LESSON NUMBER 8

When we had decided we wanted to spend one night in Strasbourg on our way from Switzerland to Belgium we were really struggling to find a hostel so started looking at hotels, thinking for one night we would be able to eat out and not break the budget. We looked on all the usual last minute sites and came across the Apart-Hotel Victoria Gardens which was close to the train station, about 15-20 minute walk into the centre (which we are completely used to), and was a bargain at only £30! We thought, well it is only for one night, it can’t be that bad and on first impressions things looked ok...

...however, as you looked deeper and actually started to use things we started to realise quiet why it was SO cheap!

The kitchen tap flew off while in use, flooding the kitchennette
The shower holder/rail was broken meaning if you had the shower on full pressure it flew off the wall.

After these two, we complained and got to change rooms, something we instantly regretted. Our new room was much smaller and unbelievably in even worse condition. The issue with the shower seemed to be throughout the building and once again fell of the wall when you tried to use it. There were no plugs in any of the sinks. The “fully equipped kitchenette” was nothing of the sort consisted of 2x forks, 2x spoons, 1x knife, 1x steak knife, 1x frying pan, 1x saucepan all of which looked like people had left by accident or that had been pinched from a local charity shop.

Neither of us had massively high hopes for a hotel costing £30 a night and we were under no illusion it would be basic - we are not naive enough to think we were getting some 5* bargain. But we did expect a clean, functioning hotel. We were wrong. The only saving grace is that the hotel was so awful it made us stay out doing things longer than we perhaps normally would have done meaning we had more time exploring Strasbourg.

From now on we will not always go for the cheapest option, even if it is only for one night!

Lesson learnt!