When I arrived I discovered that the wardrobe in my room was full of clothes, I contacted the receptionist who then spoke to the manageress,
both of them thought it was very funny, exchanged a few words in Croatian then proceeded to remove the clothes, leaving me with no coat
hangers, after two requests at reception I was provided with three coat
hangers the following evening, that had obviously came free with clothes
purchased in a store.
Upon entering the dilapidated shower room of the room I was hit by the
smell of urine, clearly the toilet had not been cleaned since the last occupant, I suspected the room was used by one of the staff, hence the clothes, this took four days of repeated requests before it was cleaned.
The shower room was badly tiled, with grout smeared across tiles and rough edges showing, tiles were broken in places and the shower base was badly chipped and the shower head was yellow and orange with wear, there was also a toilet brush located at the back of he W.C. of a similar colour, the tiles in the shower room had clearly not been washed down and there were miscellaneous bits of stuff sticking to the wall tiles, some of it of human origin. The chrome metal work of the shower and sink taps were mottled and sticky and clearly had not been washed in some time.
The bedroom had various black damp patches on the walls, the bedroom
furniture was clearly worn, some of the finishing of the melamine wood
effect furniture was missing from the edges of the furniture.
Bedding was worn, threadbare in places with a few holes, the pillows in the pillowcases were stained yellow and hadn't been washed in some time. I had a double bed but despite this the bedding was two sets of single bedding layed together.
I was suprised that there was a fitted carpet in the room and not tiles which is normal in hot countries, especially since the rooms have no air conditioning, temperatures varied between 36 Celsius and 41 Celsius in the two weeks I was there and averaged about 30 Celsius at night.
I was kept up at night by the night manager who would sit in the reception with his radio blaring until 4 am, then it would be switched back on by the kitchen staff when they prepared breakfast.
The hotel laundry was actually a single washing machine in the managers office, next door to mine, when I tried to catch up on lost sleep in the afternoon I was kept awake by the washing machine going through it's cycles.
The Hotel had clearly suffered some shellfire during the war, paths
leading around the Hotel grounds were badly repaired and some of the rendering on the walls had never been repaired and still showed shrapnel damage, there was some structual damage to patio balcony area of the Hotel where there was a large crack that was about a centimetre wide across the middle of the balcony and about 3 centimetres higher than the other half of the balcony, in the UK it would have been condemned or shored up, after 12 years I think it is inexcusable for the Hotel to not attended to these repairs.
The view from the Hotel was of a luxury Hotel that had been badly damaged during the war and now was an abandoned shell.
Because there was no air conditioning in the room it was necessary to
keep a window open at all times, every night a pack of dogs congregated in a grassy area in the hotel grounds, they would howl and fight with
each other, this happened every night, at it's peak there were 19 dogs outside the Hotel the combination of this, the night managers radio and the music from the bars down at the beach was driving me nuts, I fought with my family over everything because I was so irritable through lack of sleep.
The food at the hotel was slops, sorry I cannot possibly describe it any other way, cold meat and cheeses for the buffet were not refrigerated, they were left out in the open at the mercy of flies as was all the other food in the buffet. It was clear that unpopular dishes were being rehashed and served the following day at either breakfast or dinner, sometimes for several days.
At dinner the tea and coffee machine was locked and only water was available to encourage us to buy overpriced alcohol.
With few exceptions the staff were surly and served you at the bar or reception grudgingly, you were made to feel that you were inconveniencing them by your presence, the Hotel Manageress was the worst, she seemed to have utter disdain for guests, she ignored them completely even when asked a direct question, her English was excellent and only when hassled would she bother to answer you.
If it wasn't for the fact that in all the bars, shops, cafes and restaraunts that I visited, I was greeted by very friendly and eager to please staff I might have went home with a very bad view of the Croatian people.
A few other highlights of the stay at the hotel Zupa were:
My father contacting reception when he arrived and asking them to fix the broken lock on his ground floor patio window and being told they couldn't get it fixed, their answer was to move a desk to jam across the patio door to prevent anyone getting in through the door.
My father woke in the morning to find a pile of plaster at his door that had fell from the ceiling.
During a rain storm the main area of the Hotel was flooded by blocked drains, leaving the carpets in the hallway outside my room soaking and
stinking of urine for the last week of my stay.
One couple at the hotel had an overflowing toilet, the Hotel had no room available to transfer them to and couldn't get someone to fix the toilet, Balkan Holidays couldn't arrange a transfer to alternative accomodation so the couple out of their own pockets rented a chalet and returned to the Hotel to get their meals, at the end of the 2 weeks the toilet was still overflowing, Balkan said they had no liability to recompense the couple.
Another couple were robbed in their hotel room, while he slept in bed and his wife was in the shower a sneak thief stole their money, the Hotel wouldn't call the Police unless the couple bought sheets of stamps to give to the Police, apparently this is the method that they use to bribe the Police, they exchange them in the Post Office for cash, no bribe and the local Police won't investigate.
Air conditioning units in public areas of the Hotel were present but never switched on.
A Couple who had been transferred by Balkan holidays, after paying an additional supplement, from accomodation that was a converted Army barracks outside of Dubrovnick.
There were no fire alarms, publicised evacuation procedures or dry risers and only 2 water fire extinguishers in the reception area for the entire hotel of over 200 rooms
Ants running about the rooms and absolutely no way of keeping them out.
I will return to Croatia on holiday some day but never with Balkan Holidays.
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Edited by
johntaggart
2004-08-06 23:27:44
