Stay Safe and Save Money!
Learn from our mistakes and save money! My family and I recently went on a European road trip and had a terrible experience with several Danish hotels.
My kids have ADHD and when planning our vacations I carefully select where we stay because cramped hotels cause outbursts. We recently took our family on a trip where we stayed in many places. We started off camping, but I booked some hotel nights with Hotels.com. During the last eight years, I’ve booked most of our hotel nights with Hotels.com. I was extremely pleased with their services on the silver-tier until they merged with Expedia. Unfortunately, I’ve had a terrible experience with Hotels.com recently.
Problem 1: Staff
The first problem was a hotel that couldn’t see we paid the correct amount for our kids. (This small hotel was not associated with a hotel chain.) They demanded extra pay. The suite we booked was expensive (probably double what you’d pay at an American hotel). I didn’t want to pay extra, so I asked if we qualified for a refund since there seemed to be a mix-up.
The receptionist told me not to put the kids in the Hotels.com system as kids next time which is incorrect information. She finally allowed a refund because the hotel wasn’t full (I guess we hadn’t kept someone else from booking a room). When she went to refund our money she realised she couldn’t do a refund because we already paid through the Hotels.com app! If I wanted a refund I was going to have to request one. At that point, the window for free cancellation had expired, and the only way to ask for a refund was to call. I was trying to get ahold of Hotels.com when the receptionist suddenly said, ”I found a breakdown of the fees you paid, and the price for the kids and it was correct!’
She asked us if we wanted to stay since it was already paid for and we didn’t need to pay extra. We agreed, but if we hadn’t been paying attention we could have paid the extra fee and been cheated. I don’t know if the receptionist was just very confused, or if it was an ongoing scam to get more money out of travelers.
At Hotels.com you register the age of everyone under 18 under the heading kids. If you’re booking a hotel that considers kids over 15 adults you will be charged for the adult price for that child. (This is automatic even though you put your kid in their system as a child.)
Know what you paid for and don’t let a receptionist talk you into paying for something you’re not comfortable with. You can always ask to speak with the boss.
Unfortunately, this hotel gave us a suite that wasn’t very satisfactory. The best part was a small outdoor patio attached to the rooms. We booked what we thought was a small apartment with 3 bedrooms, a kitchenette, and a washer. We ended up in two rooms without a kitchen. One room looked like it did in the pictures, but the second bedroom was two rooms in one. It had a second bed behind a screen. That bed was on the floor without legs and the bed springs were broken so parts of the bed were rock-hard. My girls didn’t sleep well, and my husband and I didn’t get a room to ourselves (We were looking forward to it after several nights of sleeping in the same tent as the kids). The bathroom was disappointing with black mold in the shower. The rooms had been recently renovated, but with a broken bed, dirty bathroom, and misleading description of the rooms we weren’t impressed (The hotel didn’t have a clear description on hotels.com).
Problem 2: Lack of Staff
Our worst experience on the road trip was at the next hotel! We wanted to finish our trip in Copenhagen with five nights at a cheaper hotel. Copenhagen is expensive, and they have lots of hostels for youth and families. I booked a particular hostel because it had bigger rooms. I didn’t want the kids to be claustrophobic because living on top of each other often caused ADHD outbursts.
At the Hostel, I booked people were smoking everywhere and possibly using drugs in the big communal kitchen area. I immediately felt it wasn’t safe for my family. Unfortunately, other families gave the Hostel decent reviews. (You should always check what people who recently stayed at a hotel are saying in the reviews.)
We decided to look at the room, and when I unlocked it with a code I received on SMS. The room was not clean! The closet handles were broken, trash sat under the bed, the carpet looked puked on, and tons of cigarettes sat on the windowsill! Someone had attempted to clean the carpet, but the room didn’t smell clean.
We decided to leave. I immediately called Hotels.com to ask for help with canceling our stay. From reading the fine print I understood that we needed to pay for the first night and the remaining nights could be refunded.
The person I talked to on the phone was very nice. He tried to call the Hostel three times while I was on hold. He did not get ahold of the Hostel because there was no real receptionist. The person who sent me an SMS probably did so through a private phone or work cell phone. Hotels.com’s customer service told me they would continue to call the Hostel until they got ahold of them to cancel for me. They insisted that I should not worry and that a refund would be processed immediately because it didn’t sound like a safe place to stay. I was assured they would try to get my money back for the first night when they finally got ahold of someone.
The person on the phone was so reassuring they did me a bear favor! (In Swedish a bear favor is when you are trying to help, but you actually make things worse!) The Hostel didn’t answer the phone until after the first night (That meant that my right to cancel and pay only for one night had expired before they answered the phone)! Honestly, I think this was a trick by the Hostel to make more money!
Hotels.com claimed that they couldn’t do anything at this point and they insisted I had to pay for all five nights! If the person on the phone had been honest with me about what would happen if they didn’t get a hold of anyone that day I would have sent an SMS to the person who sent me the code for the door. That way I would at least have written proof that we wanted to cancel.
If you’re booking your stay in Europe the best thing is to book hotels with a reception open 24/7 and pay at the hotel, or book a house exclusively for your family. I noticed several places on Hotels.com that claimed you could book an entire apartment for your family, but when I read the reviews people said they didn’t get the whole apartment to themselves! ALWAYS read the fine print and the reviews.
I was disappointed that Hotels.com sided with the terrible hostel called Budget Rooms Copenhagen! Hotels.com told me repeatedly they could not go against the policies of their partners. I wrote an honest review of the hostel and told Hotels.com they should not associate with places like that because it’s not good for their reputation, but they still have Budget Rooms Copenhagen on their website. Booking.com is also promoting this Hostel.
If you want to be flexible on your trip try camping. We didn’t have any trouble finding a campsite to stay at when we left the Hostel. You can camp quite near the cities, and public transportation.