My holiday in Paris

Well, we spent 2 hours this morning concocting a letter of complaint about our recent trip to Paris and I think this letter says it all!!! There were some happy moments, outside of the hotel, and I'll post up a couple of pics in another thread. This is just the letter I wrote in the hope that we'll get some money back for the skipsville hotel we stayed in, at a cost of 260 Euros a night!!!!

My letter:
This was going to be a very special holiday for us, as I wanted to take my wife away to a City she loves so much, as our 25th Wedding Anniversary was on the 10th July,when we would be in Paris. In view of this, I thought it would make a nice surprise for her to relive our honeymoon. Sadly, due to the appalling Hotel and the friction it caused between us, it ended up putting a strain on our long marriage, instead of a pre-planned celebration!

We were booked into the Liberty Arc de Triumph (Hotel D'Argentine), which was supposedly a 4-star rated establishment. We were initially a bit worried about this particular hotel, as nobody seemed to know of its existence, i.e. none of the taxi drivers etc. knew where it was. It did not look as nice from the outside as it did on the website, and when we were shown to our room, our nightmare began! I had specifically asked for a “double” room as apposed to a twin, but the double turned out to be two singles pushed together!The walls were filthy with big holes punched in them. The bathroom was pretty grim, with an old mixer/shower tap unit, and a gaping hole above, presumably to let out the steam, but with no actual extractor fan fitted in the hole. Being a 6ft.2” male, I found I had to bend myself in half to actually use the shower, as it would not extend further than the hook it sat on from the wall! The bathroom was approx. 6ft. square, which also meant I would flood the whole bathroom when trying to take a shower. The taps themselves were all corroded and dirty, and the tiles were chipped on the walls (see photographs!)

Clothes space consisted of one wardrobe with no drawer space provided in the room whatsoever for any clothes. There were no tea/coffee making facilities in the room, until we asked for them, but these were taken away on a daily basis anyway, which meant we constantly had to ask for them back! On getting them back, there was always something missing, i.e. coffee/sugar etc. which meant my wife had to trapse down to the basement most mornings to ask! We were told the milk would last in the jug provided for the full 5 days, even though the fridge door was hanging off and the fridge didn’t work properly anyway!

On one of the walls we noticed a light fitting which had all the wires hanging out with a burnt plastic block connector at the end. Then, horror of horrors, we realised there was no air conditioning, in 34 degrees of heat outside, in a stuffy room our only sanctuary was a small desk fan, which they supplied us with upon asking reception.The electric wires hanging out of the wall from the supposed light fitting, proved to be rather an issue, as later on that evening when we were getting ready to make our esacpe from this hot stuffy room, there were a series of loud bangs and flashes from this contraption, and then all the lights went out! I went down to the reception desk, and he said he would send a builder up there to sort it out for us. By the way, builders in this establishment were in no short supply, as apparently they are in the process of refurbishing the hotel, from top to bottom, and the top two floors were actually shut off together with the lift! On further investigation, we found more of these suspect light fittings with loose wires hanging out, further along our hallway, which to us was a major concern as a fire hazard in view of what had just happened in our own room! These loose wires were not only a fire hazard, but a health and safety concern also, as they were only at eye level,and could be physically touched by anyone, including a child!!! Talking of fire hazards, I would mention that there was no smoke detector fitted in our own room, nor did we see any in the hallways?????

We decided we would like a drink in the bar before our taxi arrived on our first evening, and the choice from the “bar” was either gin or Martini – a 4-STAR Hotel????????? The bar/lounge was as big as our front living room at home too!

After spending the night draped in wet towels in order to sleep with the desk fan on full bore, we went down for our breakfast the following morning. The dining room was in the basement,which as you can imagine was pretty hot with no air conditioning too, hotter than our room in fact! The chilled cabinet which housed the dairy products and juices was obviously not switched on or didn’t work, as the butter had melted so much it dripped out of the packet! The dining room was the size of my kitchen at home, and seated 14 people, and yet our room No. was 204????? Strange!! How could they possibly seat more than 14 people in a hotel of this size then, which has a four star rating (dated 2004 I might add, according to the Hotel Tourism plate on the front door!)

We were short of Euros one evening, so my husband went down to the reception to ask if they could possibly change some English currency, but apparently they did not have any cash whatsoever!!! AGAIN, a 4-star hotel? I think NOT!!! My husband had to walk 1 ½ miles at 5.00pm in the evening in 34 degrees of heat to find a bank to change his money. This very same evening when we went to book a taxi to take us to the riverbank for a pre-booked dinner cruise (through yourselves) we were told they didn’t know where it was and we should take the Metro!!!!!! After insisting several times that we wanted a taxi, he agreed, but gave us the impression we were an inconvenience to him!! He gave us the impression he was the “new owner”?!!

You will see the disgusting state of the lift and carpets in the photographs provided too, the lift cage must have had 20years of dust on it!!!! The big stains on the carpets were appalling too. Obviously we have photographic evidence of all these discrepancies which we enclose herewith for your perusal.

We sometimes thought we were the only guests staying at this hotel, since the only time we ever saw another human being apart from the hotel staff (which changed on a daily/evening basis!) was on the Friday morning, and even then, it was only 4 other people???

During our stay in Paris, we did take the opportunity of visiting another 4-star hotel in the same area, and it was like stepping into another World for us!!! The reception was vast, the dining room was vast, the lounge was vast and well equipped, the staff were very helpful and spoke English, and most of all we were told that THE WHOLE HOTEL WAS AIR-CONDITIONED!!!!!!

I trust you will see fit to offer us some sort of compensation for this nightmare we have been through, which should have been a wonderful experience for the both of us celebrating our 25 years of marriage.

Would you please make sure you do NOT recommend this Hotel to any other poor, unsuspecting future clients.

I await to hear from you with your comments on this disaster of ours and accompanying photographs.

End of rant!!! Letter posted and e-mailed to just about every subsidiary company of theirs!!

There were loads of other small annoyances too, but these were the major ones, and my husband wondered why I was moaning!!!! You know me, I'm not the type to sit back and take it, so my disappointment was vented at poor Dave who had spent lots of time and money organising this special trip for me. He even presented me with a brand new platinum wedding ring and matching diamond eternity ring on our evening dinner cruise, after I had given him some grief when I was all hot and sweaty trying to get ready to go out that night! I'm so glad we're back home and things are returning to normal around here

The doglets went ballistic when we got home, and in fact, Georgie (being our rescue dog) hyperventilated he got so excited! I bet he thought he'd lost his Mum and Dad We won't be leaving them again anyway, coz I think we'll stick to taking separate holidays.... well, I take mine, and he stays home doing d.i.y!! Just the job!!

Helena OMG what a nightmare for you. Firstly a belated "H appy Silver Wedding" to you I'm so sorry for you it should have been so special. Ours is in November this year...we'll give that hotel a miss then. It's nice to have you back and the doglets will make you feel better I'm sure. I hope you get at least all of your money back and then maybe...later in the year try again?

Kath XX

Oh Helen that sounds like a nightmare holiday from Hell I feel so sorry for you and Dave after all the looking forward to it you did too I think you should get EVERY penny of your money back and compensation on top of that as well - that sounds like an absolutely awful place to stay I bet you are so glad to be back home again - it must be heaven after staying in a place like that

What an utter disgrace, you complain like hell!

One thing if I may, as I read it the letter begins as your hubby writing, but near the end it reads as you have written it, stating your hubby getting change etc...
Dawn.

Thanks Megan I'm glad I didn't moan in vein then, as hubby seemed to think he should grin and bear it at the time, but I'm just not like that!! I hope you have a much better silver anniversary than this, which I'm sure you will,maybe we would have done if I had done the organising!!!! I'm good at that, being a Virgo, I like to do the organising, and it would have been right!

Thanks Foxy, I'm glad to see it's not just me that thinks it was an awful place, as I was beginning to think that, as Dave is sooooo accommodating, he would put up with anything - if I let him!!!!! I will put it down to an experience, one certainly to be missed though!

Thanks Dawn, so glad you agree with me too! I never complain if things are right, but this was definitely wrong!!! Yes, you're right, but by the time I got down that far in the letter, I was past caring if ya know what I mean! My word programme (Ms Works) decided to shut down half way through the letter on 4 occassions giving me a red x'd box saying my timehad expired in the library, whatever that meant!! I couldn't even save it, soI ended up saving each paragraph while I had the chance!! Grrrrrrr!

What an awful place it sounds! I hope you get every penny back and can then go to another hotel to celebrate again but in style this time

Helena, my husband is the same as yours I think and hates it when I start to go into complain mode. I don't know why we can't complain as we work hard for our money and it's not fair when we go somewhere in good faith and find that it's far from nice!

We went to a very similar sounding hotel in Jersey many years ago.....for our honeymoon

Thanks Minnie, I made a note of a really good hotel when we were there, so if there is a next time, that's where we'll go

Blimey
It sounded like a real nightnare from start to finish,the conditions you describe are disgusting.
Don't let them fob you off you have every right to complain and get some compensation.
I would have had steam coming out of my ears.
Hope you get it sorted

Welcome Home!!!!!
But boy does your holiday sound worse than I first thought, you poor things.
Glad things are returning to normal though!!! (Like having you back!!!Awwww! )

they say home sweet home it took me 3 years to get my money back from a holiday what whent wrong hope you do better