A frog in the bathroom. Ok I can deal with that, it adds a bit of rustic charm to the place. A hornet nesting in the bathroom. Killed that with a broom, danger averted. The sheets on the bed are filthy, we ask for them to be changed and leave the hotel to go to the beach. We come back three hours later and the new sheets are left on the bed on top of the dirty old ones; so customer service isn’t such a big thing at the hotel, we can change the sheets ourselves.
It’s evening at this point and the mosquitoes are starting to come out and my feet are getting eaten alive. We go inside the room; hang on a minute the ventilation holes in the walls aren’t covered with meshing. There are mosquitoes everywhere and no mosquito netting for the bed. I resign myself to a bad nights sleep.
There’s a screech and a flutter above are heads, a bat comes flying down from the ceiling, hitting the window pain as it attempts to fly out of the bungalow. There’s more noise above are heads and we realize that there are a family of bats roosting in the rafters. It’s the last straw, we pack up our bags and leave the room, we’re going to find another hotel for the night.
As we passed the reception area to drop off our keys the owner looks at us quizzically. She’s p%#sed off and wants to know why we’re leaving early and aren’t going to pay, as if it wasn’t obvious enough! We tell her about the bats in the rafters, the wasps nest and the mosquitoes and she doesn’t even blink an eyelid; turns out that she already knew about those then. Maybe you saw it in the f%#king security camera that you had installed overlooking the terrace of the bungalow. Here’s an idea, you should have spent that money on doing up the room instead of spying on your guests!
The worst bit of the whole experience is that the bungalow is in a great location, perched on a hill with a beautiful view over the beaches and the sea. Lots of money had obviously been spent on building the bungalow. Unfortunately it was created by an owner who has the furniture was a mixture of things that you might have found if you’d spent the last year buying stuff at house sales.
I’ve never left a hotel before once I’ve checked in, especially one that is expensive. This was literally the first time I’ve decided to walk out of a hotel without paying. I had found the hotel where Fawlty towers met a squat house. Put simply if you have zero interest in customer satisfaction or creating a pleasant atmosphere, you shouldn’t be in the hotel industry. Tourists aren’t just stupid cash cows who are willing to put up with anything without getting a return.
Have you ever had a terrible experience staying at a hotel? What did you put up with before you decide to leave?