"I want to mention that it is not my habit to make this type of “criticism”. I usually choose not to consider the less good things and praise the positive things (the few reviews I've made prove it). However, this time the negligence of the hotel was abusive. Due to my profession, I am well aware that problems, in any business, can happen at any time. What counts is the solution we present, or the commitment and professionalism we dedicate to trying to solve these problems. In this case there was minimal commitment and zero professionalism.
I'm sure the hotel will certainly have excellent rooms (judging by the reviews I've read), with amazing conditions, but the room I'm talking about is not one of those. What I report is my personal experience, based on facts (I have photos), it is not a mere opinion of a purely subjective nature.
Room 01 that we were assigned does not correspond to the one offered in the reservation. The room they gave cannot be considered a standard quality room for a 4* hotel in this part of the world. I have a lot of experience in different types of accommodation throughout Europe, Africa and the Middle East. I know what I’m saying.
I could talk about the fact that the room is not in the hotel itself, but by a external access. I could talk about the fact that the door reader does not work, it is necessary to use a key and it is necessary to “fight” with the door to open. I could talk about the serious hygiene problem of the mattress topper, with two huge yellow stains on both sides of god knows what (urine?); situation that we discovered after we removed the sheets to change, since the hotel did not do it, despite these having a hole.
I will talk a little about the bathroom being flooded every time we use the overhead shower. The water passes into the bedroom, the bedroom floor in the access to the bathroom is always wet. That was the reason why the bedroom floor was wet the night we arrived very late (at first we thought they would have washed the floor). The next day we found that the bathroom becomes into a “swimming pool”. In addition to the obvious inconvenience, this situation creates two safety problems, which can be serious for users: the entrance from the room to the bathroom, which is always wet, is a nest of bacteriological creation (bacteria and fungi), the floor of the Bathing flooded with soapy water is a risk, as people can slip and seriously injure themselves. We have photos that prove the description.
We complained twice. The first time, the front desk employee (who in the contacts I had with him, reminded me of a mixture of the characters Manoel and Basil Fawlty from the Fawlty Towers series – clumsy, incapable, without a sense of ethics and condescending – but without any fun) tried to give us a bucket and a mop to clean up and that he couldn't do anything else, as if it were our responsibility. After insistence on our part, two ladies (who apparently have responsibility in the management) arrived and we were informed that they would clean it and that they would call someone to fix it. We don't know if anyone went there or not, because the next day the problem persisted. When we got back, we found orange towels on the bedroom and bathroom floor. We went there to complain the second time and during this second contact we realized two things: first) they had perfect knowledge, before our arrival, of what was going on with the room and they did nothing, they did not warn us, nor did apologize. Second: apparently we had no right to complain. We were informed that they were aware of the problem, but that they had no way of solving it. This second contact had something of surreal stuff. At some point, and after several attempts to get someone to resolve the situation, the same front desk employee spoke to some “manager” in Spanish (a language we understand quite well) and at one point in the conversation I hear the following phrase “…son de Portugal! ” (“they are from Portugal!”). My brain went “Wait… what?!!! What does our origin have to do with what we are trying to solve? Are they profiling or stereotyping us?” For a second, the fetid smell of 1933 reached my mind. But I quickly dismissed that thought (for being too bad) and I felt like David Attenborough just watching two creatures, of those less favored by God at the time of his creation, “communicating” with each other.
After hanging up, the employee “Basoel” informed us: Nobody would talk to us, it was our problem and they wouldn't do anything else because… wait… wait for it… we had paid for the cheapest room in the hotel. And, once again, my brain “wait… what?!!!”. So, in practice, their argument was that since we paid the cheapest room in a 4* hotel in high season, all we were entitled to was a mountain cave shelter to shepherds. At the time I even commented that they had forgotten to put that information in the “brochure”… but after that I preferred to take a deep breath and try to prevent the rest of the vacation from being irremediably ruined.
The day I left I formalized the complaint, I don't know what to expect with the total lack of competence shown. I also asked for a copy of the invoice via email and I still haven't received it.
In short we were treated with complete contempt (to go no further), without the slightest bit of professionalism. For me it was a total disappointment, because being a German-based hotel and because I am used to working with Germans, I expected competence and professionalism. Which didn't happen, which tells me that I shouldn't profiling or stereotyping either, even positively, as I run the risk of being completely mistaken. The only positive thing was the breakfast."
