At Hotel Areela in Tirana, Albania, that is exactly what we got.
All Is Fine Until Checkout
Until we checked out, everything at the hotel was fine. The room was clean enough, breakfasts large, and staff incredibly friendly. The only oddity was that the cleaning lady moved all of our belongings around one day to clean, something that is high on my pet peeves list. But that paled in comparison to our checkout experience.
Being Refused to Leave And No One To Help
Come our last morning, we noticed something odd. No one but the cleaning lady, who also served breakfast, was there. It was slightly earlier, but by the time we went to checkout there was always someone at the desk in the previous mornings. Since it was a weekday, there was no reason to expect any difference (not to mention, their hotel listing clearly states 24 hour front desk).
We came down to leave and still no one was there but the cleaning lady. She told us to sit and wait in Albanian (we think by hand gestures at least) but after 10 minutes we had to get moving to catch our bus and we asked to pay one more time.
Then the troubles started.
Since she didnt speak English, she just made hand gestures to give her money. (A rather rude movement in my opinion, like when you would rub your fingers together to signify a great deal of money).
A few minutes of futile attempts to ask how much, and we were losing our patience. I dont like handing over cash or a credit card without a confirmation of our bill, and the cleaning lady definitely did not get it and only kept making the finger motions of money.
Another few minutes and she walked away to serve other guests breakfast.
Since our bus departure was coming up, I tried showing her the bus ticket to show we had to leave, but she kept at the same gestures without doing anything else or calling the desk workers to help.
Then We Found The Door Was Locked
Since about 20 minutes had passed by this point, I was going to just leave and put a note at the desk telling them to charge my credit card. In fact, I was in the middle of writing that very note when Angie found the main door was locked with no one but the cleaning ladies having a key.
We were all, quite literally, locked in the hotel.
...and Angie was not having it.
Getting Visibly Angry
At this points our requests to pay were getting louder, and the lady finally called someone to help.
The person on the phone was one of the front desk attendants who spoke good English and was normally helpful. Rather than give us aid to help us pay, by, I don't know, telling me how much I owed, she proceeded to lecture me about it being my responsibility to pay when someone was at the desk.
Wait, what? There were always people at the desk this time each morning, and no one told us we had to prepay for a unique circumstance on this day. It was listed as a 24 hour desk after all. In fact, it was the people at the front desk who suggested we take a 9am bus, and no one told us (including no posted signs) that we would have to checkout early if we had a morning departure.
So while we were trying to figure this out, Angie broke down and tried to steal the key from the cleaning lady, who was not having it at all. Between shouts, tears, and other issues, it seemed like we were never going to make our bus.
If this had gone on any longer, one of us would probably have ended up in an Albanian jail. Luckily, it never got that far.
A Silly Resolution
A few more minutes go by in our English-Albanian shouting match and the person on the phone walks in and continues to chastise us for yelling at them when other guests were around.
I kept asking to pay so we can leave, and after finally seeing the bill I realize I have to pay with a credit card (which were accepted). The employee looks at me and simply says, the machine is here you could have paid whenever you wanted.
What? Okay, we've never been told to run our card ourselves (here or anywhere for that matter), and we were only just shown our bill a few minutes before that.
"Can you charge it now we have to go!"
"No, its okay, you can leave we will charge it later."
The cleaning lady unlocks the door and we leave, practically running to catch the bus. Angie muttering a few curses under her breath as we go while a few other guests look on in horror at what just happened.
Missing All Customer Service Basics
As much as I wanted to like this hotel, our last experience ruined it all. To miss all customer service basics is something I've never seen in nearly 50 countries and in countless hotels of all sizes and qualities.
To physically lock guests in with only a few employees having a key? That is unsafe on so many levels, not to mention a shady tactic to refuse to let us leave because no one was at the "24-hour" desk.
Not telling the guests about checkout policy that clearly clashes with their online listing, and then blaming them for everything when all that was asked was a copy of the bill before giving money? Well, there is a first time for everything I suppose.
Perhaps the most upsetting part about the whole thing is that if the employees were at the desk like they should have been this issue wouldnt have happened at all.
Suffice it to say, we wont be going back there if we ever return to Albania.
Luckily for you, there are dozens of other properties worth your time in Tirana, so you can easily skip this one without issue. They do not deserve your money, and you do not deserve their attitude. Now I just need to figure out how to report the unsafe activity that goes on there to the local tourism board or regulating authorities.
