Your hotel/accommodation regrets
 

I've been thinking so much about hotels for my upcoming trip.

I'm curious what people's regrets have been in respect to hotel rooms, apartments, or other accommodation that they have selected for their trips.

It could be because you selected too cheap a place, too expensive a place that wasn't worth it, a noisy area that ruined your sleep, an inconvenient location, and so on.

Maybe we can learn from your mistakes!

So far, two hotel regrets:
In Paris, staying at the Hotel de Septieme Arts in the Marais. It was recommended by an actor friend of ours who loved the hotel's movie theme. It was cheap enough that we reserved the suite on the top floor for a week. BUT...no elevator, which meant climbing up 5 flights of small, winding stairs a few times a day (the first time, with luggage, was the worst, although the staff helped us out and they were the best thing about the hotel). Our room wasn't too bad, but the regular rooms looked like they were furnished from garage sales. Very shabby. Also, we are not the biggest fans of the Marais, we like the 7th and 16th much better and should have followed our instincts and stayed there.
In Lugano, staying at the Pensione Albergo Pestalozzi in June 2003. I had stayed there in January 2003 and found the place delightful. Rooms spotless, price inexpensive, location perfect, staff friendly and helpful. Came back in June with my mother and while the above still held true, the hotel has no airco and the heat was BRUTAL (the summer of 2003 was the hottest on record in Europe). One day, I took 4 showers just to try and cool off. So never again will I stay in a hotel in the summer without airco. In the cooler weather, though, I recommend this particular hotel wholeheartedly for anyone looking for budget accommodations in the Ticino.

I find that even though we research extensively we still have made a few mistakes in picking hotels. These have mostly tended to be in the area of noise levels. We live in the country and are not accustomed to city noises so I try to pick hotels with rooms off-street.
Ironically the noisiest hotel (b&b actually) was located out in the country but with several nearby roads and at harvest time with farmers working into the night.
Overall we have been pleased with our experiences though.

I think I could have done better in Paris 5 months ago. I took Hotel de Nevers because of the price, 45 Eur a night. It's not that I think the hotel is bad. The stuff was very nice. But the restaurant across the street was noisy late at night, the room was a bit shabby, and I think the things that bugged me the most were the dim corridor light and the tainted corridor carpet. I kept telling myself it was not that important, but I WAS bothered by it. The area (republique) wasn't too great, although it had a lovely market twice a week. So for my next trip, I'm opting for Residence les Gobelins (it has gotten great reviews everywhere I looked), 53 a night, and although I'm constantly on a budget, I decided I'm willing to pay more for a nicer place (yes, I did find a 1 star in Let's Go 2004 that sounded fine, in the 14th, but then again, so had Nevers before I actually got there). Plus, I like the area very much.

I, too, have made regrettable decisions - - usually in the interest of booking an economical place. Mo deplorable conditions come to mind - - but "just too plain vanilla" has been maybe 1 in 20 places I have booked out of 200-300 nights in Europe in my life. Maybe only 150 that I personally planned (one 6 week stay and one 3 week stay where I did not).

Best wishes,

Rex

The only terrible place we've booked in Europe was Pension Seibel in Munich. The Royal National in London wasn't expecially great, but we know what we were getting with that one, so it didn't bother us so much.

Interesting that so far no one has posted about regretting having spent too much.

On our honeymoon we were going budget so we picked Hotel des Ecole in the 7th-what a dump! Had to leap over the bed when you got in the door, bathroom so small you had to sit sideways on the toilet or your knees hit the wall, crabby patron! 4 years later and I'm still ticked about it! The only good thing was the location.

Just thought of something when reading WillTravel's comment-though not European we were at a wedding at the Broadmore last summer and paid $250/night for an average room with a view of the parking lot-I know some people love the place but in my 4 days there I determined it is wholly overrated!

I think a major regret of people is to go to certain cities--Hong Kong, Sydney, Florence, Rio--and not get a room with a view.

Hard to classify all the mistakes, but I expect they fall into a couple of general categories:

1. NOT LOOKING AT THE ROOM FIRST. Here you are, you've traveled all day or all night or both, you want to go to bed or out onto the Piazza or Place or Ploshchad and you've credit-carded and room-keyed yourself up to the 3rd floor, you open the door or lie on the bed and.... oh, rats. Do you schlep back down (with or without bags?), only to be told sorry, m'sieur, zat's ze only dooble? Or do you say oh hell, them's the breaks and tough it out? Being assertive in a foreign hotel can be a huge pain. We stayed at "cute" hotel in Alsace that put us in a room on an upper floor (me hauling a suitcase we called "Godzilla" up ancient stairs). The bathtub was functionally disfunctional because one of the (also ancient) hand-hewn beams supporting the cuteness flew diagonally across the top of the tub, making it impossible to stand in the tub, or to wash one's hair without literally getting out of the tub and plunging one's head into the part of the tub that you could get to without bonking said head on said beam. How quaint. Back to the desk, do you have another room? Oui, but eet ees very small and old, m'sieur. Arrgh.

2. JUDGING BOOKS BY COVERS. I don't know how many times we've stayed in places that looked divine on the web site or the page in the tour book, only to find out that divinity stops cold at the front desk. You can't smell the mildew over the web. The people who award stars usually know what they're doing.

3. PENNY WISE, £ FOOLISH. Saved money by staying at the Kings Cross Holiday Inn once. Nearly got mugged on the street outside. Some savings.

4. MRS O'FLAHERTY'S B&amp;B. Well what the devil <i>else</i> is Mrs. O'Flaherty going to do with son Pat's room now that he's away living with that hoor in London? New sheets, fry an egg...bingo, she's a hotelier.

Or perhaps I protest too much...

My practice in picking a hotel is to get a friend's personal experience, more than one if possible. Lacking that, I come to Fodor's and try to get enough good recommendations to form a consensus on a hotel. I generally do not use websites as they are mostly advertisements that could or could not be valid.

BTilke's experiences above are well worth reflecting on too. Prepare a list of key things for you and youir family:

-Air conditioning (last summer was brutal all over France--a/c is needed for summer visit)
-Elevators
-Noise level in hotel; room on street or in back re sound
-Proximity to sightseeing, restaurants, transportation, etc.

to WillTravel - - we paid too much (especially for what we got) at the Grand Plaza in Rome on Via del Corso. We moved to del Senato, paid less (and I don't think we got a promo rate) and realized that the higher priced hotel - - as happens too often - - is/was resting on its laurels. One has to watch out for that all the time when you read glowing reviews from older sources - - and find nothing or overlook a warning notice from someone else in more recent info.

Gardyloo makes some interesting points especially about seeing the room first.

When travelling with friends or spouse/family its difficult to know whether making a fuss over a problem with the room is going to make you all feel better or worse.

When on business alone, I feel no compunction about marching back down to the desk and doing my &quot;Listen, Buster!&quot; routine and mostly it works to get a better room.But sometimes it doesn't...

When you know that the spouse/sister/offspring/best friend is depending on your travel savvy, you are almost better to accept what you get with a good grace and go out for a terrific meal instead of making everybody tense with your complaint about the __________ (fill in the blank with your favourite gripe).

You can always move out in the morning and then have a ball blasting the hotel in question on Fodors.

I regret a few times when I have not spoken up when I was disappointed in a room. During my first trip to Europe we were on a tight budget. Our big splurge on the trip was 2 nights in one of the German castle hotels. We were taken to a room in the new &quot;annex&quot; that looked like a Holiday Inn. A bit later we went to the front desk and told them that we were going to only stay one night - they asked why - we told them - and we ended up being moved to a totally charming room in the old castle with a view of the Rhine River!

The &quot;RV&quot; we rented for a holiday with my husband, my son and his girlfriend,my younger son and his friend, my parents, and then we drove to my in-laws! The accommodations were cramped, the people cranky and demanding, and I had to cook, clean and mediate the whole time. The only thing that made it bearable were the stiff drinks I poured at the end of each day!

Even after reading BTilke's comments, we're staying at the Hotel du 7eme Art in the Marais next month. It's an impluse (i.e., low budget ) trip for us and they had the best price for the location (many of the usual Marais suspects were booked already and those that weren't were twice the price). It can't be as bad as some of the places we've stayed, can it?

At the Hotel de Mons in Avignon, a rat ran right in front of me as I was going in the front door. The bathroom had a curious cut-out/pass-through to the &quot;kitchen&quot; area (just a breakfast bar, really) . The pass-through was right next to the toilet and lined up perfectly with an exterior window, so that if you sat on the toilet, the people in the building across the way could see you.

I may be one of the few people on this board who isn't an unabashed fan of the Hotel des Grandes Ecoles. But I think our experience was marred by the stereotypical loud Americans who arrived before we did and complained about the rooms they had been assigned to the point where we suspect that the woman at the desk gave them our more expensive room just to get rid of them. (We did love the location and the garden and Madam took a liking to my husband and gave him a back rub at breakfast).

I felt a little guilty about splurging for The Astronomer's Suite at Maison du Consuls in Mirepoix, largely because we spent so little time there.

The orange shag carpeting on the walls of the Hotel du Chateau in Tournon-sur-Rhone gave me the willies, but the view from the windows was so fabulous that I learned to ignore it.

Hotel du Parc in Levernois--my only regret is that we stayed there just one night. I loved this place and hope to return some day. . .

jlb, that sounds like a nightmare. I am assuming that was the last time you tried that!

WillTravel;
You better believe it. But guess what? Everyone else had a wonderful time!

..a cheap place in London called the Venus Hotel..I think I found it in Lets Go..anyway, I thought with such a quirky name how bad could it be?? Well it had bugs in the bathtub which still had bathtub rings from a previous &quot;guest&quot;. The toilet didnt work..As I had just had an overnight flight from hell, I lay carefully on top of the sheets...next day we checked out and for 2 or 3 pounds more found a great b and b...

When checking in at the Rialto in Venice about 8 years ago I asked if we could have a room with a canal view. A few times hotels have moved us to a view room just for the asking. This time it would have been an extra $30 a night so we didn't take it. I regret not having had a week in Venice with that view!

At the start of a month in Europe on sabaatical, I decided to go extra cheap and stayed in the Hotel Candide in Athens. It was twenty dollars a night and it felt like it. I think my whole experience in Athens was colored by the dirty room and shabby interior--and I normally don't mind &quot;run down&quot; hotels. Since then I've always been particularly careful in choosing big city hotels.

My biggest regret - staying in hotels for years and not staying in apartments. Pick your city - you will find apartment advice on this forum!!!

I really try to stay at a hotel that has been recommended by someone...I work with the public and am constantly getting referals for places. I double check them against travel books, tripadvisor, and this board, taking into consideration that what others don't like, might not be undesirable to me.
What does get to me, which sometimes is unavoidable, is the noise level outside or above me. We like to stay 3-4 days in a place...what annoys you on day one is usually unbearable by day 4. We would just stay and hope it got better (or different) and it usually never did. We didn't want to waste the time finding another place...that is my regret...we have not enjoyed a few cities because of where we stayed. NOW, I am up and out the next morning, and still have 3 great nights to enjoy instead of 3 more nights to endure.

Apartments are dreadful, whilst suitable for families, for the ordinary traveller they are never as comfortable as an hotel. Even serviced ones do not offer the same holiday feel affored by hotels.

Apartments are never relaxing, they'd be a regret for me I'm sure.

As for hotels, staying in hotels that have been opened less than half a year is another mistake. It takes at least six months for them to get their act together. Boutique hotels are pretentious, and posey generally, so they are best avoided. Where possible well maintained classic properties are one's best bets, including hotels newly created, but in a classical style in a classical building.

daph,
My husband and I stayed at the Rialto in a room with a view of the canal. it was fabulous! We didn't have to pay anything extra as they were doing some repair work which did not impact us at all but I guess they had a problem renting out the rooms. Yes, you should have paid the $30 but we probably wouldn' have done it either!

Elle, our experience with the Seventh Arts was some years ago and perhaps they've redecorated, although I've never read anything to that effect. The staff there were quite nice, though, so I hope that has NOT changed! It's more for people who really want to be in the Marais. And for movie fans, the hotel is definitely Turner Classic Movies country.

My husband was pointing out something interesting to me.

On TripAdvisor there are a fair number of small hotels which have dozens of reviews. Then there are some four-star business-oriented hotels in major cities which perhaps have only one or two reviews. He suggested the discrepancy might be due in part to shills for the smaller hotels.

Any idea if that is true?

My experience with TripAdvisor has actually been that the reviews are often more negative than I am about a property. There have been some instances where I was afraid of going there due to the bad reviews, but when I arrived I found nothing to worry about. So I definitely pay attention to TripAdvisor, but I do have some concerns.

One our major regrets is to have spent a lot of money at the Anassa hotel in Cyprus, since the place was really not up to our expectations: noisy rooms, noisy and overworked staff, overpriced and lack of service.

I've used trip advisor a lot, and, while it's true that people with complaints are more likely to write something than people with good experiences, you can see some hotels get lots and lots of negatives, and others get lots and lots of positives, and others are somewhere in between. That is useful information.

Re: Hotel du 7eme Art--No, I don't think they've renovated or anything. The rooms I've seen on the web look just as you've described them.

The staff has already displayed its helpful spirit, however. When I confirmed, I inquired about the possibility of using American Express, both to hold the reservation and to pay the bill. I once had an awkward situation (at the Hotel Monge) where I used Am Ex to reserve and planned to use it to pay, but when I presented it at check-out, Julie said, &quot;I'm sorry we don't accept American Express&quot;. Fortunately, I had wiggle room on another card, but I love to use Am Ex because I like to keep my revolving credit low.

Anyway, I received this response from 7eme Art: &quot;Am Ex is fine! Don't worry! Everything will be fine! Jean-Luc&quot;. Made me smile. . .

On my 1st visit to Paris we stayed at a hotel across from Gare De L'Est. The group I was with called it Hotel Du Dump. The AC didn't work towels were threadbare, rooms were noisey, neighborhood was dicey and I loved every minute of it I WAS IN PARIS. One morning in the lobby I met an Australian traveler moving from a hotel down the street he felt like he was upgrading his accommodations by moving to the Hotel Du Dump. This being my first visit to Paris, I had no expectations of what the hotels were like and found the dump acceptable. On subsequent visits I had higher expectations and the Du Dump was not acceptable.

I regretted a little hotel between the train station and city center of Blois. My room was dark, smelled of smoke and had cigarette burns on the furniture and bedspread. It had a &quot;window&quot; into an airshaft. It was my first experience with those little French hotels near the train station. I was too green to know I could ask for a different room. I just took what was given to me. Now when I get a place that isn't as nice as I would like I think, &quot;At least it isn't Blois.&quot; :-)

I regretted a little two star hotel in Amsterdam. I didn't know that 1 &amp; 2 star hotels in Amsterdam are run as flop houses for potheads. I'd hate to see what a hostel is like there.

I regretted my hotels winging it in Germany in the late 90's. Friends I was going to meet ended up not being there rather last minute. Instead of booking hotels I stopped where I wanted and spent the night. I later determined I spent about 30% more for hotels then I did the year before. I could have taken that money and stayed a few more nights, could have put it towards my next vacation, etc.

I never have problems with a noisy hotel room. I always travel with those soft foam ear plugs. They're very small, incredibly light and let me have a quiet night whenever and wherever I want one including airplanes.

Hotel Blauvac in Avignon. I had reserved a single room. The room was so small you had to crawl across the bed to get from one side of the room to the other. The window looked out onto a very narrow space between buildings and into the window of the adjacent building. The curtains didn't quite meet - thank goodness I had a big clothes pin. On the wall in the bathroom was a contraption that smelled like VERY strong bathroom deodorant and and made a strange ticking noise. The name on this contraption was RENTOKIL - I decided it was probably a bug killer of some sort. If I closed the bathroom door it helped, but then I had visions of huge bugs taking over the room. I immediately went down to the desk and requested another room, even if I had to pay more. They were booked, so I had to stay there for 2 nights, but luckily was able to &quot;upgrade&quot; and spent the last 3 days in a wonderful room. What a difference a room can make to your total enjoyment of a city. BTW the staff there were just wonderful.

My biggest regret is being stupid.
What I mean is, I wish I had checked Here on Fodors BEFORE I rented a studio 1 block from St. Severin church in Paris. Loud, louder, loudest...I didn't know the people SANG until 6 a.m. and yuck, the smell of hundreds of Gyros (or, bits o' lamb on a stick...) I arrived at my pied a terre on Sunday and on Tuesday, was in my favorite hotel; well NOW it is my favorite hotel! &lt;GRIN&gt;

Let me tell you the story of The Hit Hotel.

We were booked at a *** country hotel in Umbria in the town of Portole. When we arrived, after a lengthy drive through the woods and hills, we discovered that the &quot;town&quot; was nothing more than 3 buildings, 2 people and a dog. So we pressed on to the city of Perugia.

It was All Saints Day, so it was hard to find a room as a walk-in. We finally ended up at a motorway inn called The Hit Hotel (in English!)...and they had a vacancy. Great. It must be a big hit, right?

It's not that kind of hit. We were the only non-gangsters staying there. I got sick on the curry chicken, and I also inadvertently said the wrong thing to a wise guy from Chicago. Not a lot of sleep for me that night.

Actually, not that bad a place, in a 1970s Ramada Inn sort of way.

Here's an article I threw together about our worst experience in Europe; the other one took place in northern California and so isn't eligible for this forum, but it was the absolute nadir.

http://www.bonjourparis.com/pages/ol...articleId=2297

Had to top this one. Some posts are priceless! And the nominees are:

Gardyloo, for &quot;you can't smell mildew over the web.....&quot; and &quot;well, just what was Mrs. O' Flaherty going to do with Pat's room now that he's with that hoor in London.....&quot;

jlb - Survivor award.

SuzieC - best one liner since Sally Field's: &quot;my biggest regret is being stupid...&quot;

...to name just a few.

Willtravel, wonderful, funny thread! By the way, perhaps it is just because 2 and 3 star hotels command a disproportionate share of the market that so many reviews of them get posted on tripadvisor.

My worst experience was B.F. (before Fodors). Booked 3 nights at Pensione Seguso in Venice for my DH &amp; (then) 13 yr. old daughter. Got to hotel too late and exhausted to immediately go to another place, but would have if we could. It was filthy (even by teen-age standards, which gives you an idea of how bad it really was), floors were slanted, beds were cots, bathroom was down the hall (we never would have agreed to this), management was grumpy. We had paid for 1/2 board, but left that morning after coffee and were lucky to get a large room at the lovely (and very nice management) Hotel Flora.

Sue, what I don't quite get is why some hotels with 40 rooms have a couple dozen reviews, and other hotels with 500 or 800 rooms have 1 or 2 reviews on TripAdvisor. I suspect it might be because those small hotels are in some guestbook, so it is very motivated people who book them and then review them.