a balance of good and not so good
was surprised that my email question to the hotel of 27 October was still unreplied to and unacknowledged when I checked in on 24 November, normally even a 2 star hotel would have the courtesy to reply to a paying guest, at check-in I asked the lady to check if the email had been received or why I had received no reply but I still received no feedback to that either, my room 215 seemed to be for handicapped access, there was a bell/buzzer on the wall outside which seemed to be buzzing as I took a shower after arrival, but have no idea who was at the door or what they wanted, room closet was very shabby, Nespresso machine and capsules provided in the room but only big coffee mugs in the room where an espresso would get lost, room has an ice bucket but no glasses and the fridge is locked and inaccessible, apparently this is the case across the hotel since covid, my booked rate included 2 bottles of water per day but was surprised to receive 2 foil packets of community water filtered by reverse osmosis ? did not sound appetising so I didn't drink these and bought water instead, there seems to be only 1 bar/restaurant in the hotel which seems to be run by an external company, on my first night they said they had no availability, to ensure a table for my second night I had to book via the external Opentable website, with the rates the hotel charges it seemed surprisingly difficult for a guest to get some food, my reservation was partly prepaid and there was a US$30 difference between what my booking confirmation said I would have to pay upon check-out and what I was actually asked to pay, about US$8 related to a food-beverage charge but I struggled to understand the rest of the difference, my booking confirmation said I would have to pay an urban experience fee of US$30 per night including taxes but I was actually charged US$35 per night, I think US$30.06 plus tax of US$4.96, the lady checking me out said the fee has always been US$35 per night, even from when I made my booking, so don't know why my booking confirmation misled me in this way, I would have wanted to have enjoyed my stay more but these glitches detracted from my overall experience, on my second night was disturbed by 2 men in neighbouring room seeming to shout and groan in the early hours but I suppose this can happen in any hotel, the walls or partitions between the rooms must be quite thin, the bathroom/shower fittings were quite dated but this has also been the case in previous Fairmont hotels I stayed in, not sure if the room designer has actually ever stayed in the room, on the bathroom shelf they provide 2 glasses to put toothbrush/razor in etc. but it you do that the glasses are at risk of toppling over into the sink and breaking, given that the bathroom mirror juts out from the wall so much and overlapping the glasses, unfortunately there didn't seem to be any other place or shelf to put the glasses