Maybe it was a revenge to my humble personality from Mrs. Mulas from the owners family – I don’t know but this can only describe her as hysterical and revengeful person. Besides looks like with a touch of nationalism too.
I am from Russia and I was stupid enough to book a non-refundable booking. Although I knew it would be hard to cancel it, I decided to give it a try and based on unforeseen circumstances I had (my wife suddenly got pregnant) I contacted the hotel and asked to understand my situation and kindly refund me the cost of my booking. Booking was made for the middle of August and I contacted them 5 weeks before, so I thought it wouldn’t be a problem for the hotel to sell my room even at a higher price. They said they couldn’t and suggested that I find someone else to come for the same dates or come in May 2011. This is clear that I would not come in May especially when my child is just born and to find someone else 1 month prior to vacations is also close to impossible and of course they knew it! But the hotel’s reply looked like I’m paid a big favor by offering these opportunities. I would understand if they just said no but I hate such favors! I replied with a little sarcastic letter that I thank them very much for everything but I could not make use of the opportunities offered which is obvious. I also mentioned that in my humble opinion there should be an exception to every rule. But nothing insulting whatsoever! Their reply was humiliating and really insulting. That they don’t like the tone of my letter and they guess how the things are done in Russia but in Italy they always observe the rules (can you imagine that?). Full stop.
Then I was VERY lucky to find my customer from Moldova who agreed to come with her daughter for the same dates in August. I gave new guests details to the hotel but they answered my booking was cancelled, although I hadn’t cancel it. I called them and they said the owner, Mrs. Mulas would consider my case when she comes back. What to consider if the room is paid for! Her reply was like I got a huge favor again. I decided to stop talking to the hotel hoping that vacations of my customer would be good enough. I just booked one more day for them at the end of the stay to be paid by themselves.
Maybe it was a vengeance from them but my customer was really stressed by what she experienced there. Pls note that we are talking about a 4-star hotel.
1. The room given had a stinking sink in the bathroom. They were told no other rooms available.
2. Air conditioner worked poorly (they could not understand if it worked at all).
3. Bath gel and shampoo were given only once for 7 days stay.
4. Towels exchanged only once and linen was not.
5. One day before planned check-out (taking in mind one more day booked) the hotel said they had no rooms available even though the booking was confirmed. So my customer had to change her flight back for one day earlier but what was her surprise upon checkout that she had to pay for one night longer. I don’t believe it was human mistake from the side of the hotel but a planned mission. Allegedly Mrs. Mulas made a big scandal as a result.
6. Also few days before checkout the hotel advised the guests have to pay for lounge chairs they used at the beach. This is something to be told beforehand. There was another scandal when someone from the hotel (I guess Mrs. Mulas) came to the beach and took towel beneath my customer off. I’m sure there should have been other ways to solve this problem.
So I’m not ashamed to spoil the rating of this hotel after all the mess and healthy blood cells it cost me and my customer.
This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC
30 August 2010
First of all, we feel really disappointed, but not surprised, by the customer's contribution. We are not surprised because this is not the first time he uses an inappropriate tone. Despite this, we are not used to such behaviors.
If the customer was not able to come to the hotel anymore he should have cancelled his booking and that's all. He badly reacted to our proposals, which were totally sincere and accommodative, as we wrote that we understood that the reasons of his cancellation were connected with his wife's health, and that we could keep the amount for a future stay, which must be spent within May 2011. In our offer the stay could be booked for him and his wife or for a friend / relative of them. If he had decided to come to Sardinia within that date, he should have contacted us directly so that we could have arranged the new total price and deducted the cost he had already paid to us.
He replied with a sarcastic and impolite tone, which gave us the impression that he would have felt disappointed by any kind of offers different from the total refund of his booking.
Because we wanted to solve this situation, and as we told him by mail, because we know and respect the value of money we kept the room for his customers, extending the booking of 1 more day as they asked. We gave the new guests the same room we had booked for him in the original reservation, that is a nice comfortable standard room with garden view (as the most part of our standard rooms)
During their stay, the customers never told us that something was wrong in their room, but how could they do it? Being their English so poor that just one of them could barely understand and communicate basic information. They never contacted us for anything. Nor to inform us about the bad working air conditioning, nor to tell us that there was a bad smell in the bathroom.
Housekeeping in their room was done regularly, as well as bed linen and towels were changed everyday (we could not have done differently as their room was nasty, with bed linen often bloodstained, the towels usually left trampled and dirty on the floor, and used sanitary napkins thrown all around the room and the bathroom). I also personally went to check the room, after several warnings by our housekeepers.
Two days before planned check out, on 16th Aug evening the customers asked to leave one day before, and as they didn't understand English, the receptionist wrote and drew, and explained in very elementary words that their room was confirmed until 18th Aug. To be sure they would understand she also showed them our hotel room planning.
We explained that if they wanted to leave on 17th Aug., that is one day before the planned check out date, they could do it, but the stay should have been paid entirely, because during high season the deadline to cancel/modify bookings without penalties is obviously much more than one day in advance. The 17th Aug at around 11 AM they came to the front desk to check out and their behavior was absolutely incomprehensible and out of rules of common sense. Despite we took off € 40,00 from the total bill, (to refund the expenses for changing the flights as she said), we explained her that she must pay their last night of stay, she kept insisting that she wouldn't pay. It was really hard to make her change her mind.
Moreover we asked to one of our collaborator, who is Rumanian (as the guests' mother tongue was Rumanian) to be our interpreter, and during the “conversation” she was insulted and mistreated by the customer.
After she paid, she went to the beach and irregularly occupied the deck chairs and umbrella of another guest who tried to explain she was on the wrong place. She pretended not to hear and kept staying there, so we had to go to the beach and ask her to remove her stuff from the other guests' place. As she kept ignoring us we did it, with firmness but good manners.
I also tried to explain that we would put another umbrella for free at her disposal (but no deckchairs because we didn't have any available) but with rudeness and unequivocal bad gestures she made me understand that I had to get out of her sight. She was surrounded by other guests of the hotel who later publicly expressed their disappointment for her rude, unkind and impolite behavior.
We are serious professionals and have been working on the tourist field for many years. We understand that the world is various and this is the reason why we like working with people. It is part of our job, sometimes we meet impolite people, who are not used to treat the others, as they would like to be treated, but we really can't stand impoliteness and bad faith.
I am not a hysterical and revengeful person, as Mr. Ivanov describes me (I wonder how he can express such an opinion about me without knowing me, we never even spoke personally!) I just firmly asked the right payment of the last night of stay, which he had confirmed in his previous written communications. During the stay the guests were treated with respect and attention, because we wanted to remedy to the incomprehension that had occurred during the original reservation.
I also personally tried to show all the possibilities to visit the coast to the guests, with boat excursions and other services, but their only answers were a weak shrug and a shy smile.
I reasonably understand that it is not easy to communicate in a foreign language, and I know that sometimes the lack of knowledge of a language can be misleading, but I am convinced that the guests' general behavior has nothing to do with lack of knowledge, and leaves no doubts about them.
Mrs. Grazia Mulas
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This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of TripAdvisor LLC
