“Terrible hotel, very disappointing experience, staff needs to be reported for fraud”
We arrived at the hotel on Saturday, 11 September 2010. First of all, we were very disappointed to find out that the hotel is quite far from the terms in Spa, for the size of this little town. The hotel is old, dirty and rather kitch decorated. The owners have tried to achieve without success a noble look of the house. They have put on the sign mark for the hotel that it is 4 stars, while in reality it is not even 2 stars. Our room was on the 3rd floor, no elevator, and very steep stairs to climb with a 2 years old child. The worst was the staff - unpleasant, rude and not helpful. There is no cleaning staff, no waitresses, no one at the reception - only the two owners of the house work there and do everything themselves in order to save money, but the quality is very poor. The swimming pool was so dirty that we could not even find good chairs to sit around it, let alone to touch the water. We left the hotel very quickly, because we found that it is terrible, while it is full of nice hotels in the center of Spa, and around it. We went to Radisson BLU, where for the same price we found far better quality of service, and they have a direct warm link to the terms and swimming pools with mineral water + clean towels and everything you need for a real spa experience. I do not recommend Hotel la Heid des Pairs to anyone! And don't get trapped by their very well made web-site, and comments that they have written on booking.com by themselves in order to raise their rating.
This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC
19 September 2010
Hello,
Normally we don't give a reaction to the reviews of our guests, because we respect their opinion, but this time I must make an exception.
I (the owner) am not surprised of this review but it needs a little explanation.
My wife caught this lady, who wishes to stay anonymous.., when she was trying to take extra towels from the hall closet to take to the Thermes in Spa. She became furious that we made a remark of her taking something out of our closet without permission.
We did not have the right to make a remark, because she was the guest and we have only a hotel and she works for the EC... So who do we think we are. We told her that she didn't have to stay if she didn't want it. She decided to leave without any payment. That's fine with us, because we don't want money from people who think they may take things from other people without permission.
Now some facts:
We are indeed situated 1,5 km from the centre of Spa. It's indicated very clearly in every description and people love our hotel because of its quiet location.
Our house is old indeed, it dates back to 1834, but well maintained and loved because of it's historic values. (see pictures and reviews booking.com).
Moreover, our hotel has 3 stars, officially approved by the department of tourism.
We only have 2 floors and not 3 as the lady tried to let you believe, and houses of our size have no steep stairs.
The lady knew that her room was on the 2nd floor, because she called 1 day before to ask.
The lady made a reservation for 1 night. We let her check-in at 12 am instead of the normal 3 pm- at no extra costs, we borrowed her a bayphone- at no extra costs, indeed really unhelpful..,
Mrs. EC was very pissed that it was impossible to check out the following day at 4 pm (because the room was already booked for the following night) instead of the normal time, 12 am.
Our outdoor swimming pool was already closed for 2 weeks, it was september..
It's technically and practically impossible for a hotel to write it's own review on Booking.com.
Only guests who have stayed and paid (..) can write a review. They are invited to do so by Booking.com, not by us, otherwise every hotel could write it's own reviews and there would be no bad reviews at all. We earn our 9.1 because we love our job and we do it with a lot of passion.
Kind regards,
Jan-Paul Helwig, owner of Hotel la Heid des Pairs, Spa, Belgium.
(Best reviewed hotel in Spa..Booking.com)
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This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of TripAdvisor LLC