"I have been urged to share my experience at the Hotel Park Lane Paris as it may save others from the same fate as myself.
I booked a superior room for the first 3 nights of my 10 night stay in Paris as I was to meet up with a friend who I had not seen for 6 years since she had left Australia to live in Europe.
My friend left after 3 days and I moved to another room on the same floor for the remaining 7 days stay and when I got my belongings into the room, I decided to check my money as I had transferred €600 in €50’s notes to my large wallet that remained in the hotel and only take the smaller €10’s & €20’s with me in a special RFID purse I had purchased for keeping my cash and cards safe whilst out of the hotel.
I was alarmed when I found that there was only €300 in my wallet and I searched every single bag and looking for the other cash, but found nothing. I then came to the realisation that the missing €300 had been removed from my wallet when I was out of the hotel.
I contacted my Insurance company by email immediately to ask what I should do and was advised that I must immediately report the missing cash to the hotel and ask that they issue me with a letter on Hotel letterhead stating that I had reported the theft. Then the insurance company could begin to process a claim on my behalf.
Not only did everything change as soon as I reported the missing cash, but the hotel never issued me with the letter the insurance company requested.
Instead, I was treated like a person non-gratis when I would arrive or leave the hotel the staff would look away to avoid eye contact with me and made me feel quite uncomfortable. The day after I reported the missing cash, I was approached in the breakfast room by the man who was clearly the manager of the dining area and he proceeded to tell me that he was in charge of the cleaning of the entire first floor and that I had tried to ruin his reputation with my report. He kept repeating that he had been employed by the hotel for 15 years and never had anything ever been reported as stolen in that entire time. I was so embarrassed I left the room in tears and would have immediately checked out had I not paid the entire amount for my stay in advance and knew they would not be offering any form of refund. I read online that in such a situation, you can call the police to the Hotel, but after the attitude of the staff, I was not sure this would be a good idea and decided to brave it out for the final week avoiding the hotel breakfast room and choosing to eat elsewhere and avoided being in the hotel except to sleep.
It was only after reading of similar experiences by other guests at the same hotel I thought back to an event that occurred during my stay that I didn’t think twice about at the time but after made more sense.
On the second day of my stay, we had returned to the hotel early in order to rest before an evening out at a rooftop restaurant that was to be a highlight of this part of the trip. During this rest time, the phone rang and I answered it to be told that the hotel were sending someone up to change the TV in my room. I asked the question, “Is it broken?” as I had not even turned it on since I arrived and had no intention of doing so. My friend, when I told her of the conversation said, ”why do it now, we should be left in peace”. The phone then rang again and the same person told me that they would not be coming up just yet as they would leave us in peace. I then laughingly told me friend they must have heard us as they have delayed the TV replacement. I thought no more about this strange phone call until much later.
When I finally checked out, I was so relieved to be out of the place that had made my entire stay so unbearable."
