This is a perfect solution for a short or medium stay in Berlin, one of the best compromises between cost and benefits.
The hotel il located 800 mt. walk from Potsdamer Platz one of the centers of this multifaced capital. The area is safe and quiet, some restaurants close by, but no highlights.
The room was clean and confortable eventhought a little small, still sufficient for a week period, the walls are well insonorized and there is very little noise you can ear from the road. Just one suggestion: ask for a twin bed room, the double size bed is in reality a 1 and 1/2 size and is not possible to sleep in two on such small bed.
Breakfast is very good, you may experience some temporary "shortage" of food in presence of large organized groups.

we have just returned from a 4 night stay at the HI Express Berlin City Centre and could not really fault anything about it. check-in was easy and prompt and we were allocated a room on the 5th floor with city view as requested. the room was modern, spacious and very clean with all the usual holiday inn express amenities. fresh towels were left daily and the tea/coffee replenished every morning. continental breakfast was plentiful consisting of fruit, yoghurts, cereal, various types of bread, toast, croissants, cheese, meats, boiled eggs and as much juice and hot drinks required. although the restaurant was often busy in a morning we always found somewhere to sit and the staff were very courteous and helpful both in the restaurant, lobby and room service . the hotel is ideally located between 2 underground stations as well as being on a bus route although if like us you sometimes prefer walking, lots of the major attractions were only 10-30 mins away. nearby there were several independant restaurants/bars and a lidl supermarket so no need to go too far for an evening meal or provisions if you didn't want to. when we checked out as our flight was at night our suitcases were securely locked in the hotels luggage room free of charge which was a bonus. overall our stay was very pleasant and for a 3* hotel everything was excellent. i would also add that Berlin is a wonderful city with so much old and new to see and I would definitely return again and stay at this hotel.

We spent 5 nights here on a recent trip to Berlin.

The Good:
Location is great, short walk to Potsdamer Platz & nearby S/U-Bahn stations etc. Room (1st floor) was OK. Housekeeping was excellent & the hotel in general was very neat/clean. Staff were friendly & helpful. Car parking was €14 per night in the secure underground car park. Great selection at breakfast with plenty of everything available. No real complaints on anything above.

The Bad:
NO WiFi access available despite claims (still) on their website. We would NOT have stayed there if we knew this was unavailable.
Broadband was, apparently, available in room at a cost of €4 per hour! It's no wonder they scrapped their WiFi service - make more money charging for it! In a $200 per night hotel, in 2007, in a major
technological European city, WiFi should be available AS ADVERTISED. Very angry about this.

Air Conditioning: NONE. It wasn't the warmest weather ever but I need
a cool room to sleep in & cool our room was not :( Sure, the AC fan worked occassionally but no cool air flowed from the vent. Some days,
the fan didn't even work. Again, AC is something I always look for when booking & wouldn't have stayed there if they said the AC didn't work.

Couple of smaller niggles too - asked in reception on our first night
for a UK adapter but they didn't have any saying they'd all been stolen by guests. It's the first hotel we've stayed in that didn't have an adapter. Our booking confirmation also mentioned our free daily newspaper but staff said we would have to pay for it. Needless to say, we didn't.

So, a good enough hotel in a good location with nice enough staff but very angry about the lack of AC & Wifi having spent $1000 for 5 nights.

We stayed here 6 days. When we 1st checked in, the shower in our room was broken, we told managment about it and they had it fixed within 24 hours, which is 23.5 more hours than I would have expected. Also, we were told there was free wireless internet in the lobby. That was true for the 1st two days. One the 3rd night, we were given 3 different answers about why it didnt work, they lied to us and were rude. On the 4th night, we came back to our room and it was too warm, we found that the air conditioning was broken. Fortunately, the window opended so we could cool off. however, we were on the 3rd story, so if you have children, keep them away from the windows. Also, it was really loud outside, drunk people screming all night which made us close our window and deal with the heat, a no win situation.
we would not reccomend this hotel to anyone unless you are geting an incredible rate, like almost free.