What do you expect from a 5 star hotel?

Expecting a reliable and uncomplicated internet connection, or a computer able to read your flash memory in the business center at Howard Johnson in Bucharest? Not gonna happen!* Expecting the quality of the service to meet the exagerated room rates of the Intercontinental in Bucharest? Not gonna happen! Expect a free parking space for you car included in your room price? Not gonna happen!

The truth is you expect a lot of things from a 5 star hotel and a lot of the things you are expecting are not going to happen in Romania.

So our thought on this matter is like this: in stead of going to a 5 star hotel in Bucharest which is only poorly imitating western confort or quality of service and sells it at unreasonable prices you would probably bee better off at a Romanian 4 stars or less hotel which will give you a taste of what the real Romania is all about...and a free internet connection in your room.

* On 14th on June, 2009 one of Romania Eye founders stayed at HJ in Bucharest. Here's what happende with the internet services there:

"On the evening of the 13th I tried to connect to internet in my room. The prices for the interent connection were of course ridiculous but i really needed it so I went for it. But the network had some kind of error. I went down to the front desk to ask. They told me the internet connection is not under their respansability so i should contact the internet provider, some company called Swisscom. The fact that Romanians usually get rid of you by making you somebody else's problem is sad indeed but it's just the way it is so in stead of the hotel staff contacting their service provider to fix THEIR problem i find myself calling this Swisscom. The swiss guy talks to me for about ten minutes, does not fix the problem and tells me he'll call me back. This never happened so i find myself with no internet conection in a room costing more than the minimun salary in Romania. In the morning of the 14th i go to the front again to ask for help. The only help i get is the suggestion to call the god dam internet provider by myself. Again. I call and the internet provider guys tells me to contact the hotel staff. Ok, o thought only Romanians try to make me somebody else's problem but it seems that the swiss got this "sickness" too. I quit and go out to find an internet cafe. UNACCEPTABLE!!!

In the evening I come back to the hotel with different clothing on. I ask the girl from the front desk if the internet problem was fixed. She sais that there is no problem with the internet. I asked her how can she say that. She said: Well, we had no complaint, so it must be working!

As I already complained about the internet 3 times at the front desk I was simply shocked by the answer and promissed myself never to put my foot in this 5 star joke or other hotels with no free internet connection in the room or working with dubious contractors such as Swisscom." (BD)

PS: Message to HJ Bucharest: if you consider your problems described in this article are fixed just contact us and we will delete this article. But remember that you never know when we might visit you again, so if you say things are fixed, they'd better be! (Romania-Eye team)

Where to stay?

NOT AT 5 STAR HOTELS (just kidding)! Click HERE to check out hotels in Bucharest!

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