Surely a hotel should let prospective guests know if renovations are being carried out? I booked a hotel in India directly (I’m in their rewards programme- they are a well known brand).

So instead of three restaurant choices, food is served in what is basically the ballroom (vast, bright, unwelcoming especially in the evening), the “spa” is now in one of the bedrooms with two massage tables , and one of the two pools is empty. And of course , noise and dust from the renovations (it’s currently 7:10pm in the evening and I can still hear it). Little of this was actually evident when I checked in mid-evening… I could only see some scaffolding outside.

Staff can’t seem to say anything beyond “sorry for the inconvenience “.

Hi everyone. Have really been struggling with keeping housekeeping in sync with bookings recently. Also, over the last few months I've banged my head against the wall wondering how in God's name I was going to fix last-minute date changes and cancellations that nobody tells the cleaning team about. And I know a lot of people here have been too.

Anyway, I was going back and forth with ChatGPT (and a lot of testing) and I think I've got it. Wanted to share it with you all in case it's helpful (should be less than $10/m):

1. Self-host n8n (~$5/m) and connect your PMS webhooks (I used Cloudbeds).

2. Every booking event goes into one router:

• New booking → check-in prep task

• Check-out → housekeeping task → inspection task

• Date change → due dates move automatically

• Cancellation → open tasks get closed

1. It looks up the task by Reservation ID first, so it updates the existing task instead of creating duplicates.

2. It skips the same event if the PMS sends it twice (they do).

3. If anything fails, you get an email alert straight away instead of finding out when a guest is standing at the door.

Nobody copies bookings by hand anymore, and the cleaning team always sees the real schedule.

I really hope this helps you 🙏 and happy to chat more if someone needs a walkthrough. Thank you!

— Youssef

I was looking at hotels for a vacation and found one that looked really nice in the pictures. The rooms looked spacious, everything seemed clean, and the reviews seemed good enough, so I went ahead and booked it.

But imagine arriving after a long journey and finding that the actual room looks nothing like what you saw online. The room feels smaller, the condition isn't what you expected, and suddenly you're wondering if you even want to stay there.

The frustrating part is that you've already paid, you're tired from travelling, and finding another place at the last minute isn't always easy. And sometimes it costs you huge money!

What do you even do in this situation?

Would you ask for a refund and find another hotel, or stay and deal with it?

Has this happened to you?

Did the booking platform or hotel actually help you out?

I will be traveling halfway across the country (US) and will be splitting the trip into 2 days. I leave in a week. Should I book the hotel today or the day of. I am looking for affordability and also any other advice

Just a heads up. There's a fairly new 3rd party website for booking flights and hotels. It's Super.com. Do not use them, they're not reputable. I booked a hotel through them. When I showed up the room wasn't anything like was advertised. The room was a shoebox. It was advertised with a queen bed but had a double bed. There's no way a queen bed would have fit. Also the TV wasn't working properly. The on site manager told me he would cancel the reservation if I wanted and refund the money to the Super.com and they would reimburse me. I had the manager sign his business card approving the cancellation. Super.com has been giving me the run around for 2 weeks. I've chatted with 4 or 5 representatives and they have all given me different reasons of why I'm not entitled to a refund, despite having the hotel manager's signature and an email from him. Twice I've been told that supervisors were going to call me and they never have. This is a rinky dink business trying to compete with Priceline, Expedia etc. Do not use them!

Do you care if people next door can hear you

I am staying at a Dusit Hotel for a work week and noticed that the tissue roll in the bathroom is changed daily, not just folded, but changed regardless of how little it's been used.

To be sure, I pressed my nail on it and when coming back to the room, there was a new tissue roll. What's the thinking behind changing tissue that's barely used, and where do they take the tissue rolls assuming they do that for all the rooms each day. Same thing with the unfinished tubes of shampoo and lotion, why take them away rather than add a new tube next to it?

Hello! me and my friends are traveling somewhere this weekend to look for apartments and have booked a hotel, but after looking at the confirmation email we see that it says you must be 21 to check into the room. The issue is that we are all 19. Every other hotel is either crazy expensive or booked out, so we really want this one. I am not sure if i should call and tell them about this situation knowing there is a chance that they say we can't stay there, or if we should just go and hope they don't say anything about us being under 21. We are in PA if that changes anything. help would be very appreciated!! thank you

Hi this is a long shot but can anyone hook me up with a family and discount rate for the weekend of October 23rd.

Hotel beds always look crisp even when the duvet itself is fairly simple. I am considering a white bedsure cover at home, but mine never looks as smooth after washing. Is the difference mainly ironing, fabric weight, or the way the bed is made?

User reviews in most cases mean nothing nowadays. Before you get to attacking me, let me explain what I mean.

This is not for every product or website. There are still some that are reliable  But what I saw and experienced lately is exactly so unreliable you can’t trust it anymore. Peter Levels who’s this “digital nomads” popular guy did a check on reviews on hotel selling websites (https://x.com/levelsio/status/2107088849163665717?s=20) and practically every major hotel selling website curates their reviews. It makes them completely unreliable. And actually this reminded me about an Airbnb I had in Rome 2 years ago which was shown as soo amazing, top place in the area by airbnb, and literally it was so fucking dirty we had to vacuum it ourselves. And Airbnb is the worst with it! They curate the reviews so bad you have almost all 4 and 5 star places, where in reality they have a TON of bad reviews! 

And Booking(.)com has the same exact thing! There has been many instances where people exposed them for curating and fabricating the reviews they show. 
Even tho AI can spot fake reviews easy once given the setup it won’t do it if there are no bad reviews coz they all got filtered. Like, at least you can do it quickly if you use Claude MCPs from their official directory., Like, you can use an MCP like Booking (https://claude.ai/customize/connectors/id/booking) to find the hotels but have the same story with reviews, but at least you search quickly and Claude can then check the internet, reddit or smth. There are also other ones like LetsFG (https://claude.ai/directory/letsfg) which can book hotels with Claude that are "X and Y", idk. whatever you want, like having a bathtub, or smth.  And Claude can pretty much check reddit or other, idk google or smth, for reviews also to find some real ones. But the situation is horrible at this point.

We've reached a point where reading star ratings manually is just wasting your own time coz they’re bullshit anyway.

Hi everyone. Have really been struggling with keeping housekeeping in sync with bookings recently. Also, over the last few months I've banged my head against the wall wondering how in God's name I was going to fix last-minute date changes and cancellations that nobody tells the cleaning team about. And I know a lot of people here have been too.

Anyway, I was going back and forth with ChatGPT (and a lot of testing) and I think I've got it. Wanted to share it with you all in case it's helpful (should be less than $10/m):

1. Self-host n8n (~$5/m) and connect your PMS webhooks (I used Cloudbeds).

2. Every booking event goes into one router:

• New booking → check-in prep task

• Check-out → housekeeping task → inspection task

• Date change → due dates move automatically

• Cancellation → open tasks get closed

1. It looks up the task by Reservation ID first, so it updates the existing task instead of creating duplicates.

2. It skips the same event if the PMS sends it twice (they do).

3. If anything fails, you get an email alert straight away instead of finding out when a guest is standing at the door.

Nobody copies bookings by hand anymore, and the cleaning team always sees the real schedule.

I really hope this helps you 🙏 and happy to chat more if someone needs a walkthrough. Thank you!

Okay, this is a weird situation to begin with. But I will do my best to explain the circumstances and the job.

The job in question is an AGM position. I am currently the fulltime night auditor at the property. I started working second shift and transitioned back, having done it three years prior at another property, because we went through two different employees.

I have been at this property for under a year, but I have been here since opening, and we have gone through two AGMs since we opened, and one GM.

I met with our new GM and he told me what the Regional Director of Operations will be looking for. But I have never held a Management position, which is why this situation is weird. Because there is no FOM position at the property.

What the RDO will want to see is a plan for Forecasting and Budgeting, Staff retention, and my overall goal with the position.

What I am requesting is some incite into what I should be researching and what resources I should use to develop the plans?

The moment I touched the door handle, the lights in the hallway dimmed a good 30%.

After checking in, we rode the birdcage elevator up to the third floor and wound our way through the labyrinthine hallways of the Victorian building to our room: Ghost Kate's room at the Hotel del Coronado. I placed my bags on the floor and pulled out my key. I jumped back and instinctively ducked. I spun to look at Momo, my intrepid ghost-hunting partner, my eyes wide.

"Tell me you saw that too?!" I said.

Momo looked at me with a stony, unmoved expression.

"Come on. The lights are probably on a timer. The sun is going down." she mocked.

This was the first of several incidents of note over the course of my stay in Ghost Kate's room at the Hotel del Coronado in San Diego, California.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/posts/a-night-in-americas-most-luxurious-haunted-hotel

Friends of my mother from England are coming to Vienna soon and are still looking for a somewhat more extraordinary boutique hotel. Preferably one that doesn't look like a hundred other hotels. I know Vienna pretty well myself and know that especially in the 1st district there are some wonderful old buildings. Only the rooms inside are then sometimes pretty interchangeable after all, at least according to what one sees in the hotel photos.

The two are interested in art and would like to have a hotel with its own character, by all means also with somewhat more unusual furnishings. The location should be such that they can comfortably get around on foot in the evening. A small spa area would be nice, but is not a must.

Does anyone know a hotel where the rooms too are something special and not just the lobby looks good in the photos?

We just got back from a road trip to NM from TX this weekend and I am missing a trash bag full of dirty clothes (and ones I really liked, like matching family shirts 😭😭 ) I am devastated. I called the hotel as soon as I realized we stayed overnight on 10/10 and left the next morning. They said to call in the morning when the manager is there because usually they put found stuff somewhere safe.

What is the likelihood the cleaning staff turned it in as lost and found and didn't just throw it away?

If they did turn it in, can I pay to have it shipped??

It was a motel / studio 6 in Abq, NM.

Please give me some hope, I know theyre just clothes but I feel so stupid about it and I'm literally sitting on my couch crying about it 😭

I feel like when you travel you truly value a clean and crisp hotel or airbnb. There should be movement similar to tipping but it’s a “leave a gift behind” for your cleaner. I always try to strip the sheets and so on, or leave a treat in the fridge in case a cleaner can take it but it’s likely thrown out or they are not allowed to take things from rooms. Imagine if a hotel said hey leave something behind and register it (somehow) and in essence it’s like a tip. It could be cash a gift or something small. This should be a thing! It’s a tough job and they’re often told to be invisible but actually I’m very grateful for their service. Right??

Guys, frustrated with online platforms, tell me one place where i can get the best price ?

I travel a fair bit for work, and over the years I’ve stayed in my share of good hotels. Something’s been bugging me for a while now and I want to know if it’s just me.

Picture this. You’ve had back-to-back meetings, a client dinner, and you’re back in your room at 11:30pm with a laptop open because there’s still a deck to finish. You just want something small. A packet of chips, a cold Coke, maybe a bit of chocolate. Earlier you’d open the minibar, grab it, done. Now there’s no minibar. Just an empty fridge.

And no, the minibar was never cheap. Nobody thought it was. Rs 300 for a Coke was always ridiculous, and I still paid it happily, because I wasn’t paying for the Coke. I was paying for not having to think about it at midnight.

So what are the options now?

Room service. Sure, they’ll happily send up a can of Coke and add it to the bill. But try asking for a packet of chips or a chocolate bar. The menu is club sandwiches and pasta, not the small packaged snacks you actually want at midnight. And honestly, calling someone up to the room at that hour just for a Coke feels like more fuss than it’s worth.

Blinkit or Zepto. Sounds great, ten minutes. But then you’re walking down to the lobby or the gate in your night clothes to collect a ₹40 order from a rider. At a hotel you’re paying good money to stay in. That can’t be the answer.

I get why hotels did it. From what I’ve read, minibars barely made money, restocking every room is a pain, and there were endless billing disputes. Fair enough. But the hotel isn’t swapping minibar sales for room service sales. That demand just disappears, along with a bit of what made a good hotel stay feel effortless.

I’m not asking for anything free. I’m happy to pay hotel prices for convenience. I just want the option back. Even a small self-serve pantry on each floor would do it.

Curious what others think, especially frequent business travellers. Do you miss the minibar, or have you made peace with Blinkit at the gate?

Hi! I’m planning to attend a concert at Philippine Sports Stadium in March 2027, and I recently booked MADJ Transient House through Booking.com.

I’m trying to verify the accommodation before my trip because I noticed a few things that made me a little unsure:

The property appears to have little to no review history.

I found what seem to be two listings for MADJ Transient House with the same photos, description, and room details.

My reservation is confirmed, but the property still appears available for my exact dates, and I noticed a lower price.

I contacted Booking.com customer service, and they told me they would look into it. They didn’t identify any existing complaints or fraud flags, but I’m still hoping to get more information before traveling.

Has anyone personally stayed here, booked this property, or had experience with duplicate accommodation listings on Booking.com in the Philippines? I’d appreciate any firsthand experiences or advice on what else I should verify before my arrival.

I’m not accusing the host of anything; I just want to make sure my accommodation is reliable before traveling for the concert. Thank you!

Hey guys I’m a female 28 and I was just wondering if anyone would be willing to put me on their Marriott discounts.

I have to travel for work a lot and stay at holiday inn express or hamptons inn. I also always get late checkout. Its become a problem where housekeeping keeps knocking and in some cases just straight up opening the door during after the early check out time.

I always put the physical bar lock and the do not disturb sign on and tell the desk I dont need housekeeping. But it always happens.

Would it be ok to put a note that says. “I dont need housekeeping. I have late check out” outside the door?

Looking for a reality check from people who work in hotels or travel a lot.

We booked 3 nights at a hotel in Munich (Hotel Kraft) for a short city break in October. When we checked in:

- Our 5th-floor room was right below an active construction site. They're adding two new floors on top of the building, and workers were cutting with angle grinders and dropping heavy equipment on the floor above us.

- There was no warning when we booked or at check-in. The hotel's own website mentions the works and calls it "the last details".

- The room had no heating. 13°C and rain outside, the AC panel locked on OFF, the radiators cold. I had a fever that day.

After we complained, the offer was: accept the room temperature as "decent" and get a free beer and breakfast, or leave with a free cancellation. No other room, no heater, no discount. As we left, a staff member told us "good luck finding something better". We ended up paying about €170 more for a last-minute room somewhere else.

To be fair, the receptionist who stored our bags that morning was kind. But I'm honestly curious how people in the industry see this: Is it normal to sell rooms directly under active construction without telling guests? Am I just being too whiny, or did I just ask for the bare minimum?

Full write-up with photos, if anyone wants the details: https://bogdananghelina.com/hotel-kraft-munich-review/