I have had one too many bad hotel experiences, so I am very particular with hotels when planning holidays.
My friend and I had a really bad experience in Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) last year and that scarred me. We originally wanted to stay at the Piccolo Hotel, but it was booked out and we ended up going the only other hotel on our travel agent’s hotel list – Citrus Hotel (Their website is SO DECEIVING). It was meant to be a 4-star hotel but was really a 1-star motel in the middle of no where. When we entered our room, we didn’t say anything to each other. There was sheer disappointment on our faces. The conditions of the room were disgusting. There was a broken drain in the bathroom, the place wasn’t well clean, it smelt mouldy and the list of issues turned into a mini-essay. We thought we were doomed for the next six nights! The morning came, breakfast was disastrous and I suggested we catch the tour bus to see more of the city and figure out if our hotel was in a suitable location for us. After a couple of hours getting on and off the tour bus, we ended up on the main shopping strip of Kuala Lumpur (Bukit Bintang) and the bus just happened to stop right in front of Piccolo Hotel. Our eyes lit up like Harold and Kumar when they finally reached White Castle after an adventurous night in Harold And Kumar Go To White Castle. We ran into the hotel as if we were Usain Bolt and basically yelled out ‘Give us a room. JUST ANY ROOM. WE WILL PAY ANYTHING‘.
If we didn’t changed hotels that day, we would have killed our holiday. The next day we changed hotels and every morning we would woke up congratulating ourselves for dodging a bullet and getting out of Citrus. The location of Piccolo Hotel was perfect for us and we literally shopped until we dropped, ate like we had never eaten and explored like cheesy tourists.
I also had a bad hotel experience in Paris, thanks to my UK roommates who wanted to go ‘proper budget’ at the time. This hotel was just as bad as Citrus, maybe even worse. Some girls didn’t shower for the three days/two nights we stayed there. So just imagine how gross it was! It didn’t help being in close proximity to the Red Light district either. One night we were followed by a few guys on our way back to our hotel. We had to devise a plan and split up to get back into the hotel without being seen by them. Not fun at all!
So now when I book hotels, I am very cautious. I am all over TripAdvisor and Booking.com trying to figure out what people are writing about potential hotels. Before I left Australia, I decided to crash a holiday to Marrakesh (Morocco) two of my friends had planned. They had their eyes on a hotel, but of course I went to do my own hotel investigations and found a better hotel for us to stay at.
I found hotel La Gazelle on Trendland a few nights ago and lucky for my friends, it’s not in Marrakech, otherwise I would have made them change our reservation again (I think we have changed it about three or four times already!) and burnt deep holes in our wallets.
La Gazelle d’Or Hotel located is in the secluded city of Taroudant, Morocco. Opened in 1961, the hotel combines elements of Moroccan architecture and French interior design creating a luxurious mix of the old and the new. The hotel was recently describe by T Magazine as place to escape the real world and connect with the natural beauty of Morocco. There is a beautiful rusticness about this place with luxury and modernity injected into it. If I went to stay there, I don’t think I would need to venture outside since the surroundings are so blissful.
SOURCE: TRENDLAND & T-MAGAZINE