I knew that this hotel was small, old and overpriced. What I didn’t count on was the staff having no regard for anyone. I stayed there for 6 days, and I saw a total of 6 employees, .5 of which were moderately competent. When I asked anyone for help, they always referred me to one person, who was overworked and not too bright. The rooms are tiny. The walls are very thin and you can hear everything, including the conversations of the people next door who are discussing what drugs they took and how much booze they consumed at 4 in the morning.
As I said, I stayed for 6 days. Every day, the hotel put a hold on my credit card for the amount of that night. On the fourth day, the hotel ran the full amount, above the holds that they had been putting on my account. The card bounced, because the hotel was effectively charging me double what I owed them. This happened in the middle of the day, but instead of calling me on my cell phone, the hotel staff let themselves into my room, and woke up my boyfriend, who was napping, and demanded that he pack up our stuff and leave. When I called my bank and figured out what happened (the hotel had to remove the hold they put on my account before they charged that same amount), I immediately told the staff. The one staff member who did anything at first refused to speak to me on the phone. After I relayed the message to her via my boyfriend, she offered a lame apology and said she would take care of it, and she let us keep our room. The hotel offered nothing for the inconvenience and insult, which was entirely their fault. Furthermore, they had already changed my hotel key (which they didn’t fix), so I had to get them to fix that when I returned to my room.
When I went to check out, the hotel had only charged me for half of the stay. I have no idea why. They had me sign for the balance before I left, which I did. To further the inconvenience, the hotel did not run the transaction until TWO MONTHS after my stay. I paid in a credit card, not a check, and there is no reason for them to be so unprofessional. It scared me just to give them my information, they are the type of shady place where you could see erroneous transactions being taken out years later.
If you stay here, pay in advance, and in cash. That seems to be what they are used to. This hotel made me so uncomfortable, I did not want to trust them at all. This is NOT the way that you are supposed to feel on your vacation. This is why I vacation in the US and not overseas, because I expect a level of quality and professionalism. Unfortunately, the Dorchester lives up to neither, and their staff is so incompetent, they make their guests feel like they are a nuisance. I don’t pay people to treat me like crap.
