travel nightmare: arrive in city and your hotel doesn't exist
 

What happens when you arrive in your destination city and find that your hotel does not exist there?!! I had a recent travel nightmare that occurred when I arrived in Lugano, Switzerland and started looking for my hotel in Lugano only to be told it was not in Lugano but over an hour away in Varese, Italy! I had found this hotel, the Hotel Socrate, in a search on Bookings.com which I have learned is also the same as Priceline.com. I typed in Lugano and this hotel came up on my search. It said it was right on Lake Lugano, very centrally located and close to everything. It never stated that it was not actually in Lugano. I printed up the hotel's address from their confirmation e-mail. I showed the address to the woman at tourist info in Lugano who was kind enough to help me by calling the hotel directly and spoke with their representative. When she told them I was in Lugano and that I had been told I had to go to Varese Italy via Mendrissio to find their hotel, they did not redirect me on how to find their hotel but simply said ask around when you get to Mendrissio for a bus to Varese (this is over an hour away in Italy). Turns out the hotel was right near Lugano in a suburb around the lake. I wasted my entire day of travel buying train tickets to Mendrissio to try to find this hotel and showed their address to many people. It was not clear at all where they were located and this was not just me; several train ticket agents, tourist info, and locals on the street were asked for help based on their address. Despite making direct contact with them, they failed to help me find it. After all efforts and a tremendous waste of a day of my vacation, I had to find another place to stay. The hotel charged me for that night's stay even though I had contacted them and told them my predicament and made tremendous efforts to try to find them and did not end up using their services. I find this quite unfair since we did make contact with the hotel that day and asked for help and no redirection was given to avoid this wild goose chase I ended up on. I hope this may be a cautionary tale...the only thing I didn't do was print up directions and that was because their website described it as so central and seemingly impossible to miss in Lugano that I didn't think it was necessary.

Wow. That's quite a story.

One thing that I like to do is use Google Earth or Maps to see the hotel from space so I really understand where it is and what the area looks like. I also like to check the hotel's own website for directions.

Is this the Booking.com description? I don't think it says that it's in Lugano. It says that it overlooks Lake Lugano, and clearly indicates it is in Varese.

http://tinyurl.com/3acqet

n:

If you used a credit card to pay, why not have the CC company deny payment, on the grounds that you described? It may be too late to do this..but try.
Stu T.

StuT: why on Earth should the credit card refund the money? The OP made a mistake - LAKE Lugano is not the same thing as Lugano TOWN.

Bookings.com clearly states right up front &quot;<i>The hotel is situated in <b>Italy's</b> lake district,</i>&quot;

How can someone think a hotel is in Lugano when it say the above???

ncounty: I am sorry you feel you were cheated - but IMHO you were not. The place is EXACTLY where it says it is - on Lake Lugano. You made a mistake thinking than means it is in Lugano. Nowhere is it described as being in Lugano. Next time, perhaps study a map or two before booking an area you are not familiar w/.

I was clearly misled by the fact that I typed in Lugano looking only for hotels in Lugano and this turned up. So, I did look at the map and it shows this hotel right on the water and it does say it looks over Lake Lugano which makes sense because I am assuming based on my search for Lugano hotels that this is in Lugano and looks over Lake Lugano. Will Travel: Yes, it does indicate it is in Varese which as a foreigner to that area doesn't mean anything until I get there and am told that Varese is in Italy!! This is from people in Lugano. No one seemed to know that there is a little suburb named Varese just outside Lugano as well. What shocks me is the hotel's position on this to charge for that night even though we made contact with them to explain the problem and they contributed to misleading me in trying to find the place. I am appalled at this in principle.

Well, I agree that that must've been a very frustrating day, but the fact is, it's no one's fault but your own. Live and learn.....

ncounty, I followed your path: Bookings.com, entered Lugano, and looked through what was offered. The Hotel Socrate came up, with full address given, and a reported distance from Lugano of 9.2 km. Both the Bookings.com site and the hotel's own site offer to show a map, and the map suggests to me that 9.2 km is about the distance from the town of Lugano -- and of course, it is only metres from the lake.

Your &quot;over an hour away&quot; seems to be predicated on bus routes and schedules; a taxi might have done that trip in 10-15 minutes.

I can understand your frustration, but I think you may have brought it on yourself by making suppositions and interpretations that proved to be mistaken. I see no sign of sharp practice or withholding of information, nothing that invites you to see things as other than they are.

It was not the fault of the hotel that you made those mistakes, and so I think they were entitled to charge you.

I am sorry if this seems hard-hearted when you have had a bad experience. I don't mean it that way, because I think it unkind to kick a person who is down. But I don't think you were badly treated; you were simply unlucky.

This sounds almost as bad as someone headed to New York City and finding a hotel &quot;in New York&quot; and ends up in Syracuse. One can only say &quot;you didn't do your home work!&quot; New York is not New York City and Lake Lugano is not Lugano.

The &quot;hour away&quot; is where I was sent by everyone who looked at this hotel's address. Obviously, it was a mistake to not realize that this hotel was not in Lugano even though I only searched for Lugano. However, I did call the hotel that day in the midst of this search and they did not let me know they were only 9 km away. That would have easily solved the problem. Perhaps that is not clear in my original description. We told them that I was in Lugano and looking for them and that I had been told they were somewhere near Mendrissio, Italy which is an hour away. They said just look for a bus to Varese once you get to Mendrissio. Once I got to Mendrissio, the train station agent said it was not at all clear whether this hotel was in Varese Italy or Varese outside Lugano based on their address. By then it was evening and I was exhausted and gave up and found other accommodations.

I am totally flummoxed by this - did you not see/read the hotel's description being in ITALY's Lake District?

Nothing you say tells me the hotel or the website were deceptive.

This is like travelers who book a hotel at Lake Tahoe and are clueless than the lake is more than 20 miles long and has communities/hotels all the way around. &quot;But the website said it was on Lake Tahoe!&quot; - - - &quot;It is but you are at the wrong part of the lake. Yours is 45 minutes north of here.&quot;

Ncounty, I'm sorry you had such a confusing and expensive experience.

I think what surprises me the most is that you made a hotel reservation based entirely on search function results for &quot;Lugano&quot; and presumably an attractive hotel rate. It would seem you did no research to insure that you weren't booked into a total dump of a hotel, a step that would have educated you to the fact that the hotel was in Lombardy, Italy, albeit on the shore of Lake Lugano.

Like Gavin, I also check maps to see where a hotel is located in relation to the sights I want to see.

But, again, I am sorry for your negative experience.

So the moral of the story is . . . do your homework. For starters, look your hotel up on a map. Get a set of detailed directions to the hotel from the hotel itself. Research by asking folks HERE and on tripadvisor if they have stayed there. I can't imagine showing up at a hotel without doing my homework first to find out exactly where it is and how to get there.

I'm dumbfounded by the suggestion that they should have told you on their own that they were not in Lugano. I have booked many hotels all over the world, and I can't recall a single one every telling me where they &quot;weren't&quot; located.

ncounty: stop blaming the hotel. Here's what YOU needed to do: Call the hotel directly and say I AM HERE&lt; WHERE ARE YOU&lt; AND HOW FAR AWAY ARE YOU AND HOW BEST AND MOST QUICKLY DO I GET THERE?

Forget the tourist office and other hotels and random people unrelated to your circumstance. You blew it from the outset; you needed to take charge to fix it, but you fuddled around instead of finding an internet cafe and researching the deal or calling the hotel yourself. You really can't blame this on anyone else. Though I must admit it was probably a horrible wasted day. We've all had them. Travel is a crap shoot.

No, my suggestion is that when I called them obviously lost and stating that I am Lugano and trying to find them, they should have told me they were just outside Lugano about 9 km away....It is as if I am in New York and mistakenly end up with a hotel in Brooklyn but the address is so confusing that everyone in New York tells me the hotel is in Connecticut. When you call the hotel and tell them you are in New York and you are trying to find them and have been told they are near New Haven Connecticut, don't you think they should have guided me appropriately to where they are? They could have said it is ridiculous to go to New Haven Connecticut and then look for a bus to get back to Brooklyn. We are just outside Manhattan. I guess the general sentiment is that the hotel is not at all accountable for not helping a guest who is lost in trying to find their location.

St.Cirq: I did call them directly. Due to the language barrier, I had the lady at tourist info translate for me.

OR -- you could have checked the location of the hotel you booked BEFORE you left home! That's certainly what I always do, especially if I don't speak the language where I'm going. I'd never even arrive in Paris or London without a specific map directing me to the actual location of where I'm staying. But sadly when I do that I have no one to blame if I get lost as you do.

OK, I understand the language issue. Can imagine that in a country where I don't speak the language. Sounds like it was a combination of lack of research on your part to begin with and then on-the-ground language issues. But still, there's no one to blame for this except inexperience.

&quot;I didn't print up directions...I didn't think it was necessary.&quot; You have a lot in common with many males of my acquaintance. I've found maps and directions generally prove useful when setting out to parts unknown.

The &quot;website described it as so central it was impossible to miss&quot;. This phrase is right up there with &quot;just a short walk from the train station&quot;. It sounds so good, but you better prepare for a hike.

&quot;Despite making direct contact with them, they failed to help me find it&quot;. Here is where a good map comes in handy.

It seems you assumed everything would fall into place once you arrived, and assumed if things went awry someone would solve your problems. When travelling, proper preparation always trumps positive thinking.

I think you have a good story to share with your friends. Every person on this site has a few of those. Live and learn.