Frankfurter Hof, built in 1876, is the city centre’s oldest hotel, and remains the hub of business life. As well as sharing your breakfast room (a commendably German habit) with top bankers, you might recognise the likes of Yoko Ono at a corner table. Here, you have the crispest starched linens and fresh orchids, and the buffet, with chef in attendance, includes a vast array of healthy options, including more kinds of yoghurts and brown breads than even a menu-planner could wish for.
Led by GM Armin Schroecker, this is a very thoughtful hotel. There are piles of business- type newspapers in many places, just right for international CEOs. Do they also have time to try their bathrooms’ exfoliating mittens and pot of skin-refreshing bath salts, I wonder.
A visit to the compact gym may not be on their agenda, but all guests can work their legs via the original stately marble staircase (132 steps from lobby to the top floor), or by walking the fascinating streets of the city centre.
Of the 303 rooms, number 555 is a particularly restful suite, with views down past the lifesize gargoyles on the building’s exterior to a semi-circular Ehrenhof outdoor courtyard that, in summer, is a day and evening A-list meeting place.
There is a lot of networking going on here at the Michelin-starred Français weekday-only restaurant; at all-time Oscar’s, which is lots of fun; at the cigar-haven Cigarrum; in the book-filled Library; and at breakfast. www.frankfurter-hof.steigenberger.de
The entertainment crowd – well, Eric Clapton and his like – stay at Sir Rocco Forte’s Villa Kennedy, as do many senior and up-and- coming bankers. The immaculate 163-room mansion, dating from 1904, is built around a fabulous inner garden where people sit, eat, do business and enjoy life.
The premium Georg Speyer Suite has a unique dining room in a turret, but for something more homey choose, say, suite 351with big windows looking along Kennedyallee (it is light and airy,with Bang & Olufsen and Nespresso, and all suites come with free breakfast, internet and Germany-wide calls).
The serious-lap 45-foot granite-lined indoor pool is next to another lush garden. The Technogym has Kinesis, and the Villa Spa offers the best anti-wrinkle facials for both sexes that I have come across, from Barcelona-based Sepei, devised by two former architects. Gusto! does some of the best capreses, as you would imagine when Fulvio Pierangelini is consultant, and there is wagyu on the simple-grill list.
GM Georg Plesser runs a thoroughly enjoyable hotel. Take the time to look at some of the giant black and white Axel Crieger photographs, including Contemplation, showing JFK and his brother Bobby, hanging at the rear of the lobby. www.roccofortehotels.com
All work and no play is not good for anyone, so why not relax a bit at Kempinski Hotel Gravenbruch, set in 100 acres of leafy parkland in NeuIsenburg. Thanks to Germany’s no-speed-limit you are only 15 minutes from downtown so you could, like many privacy-seeking bankers, choose to stay ‘in the country’ while still being on the doorstep of the city.
The rambling 256-room hotel has evolved, a bit willy-nilly, from the original Gravenbruch castle, said to date back to 1586. Today’s five-floor structure recalls Frank Lloyd Wright blended with late- 20th-century Japanese. Favourite rooms include Park Suite 327, with a soaring ceiling and antiques, or Presidential Suite 312, with a double-height parlour.
Ask for a room overlooking the hotel’s own magnificent lake, complete with swans. Especially in summer, outdoor life comes into its own, with a sandy beach and kids’ playground, and a magnificent open-air pool. Year-round, there is a well-heated indoor pool, and facilities for sauna, steam and solarium are above-par. On site, there is Segway, fishing and riding, and, only seven minutes away, 27 holes of Christoph Städler-designed golf.
Kempinski Hotel Gravenbruch is headed by GM Thomas Fischer, a long-time foodie. Not surprisingly then, there are really tasty and ultra-healthy dishes on the Forsthaus menu – say a tower of ‘beluga’ lentils topped by baby-herb salad and fresh flowers. In summer, many enjoy eating outside on the restaurant’s terrace.
Another big advantage of Kempinski Hotel Gravenbruch is that Egelsbach airport is only 10 minutes away, so you can have a last- chance swim, or smoke another cigar on the terrace, and then be driven in style in one of the hotel’s BMW 7-series to your waiting private jet. www.kempinski.com
And, hot news, Jumeirah Frankfurt opens fully on September 22 – it is right opposite the Borse and three minutes’ walk from the main Zeil retail street. www.jumeirah.com
