This is the second in my ad-hoc series reporting bad experiences I have encountered.
This relates to a recent stay in an Ibis hotel in London.
Attending a trade exhibition in London ExCel I needed accommodation close to the venue and my usual choice of hotel was fully booked. I therefore booked a nearby Ibis hotel. So far so good.
Upon arrival I checked in, and apart from reception being rather chaotic the check in process went well. I was asked for a swipe of my credit card for a guarantee of the payment of my bill and a figure was quoted which was about eighty percent of the total bill so I was happy with this. Fairly standard practice and one which had never caused me any problems before.
Whilst my wife and I were checking in to our room, a colleague who was down in reception overheard an argument between a guest trying to check in and the receptionist. The short story was that although they had made a reservation there was no room available for them and they were sent to another hotel in the chain. This scenario was repeated more than once so I am intrigued as to what the point of making a reservation is!
The room itself was clean and functional but clearly the focus was on reducing costs as guests were only provided with one towel each, nominally called a bath towel but rather smaller than any bath towel you would buy. No hand towel was provided. Toiletries were also limited with just a fixed liquid soap dispenser in the shower and a tiny bar of soap by the washbasin.
Going to the restaurant for dinner was interesting. They had a rather limited and exceedingly expensive (even for London) menu of average quality food. There was no draught beer at all and only a few of the bottled beers on the menu were available.. Suffice to say that on subsequent evenings we had a much better, much cheaper, meal in a hotel just a few yards away.
Breakfast was an all you can eat buffet. The quality of the food was better but the selection was somewhat limited, and if you wanted eggs for breakfast you had better like them scrambled as that was the only choice. The hash browns had a good flavour but due to the manner of serving they were soggy.
When retuning to the hotel for our third and final night we found that neither my keycard or my wife's would open the door to the room. This meant a trek back to reception (we were on a high floor) where the reaction of the receptionist suggested this was a common occurrence. They were reprogrammed and all was well.
With a mind to expediting check out the following day I also took this opportunity to settle my bill. There was some confusion over the correct amount but finally they got it right and charged my card accordingly.
I thought that was the end of it until two days later when I checked my credit card account on line. It was showing that I was exceeding my credit limit. Straight away I rang the card company for clarification as the online account made an allowance for pending transactions which were not yet detailed. They were able to tell me that in addition to the guarantee amount I had agreed to at check in a further guarantee charge had been applied the same day for the first night's stay - this equated to about thirty seven percent of the total bill so I had now got guarantee charges for almost twenty percent more than the total bill, still on my account, and also the actual payment of the bill which I would expect would have released the guarantee hold.
Calling the hotel they were apologetic but could offer no explanation. The guarantee charge was released some two working days after I had settled my bill in full. Clearly not acceptable.
I have now written to the hotel and will update this post if I get anything of note from them.
For now however my advice is clear - if using an Ibis hotel make sure it is very clear how much they are holding in guarantee against your credit card and make sure they release this promptly when you settle your bill.
For the record, Ibis is seen as a budget chain - however given that they were advertising room rates of £219 per night, room only, at one point during my stay you would expect a lot more than you receive!
Update !!
I received no reply to my letter to the hotel so I posted a review on TripAdvisor - it seems they do read that. The manager posted a comment asking me to email a copy of my letter to him, which I did. After acknowledging receipt I then heard nothing for a while.
I followed this up with another email direct to the manager asking for an update and received a response. He promised that changes were being made and also some financial compensation for myself. Although the compensation did take some time to arrive it did so eventually.
Whilst the manager has promised various changes, I will keep an interested eye on TripAdvisor to see if their feedback gets better or if people continue to raise the sorts of issues I had.
Watch this space!
