Guest User
July 3, 2024
It seemed a great deal through Agoda but oh how wrong I was. An hour before I arrived, I get an email demanding a $300 dollar security deposit to be held on my credit card. I find this practice of a hotel treating you like a criminal before you even enter - patently wrong. I’ve stayed in far better hotels than this and was never asked for a security deposit. The male manager/receptionist was cold and unfriendly. I believe he was upset that I’d gotten quite a cheap deal thorough Agoda and was trying to get rid of me so he could rent the room at a higher rate. He let me check in slightly early (about 1.30 pm), but the cleaner was still in my room. On the way up in the lift there were signs saying that the pool was currently closed for repairs and that the building was being painted and that we would be required to give room access to painters to paint the doors. The paint fumes were strong in the hallways but not too bad in the rooms. Of course - NONE of this was mentioned PRIOR to booking. I was pleasantly surprised with the apartment – well initially anyway. It was spacious with great views. There were several reminder notices in the room about emptying rubbish before leaving and doing dishes, or you’d be fined. You would also be fined if you didn’t take your key with you and got locked out etc. It felt more like a prison than a hotel. That evening, I turned the TV on – but it didn’t work at all. The manager came up. He insinuated that I’d done something to the TV. He asked if I’d touched it or unplugged anything. No - I hadn’t - I simply turned it on. He couldn’t fix it but was eventually able to get me free to air TV, which I settled for, just to get some peace and privacy. Day 2: I went to heat up a pizza up in the over but the oven didn’t work. The manager came up again. He said, “Well things happen.” I said yes, lots of things it seems, and that maybe they should check these things before a customer checks in. He became quite intimidating and aggressive and told me if I didn’t like it, I could leave. I found his aggressive stance and speech intimidating and had to ask him to please not threaten me. He said he’d have to call a maintenance man. I replied that I was on holiday and just wanted peace and privacy and didn’t want to have to deal with maintenance men. I would throw the pizza out and eat something else and he could get it fixed after I left. I spent the rest of my stay worrying about whether he would refund my security deposit. The office is closed on a Sunday – the day I was checking out. I’d made the manager aware that I’d be seeing a couple of clients at the hotel on Saturday and needed a quiet room. At 8pm Friday night, I had a note slid under my door that said I would need to grant room access to the painters between 7.30am and 1pm. This was after he told me the day before, that the painters wouldn’t affect me as they were currently on the fifteenth floor and wouldn’t be on my floor (5th) for weeks. Sadly, the gr