My wife and I reserved a suite at this hotel for three nights as part of a trip to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary. We agreed to pay a bit more than we were comfortable with to get the view of the Eiffel tower shown repeatedly in the websites. When we arrived, were were checking into a one of the three suites on the eighth floor of the hotel. The room layout was very strange, but nice (need to cross a sitting room and around a corner to get form the bed to the toilet). When we checked on a Saturday, it became very obvious that the view on the website was NOT from our suite. We needed to go out on the balcony and look over a side wall to get a partial view of the tower. We contacted the front desk and were told that we would get a suite with the expected view only on our 3rd night there.
Our first night was fine, but the second night was terrible. At about 7:15am on Monday, construction on the building next door started. This involved over a dozen workers with jack-hammers, tossing tools, etc. This was less than 20 meters from my bed and sleep was not possible. I called the front desk and insisted that they come witness the situation. They offered a smaller suite on the other side of the hotel so my wife and I could get some sleep as we were not yet sleeping on European schedules having arrived only a few days before. That room was smaller and my wife slept for a while, but I was not able to get more than the 2 hours of sleep accomplished prior to the 7:15am start of construction. I took a video of the construction at about 8am when it became apparent that it was not going to stop, but that did nothing to make the point to the manager (Jorge) - he just wanted to make sure he got paid for the room.
The hotel offered a small discount off of the room and I was not pleased. I met with the manager in-person who agreed to cover half of the cost of the expensive suite - but I cannot see why he did not just comp the room for the night and he repeatedly refused. I was certainly willing to spend the money, but not when I do not get a decent experience. After arguing and wasting a portion of our day, the manager kept trying to give us meals at the Melia restaurant that we were not interested in due to other plans that we had. When I indicated they should not sell rooms that close to the construction site, he said that this was 'unusual', but I absolutely do not believe that to be true - they were constructing the 4th floor of a building less than 10m from my balcony. There is no chance that the first floors went up without a sound - they transparently just rely on lying to each customer that it has never happened before to drive revenue at a premium price for a poor experience.
We stayed the third night there only to avoid moving our things. The smaller 'Junior Suite' was less money, but certainly NOT the experience that we expected in selecting this hotel. There are many hotels within a few minutes of walking that are similar in price given that the depicted view of the tower is a fiction. WE booked directly with the hotel, but their lack of concern drove me to post this review so others can avoid this place. read more