I didn’t like being mis-sold this accommodation by Booking.com, who listed a number of features in ‘the room’ that simply did not exist e.g. a trouser press, an iron, a dining area, carpeting, a bathroom with bidet, a city view etc. All of these were pretty standard features, I thought, of a business twin room.
Our request for a room on a high floor resulted in the most ghastly, dingy and dark twin room on the ground floor, lacking all of the features above - and more. When we challenged this with the hotel, reception staff assured us that the room was correct, even though our expected city view was of the wall of a neighbouring apartment block just a few feet away. We looked down into the toilet of one of the apartments. Hardly a city view.
After being assured that there were no other suitable rooms, one on the third floor miraculously became available. It too lacked the expected features and offered not a city view but again a ‘neighbouring apartment block’ view.
We accepted this room on the understanding that hotel management would attempt to find an alternative room the following day. Did they? No. Did they reach out to us at all for the remainder of our three night stay? No, they didn’t do that either. The staff weren’t at all interested in resolving this situation and management were extremely poor too - choosing not to engage with us at all. In fact, we felt ignored by the surly front of house team on leaving and returning to the hotel. Only the house-keeping staff acknowledged us each day. They were all very friendly and they maintained the room to a good standard - keeping it clean and tidy.
We approached Booking.com, who started to clarify that many of the promised ‘in room’ features were not in the room at all but rather just hotel features. The business twin room was actually nothing more than a very basic twin room.
I am absolutely disgusted by the hotel and by Booking.com - both refusing to admit that they had falsified or exaggerated many of the room features and both shying away from the situation. An initial 20% refund was offered by the hotel, which was promptly declined. Later, Booking.com offered £20 themselves. Together, this equated to a refund of a little over 30%. Needless to say, this embarrassing offer was also declined. Despite refusing any wrong-doing, it was interesting to see that the website was promptly updated with in-room features.
Had we not have been in China, we would have checked out and stayed somewhere else, but it’s not that simple here. In transit without a visa, we had registered our whereabouts with immigration and moving on just wasn’t an option.
After a month-long visit to Asia, our final hotel on the itinerary was a huge disappointment. I expected better from big brands like Ibis and Booking.com.
Booking.com claim that they are in no way at fault, yet, for reasons unknown, offered £20 compensation, and insist that individual hotels are responsible for correctly listing features on THEIR website.