First, thanks to Hotels.com for solving the issue described below in spite of the hotel staff’s initial absurd and impolite approach. One major reason why I always book through Hotels.com and not directly!
This hotel is located in the heart of Berlin. It is big, modern and beautiful inside and outside. It is clean and has spacious rooms with kitchenettes. All nice, however their scammy practices are to be avoided.
The checkin is just wrong, both in terms of staff preparedness (there’s just one, very slow, and in my experience rude, person at a time), and more importantly in how they double-charge you.
My booking being paid through hotels.com, I was told I needed to still give my card “as a guarantee”. My wife arrived early she explained that all was paid and was assured by the clerk she only needed to tap her card as guarantee. Lo and behold, the hotel used their charging privileges (they can charge without PIN over the card’s normal amount based on “verbal consent”) and charged hundreds of euros. When asked they said “only guarantee”.
Only at checkout, an extremely rude Spanish lady, who refused to take the matter up with management (let’s not disturb them on a weekend!) said it was actually the room rate. On being shown that it had been paid twice (after much disbelief) she acknowledged but refused a refund. Only hotels.com’s intervention solved the matter.
I will inform Berlin Land’s consumer protection agency about this practice and will not return.
