Clement Vieux
Dec 2024
★★★★★
UPDATE: After I posted the negative review, she threatened to sue me for defamation.
SHE PAYS HER CUSTOMERS TO LEAVE GOOD REVIEWS
We booked this accommodation because of its 24-hour reception, as advertised on Booking.com. Upon our late-night arrival, after our flight, we were warmly welcomed by the owner, who provided us with all the necessary information about the accommodation and also gave us bank details for payment the next day. She also gave us the bill, and then we went to our room. When we saw the room (clean, hot water, spacious, and quiet), we immediately messaged her to extend our stay for two more nights, as the room suited us. We then went to bed. The next morning, when we woke up, we carefully examined the bill we had received that night, as well as her message replying to our request for an extension. We noticed that the invoice didn't match the amount shown on the Booking.com reservation, and also that the price she was asking for the extension was higher (the same as on the invoice). When we asked for details about the invoice and the price for the extension (which was the same), she explained that there was a 9% surcharge plus a 10-sol late arrival fee.
Regarding the 9% surcharge, we tried repeatedly for quite some time to understand what it was for. She told us it was VAT for foreigners. Odd, we'd never heard of it. So when we finally agreed to pay this so-called VAT, we simply asked for a detailed invoice to send to Booking.com, and that's when she told us to forget it, that we wouldn't pay that tax... As for the late arrival fee, since it wasn't mentioned anywhere and we had never discussed it, she agreed to remove it. But it wasn't very honest of her, because if we hadn't asked why our bill was so high, we would never have known that she had charged us a late arrival fee, and on top of that, she intended to charge us for it a second time. When she quoted us the extension rates, it was exactly the same price as the first two nights, including the late arrival fee…
After a long negotiation, she charged us for the first two nights as stated on the Booking.com reservation (adjusting the exchange rate, since the US dollar had entered the market between our respective currencies – namely the euro and the sole), but charged us more for the two additional nights, certainly to compensate for the fact that we hadn't paid the "fee" for the first two nights. In the end, we paid the price she had wanted from the beginning.
Not to mention that we were upgraded to a larger room upon arrival because the room we had originally booked had been given to other guests. We were then stuck when we tried to extend our stay, as the price of the larger room was inevitably higher and beyond our budget. Unfortunately, we had no choice but to stay at the hotel because the Wi-Fi wasn't working that evening, so we couldn't book alternative accommodation.
We wanted to extend our stay a third time, and at that point, she offered us a very economical rate, asking in return that we not leave negative reviews.
We refused and left.
Between an unfavorable exchange rate, VAT that was clearly not mandatory, hidden late-night arrival fees, and an attempt to buy the silence of guests… this damages the image of the establishment, which, in itself, has everything going for it.
