Hotel Net Info

Posted: 2007-05-13 by Liane M. McAuliffe Absolute worst vacation of our lives 

Just about a year ago my best friend and I stayed at the Flora Springs Hotel. We each had separate rooms, and the rooms really were beautiful, however it still became the absolute worst vacation of our lives. 

There were several minor problems like sporadic room service, and terrible doors in one of the rooms, but the other problems were criminal. First a man is claiming to be, and in the uniform of hotel security tried to enter my friend’s room at four in the morning scaring her to death. Next, a volcano erupted nearby causing the airport to close for 3 days. Without notifying us of this, the frontdesk attendant checked us out of our rooms, and even called a cab for us before he notified us that the airport would be closed for 3 days, information he knew all along. Next, he was unable to provide a room for us and did not even assist us in finding a place to stay for the next 3 days. This is after we both spent a week at their property. 

On top of all this, when I arrived home I realized I was a victim of identity theft with my credit card. It was proven that the gentleman that worked at the front desk had used all of the information from my credit card when I registered to sign himself up for an ADULT DATING SERVICE!!! To this day I receive lewd emails from similar adult websites because of it! To add insult to injury the only action taken by the hotel was to fire the gentleman and they shot me a brief apology email! They did not even pay my phone bill for calling the hotel from the U.S. to get to the bottom of the situation. 

I am in the hotel business and if even one of these events happened we would have done a lot better than an email. Unfortunate because the rooms really were lovely. 

http://www.complaintsboard.com/ 

Some people are still scratching their heads as to why this over-the-top, luxurious resort decided to open across the street from a Denny’s and t-shirt shops. That’s because they haven’t been inside. Once you enter Aqualina, you forget that you’re even in Miami and feel as if you’re somewhere on the Italian Riviera. In fact, it was Sophia Loren who gave this hotel its name when she was out kibitzing with the CEO of Rosewood. Located on 4.5 beachfront acres with over 400 feet of Atlantic coastline, Aqualina is a massive Mediterranean style resort towering over all the others with its Baroque fountains and just 97 impeccably appointed, insanely luxurious rooms and suites featuring the usual trimmings — flatscreen TVs, goose-down duvet and pillows — and some unusual ones as well. Among them: posh Lady Primrose’s bath products, Rivolta Carmigani sheets, and in some suites, full gourmet kitchens with Sub Zero fridge, granite countertops and dishwasher — not that the people who can afford to stay here will be doing any cleaning. A branch of NYC’s acclaimed Il Mulino restaurant is also here. Less fancy fare is offered at the beach bar and restaurant, Costa Grill, which is under the supervision of the resort’s executive chef, Ted Peters, who honed his skills at the highly regarded The Mansion at Turtle Creek in Dallas. The spa, called ESPA, is a bi-level, 20,000-square-foot oceanfront Eden, featuring everything from massage and aromatherapy and a standard Welcome Foot Ritual where your own personal needs are assessed while your feet are caressed. There are three pools just steps away from the beach — an adult-only known as the Tranqulity pool, a heated-jet pool, and a free-for-all pool. The hotel’s fantastic AcquaMarine Program offers a splashy array of marine-biology activities for kids and adults. Beach cabanas offer the ultimate in luxurious lingering. All this luxury doesn’t come cheap, so if you can afford it, go for it. It isn’t nearly as pricey as South Beach’s Setai, and the chances of Paris Hilton and Tara Reid partying here is unlikely. Aqualina caters more to the young, sophisticated, international jet-set crowd that’s been there, done that and doesn’t need the T-shirt to remind them of where they are. 

Facilities:
3 restaurants; bar; 3 outdoor pools; state-of-the-art spa; extensive watersports equipment/rentals; 24-hour concierge; 24-hr. room service; babysitting 

Note: This information was accurate when it was published, but can change without notice. Please be sure to confirm all rates and details directly with the companies in question before planning your trip. 

http://www.frommers.com/hotels/ 

The most recent complaint comes from Willis B of Honolulu who writes: 

I followed an internet ad (Planigo.com) for a Best Western hotel in Ville-sur-mer. This ad was for 2 nights for 81 per night, much better than BW best internet price of 93.50. The booking company was Planigo.com. I went through the booking procedure and was promised a voucher for the room within 24 hours. The voucher arrived this morning and it said that they could not book me in the Best Western hotel in that town, but had switched me to another hotel in another town a few miles away, Hotel Artemis in Beaulieu-Sur-Mer at a total of 198.28 for the two nights including service fee. The switch in hotels was unacceptable, the switch in towns was unacceptable and the increased price was unacceptable. In my state of Hawaii, they have defined laws against “Bait and Switch” advertising - usual violators are used car salesmen. I have sent them an E-mail requesting cancellation and notified VISA. The charge had not gone through yet. Hopefully, my E-mail will resolve the issue. I just thought that your organization could include Planigo.com in your file.

Tom W of Epsom and his partner booked through Planigo.com to stay at the hotel Saint Jean in La Ferte Bernard in order to attend the Le Mans 24 hours race. The hotel was booked by description from Planigo. When they arrived, Tom and his partner found the following (his words): ” we were handed a key to our room (Not forgetting this room was described as ’superior’, for which we had paid a lot of money), on opening the door to room number 27 the awful truth began to sink in immediately. The hand basin was absolutely disgusting, so filthy it had obviously not been cleaned properly, dried blood/spit ingrained dirt. Two cheap plastic cups were perched on the hand basin. Next our en suite shower was so poorly built, cheap think polycarbonate sides, after 1 minute the water did not drain away and if left would have flooded the room. Also it was very unclean. Then the bed - I would not ask my dog to sleep on or in it, it was presumably meant to be a four poster, the posts were fence posts, the cross pieces were 3′’ x 1/2′’ planks nailed to the posts, to finish off this utter joke two old shower curtains had been cut up and pinned with map markers to the posts!! The material/sheets/pillows were disgusting. The carpet was filthy, no wardrobe, just an old fashioned hat stand -the room measured approx 10′x10′ maximum including the ‘unsuited’ shower. The electrics were exposed and in my opinion dangerous. No cleaning had been carried out under the bed because we found previous occupants earplugs still boxed. No air-condition. The toilet facilities did not improve either, the toilet was filthy and as it was used by all the guests on our floor it ran out of toilet paper on Saturday evening and was not replaced.” Tom was charged €297.42 for three nights: The hotel room rate published by the hotel: €48 per night - much more than Planigo would have paid! Planigo insist that it is not their responsibility to check the condition of the hotels they sell! 

“Not our fault” they will claim! However, a complainant recently started a booking on the internet via Planigo.com. He chose the French hotel he required and completed the request for a booking. A short while later he received an e-mail from the hotel demanding a photocopy of the identity page of his passport and both sides of his credit card! With identity theft growing at an alarming rate, he very wisely refused. However, the hotel charged him a 15% cancellation fee for accommodation he had not booked due to the unacceptable and quite outrageous booking conditions. If you are asked for similar details, refuse to give them.

http://www.badtravel.co.uk/ 

Maria of Sleepy Hollow, NY, writes:
We made reservations for certain accommodations at this Bed and Breakfast (November 24-26, 2000). When we arrived the room was not what we were told it would be, so we checked out. The manager said if she could not re-sell the room for that evening she would have to charge me for it, even though we were going to an entirely different place to stay.
I called later that evening as a different caller to inquire whether or not they had rooms available and the clerk described this room as a very small room, in the basement, close to the kitchen and has very little sunlight — NOT AN HONEST EFFORT in my opinion to try and sell this room, so of course I was charged $223.00 for a room I did not stay in and that was not what we had reserved to begin with.
The Manager was very rude and said she was out one nights lodging because of our last minute cancellation and she HAD to charge us full price for at least one night. I don’t think this is fair and I do not think they made an honest effort to try and re-sell the room!
The consequences are, that I paid for accommodations that I did not stay in, that I was misled to believe what they actually were. I reserved a room with a King-size bed, on the lower level (not the basement, near the kitchen employee entrance). This was a double bed. My husband is 6′4″, why would I reserve a room with that size bed? After checking out of the Cambridge House, we then had to search for a vacant hotel, on Thanksgiving weekend, at 8pm at night, our first time in Boston. What I would like is my refund of $223.00 credited to my credit card.
Boston may be an even tougher hotel town than New York. It is packed to the gills much of the time and many of the hotels are a little, shall we say, eccentric.
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/

From Julie: Nickelodeon Hotel is worse than a used car lot salesman. Our weekend was during the Kids’ Choice Awards, so the rates were more than doubled. Yet, when it comes to giving your kids a memory to treasure, we all know it is “priceless.”

Check In

The lobby (if you want to call it that) was small, over-crowded, had a line about 40 people long, and its appearance was nothing special…almost like walking into a rental car shop. We reserved and paid for a specific room theme with two twin beds (as one of our children is an ER visit waiting to happen and would most certainly do various dives from the top bunk). We DID NOT get [the ones] we wanted/booked, and we ended up with bunk beds.