This is a decent work space with convenient power outlets that work with both of my US power adaptors. Enough room for Laptop, mouse and note book and more. There is a hardwire network connection that’s available for an additional charge, but the WiFi was free.
Bathroom: This is small. Not the smallest I’ve ever seen. That honor belongs to a particular hotel in Lyon France. The worst part about this small bathroom is the lack of counter space. Modern day travel required you to carry two toiletry bags, one for liquids and the other for solids. This was a struggle to find the space to keep these bags and still maneuver around the counter skillfully. It seemed whenever wanted to put something down, I had to move something else. The shower is a death sentence for the claustrophobic. I don’t thinks its more 2×3 feet. Large frame guys like myself will find your self touching the walls very often.
Restaurant: I only had the breakfast buffet which was quite standard for Europe. They have an «American» buffet as well as a more European style. Juices, coffee, tea are all available as well as fresh fruit and yogurt. Again not the best in Europe but no where near the worst, this belongs to a different hotel also in Lyon France. As I said, pretty standard for Europe.
Price: Basel is not cheap. Expect to spend $ 220 a night excluding anything other than breakfast. This price not bad for Basel but depending on what you are used to, could be quite shocking after 5 days. The extras are extra, extra here. One night I ran out of water in my room. Not wanting to leave the hotel I went to the hotel bar to get replenished. What I got was a 24 ounce bottle of water for about $ 7. That’s about 4 bottles at vending machine price here in the US. I think that was the only time I was truly shocked by the price of something.
Location: While close to the #14 tram and #30 bus there are no sights to see in the immediate area. I hear the other side of the Rhine is more scenic, that translates to more expensive as well. For me, I’ll save the extra dollars and take the Tram.

Very clean nice service. Best breakfast buffet I’ve ever had. A great place to stay.