Entering a hotel where the furniture clearly is worn out and outdated, is not the best entrance. But the real feeling of being ripped off comes when you enter your room. And you realise that a dirty carpet, outdated furniture and a standard bathroom with rust in the bath is what you get for +225 USD for ONE night. In Thermaetel a **** star room means your airconditioning consists out of a fan and your TV is nothing but a small 15" screen cube, the kind of TV's we all remember from our camping trips in the 90's. And this is not a coincidence, because we've seen several rooms. This is Thermaetel 2000 in Valkenburg, The Netherlands, where time stood still since the hotel opened it's doors.
I don't mind paying extra money for a hotelroom. But this hotel is not a 4 star accomodation. And for prices over 225 USD, it's actually a complete ripp-off.
Breakfast is nice....for a standard 3 star hotel. Not for a 4 star wellness hotel, where you expect fresh extras and not a wide range of packed products, except the juices. Most of the tables were still covered with other people's plates when you tried to find your own place. Two thumbs up though:
- The cleaning staff are the only personnell that greets you immediately when you pass by
- The dinners were outstanding, waiters with knowledge about the food, your wish was their command. Fantastic.
The rest of the hotel is not recommendable. Never in my life I paid this much money for such an old, worn out place. But there's more to complain; if you think the Thermae 2000 baths are recommendable, you're wrong. Thermae SPA is aslo a very outdated SPA, where they tried to 'update' the place a few years ago with some white paint. What you can expect:
- Old swimming pools where bath clothing is obligated (??) The swimming area consists out of indoor/outdoor baths with the typical '90's style palmtrees, old baths, noisy whirlpools (air & water sucking sinks behind your back), noisy steambaths with bad lightning (take care of your feet, watch your step), traces of leaking problems everywhere, 2 bistros with appauling food and a very depressive atmosphere in general. The SPA is best described as the kind of SPA you expect in an eastern-European country but the problem is, in eastern Europe they have even better looking SPA's. The colors in the sauna-area of Thermae 2000 guarantee you get the feeling you're dwimming in a crematorium; black, black, wood colors and more black. We were counting the areas where the dust is hanging on the ceilings.
Special warning: At least 2 times a month Thermae has a '100% bath clothing day'. On those days, people are even obligated to wear bath clothing in the sauna areas. Which guarantees a 100% Centerparks atmposhere. Is this wat you expect when you see the website of Thermae 200? No. Do not go to this hotel, take a nice 4 star hotel nearby and you're fine. And I'm not even talking about the extra charges you find on your bill, when you check out in this '4 star' hotel.....
- Thermaetel Hotel Valkenburg
