California

Warning! Think twice before you consider staying at this hotel. They advertise themselves as a 5-star hotel, but the treatment I've received from them is anything but. I stayed at Hotel California in September and, shortly after checking out, realized they had double charged me for my rooms. After ignoring my first few emails, they finally acknowledged the double charge and said they would process a refund. It's now been almost 3 weeks and multiple emails later and the refund has never been processed. Now the hotel is closed. This is a situation that could have been easily and promptly resolved, and yet they have chosen not to refund my money for an overcharge they have admitted was erroneous. I travel extensively for both business and leisure and have never experienced such terrible treatment from a hotel.

During our week-long vacation in Montenegro, we encountered unprecedented treatment at Hotel California by Aikon when checking into our chosen room category, a package we'd booked more than six months earlier. First of all, this isn't a 5-star hotel! We stayed at the same chain, the Riva by Aikon, a solid 4-star hotel, which is significantly superior in both comfort and service! Furthermore, if I understand correctly, 5-star hotels at least have their own pool (in our case, this wasn't essential, as the hotel was right on the seafront). Upon arrival, we were immediately given the keys to a ground-floor room. I usually request a higher floor with a sea view when booking, if possible. The room we were assigned had a balcony enclosed by a concrete fence, approximately 80 cm high. The fences between adjacent rooms on this balcony are purely decorative (photo attached). So, The advertised "sea view" was only partial if you stood upright. There was no way to sit and watch the sunset or simply enjoy the sea view (which is why I always book sea-view rooms on trips like this). Furthermore, the room greeted us with a musty smell or something similar. As it turned out later, the air conditioning system hadn't been cleaned in a while (you can see this in the photo). The hotel employee who accompanied us offered to spray the room with air freshener. This prompted us to demand a different room in the same category as advertised. We were told there were no such rooms available. We were offered a "family" room (in an Adults Only hotel) for the following day for an additional 560 euros!!!!! Or a sea view room without a balcony (a French balcony) of a lower category (smaller room, no balcony) with no option to refund the price difference. We had to accept the latter option in order to check in and begin our planned vacation, timed to coincide with our wedding anniversary. It should be noted that in this attic room, the closet was just over a meter high, making it practically impossible to fit my wife's dresses in it without wrinkling them (photo attached). On the third day, we were provided with a clothes stand, which at least somewhat improved the wardrobe situation. The plumbing and some furniture were also in disrepair. I checked room availability on the hotel website and Booking. We also observed the periodic turnover of guests and concluded that they had rooms in our category available for guests staying for one or two nights. Therefore, the hotel, in addition to having higher revenue from these rooms (I'm sure travel companies offer significant discounts for early bookings), received more positive reviews and had a fairly high rating. For every three or four positive reviews, there was one negative one describing the same issues – the room category, the terrible condition of the air conditioning and bathroom fixtures, and the unfriendly reception staff. I was in constant contact with my tour operator during this time, and after four nights of a ruined vacation, we were finally given a room in our category, the so-called "family" room, with two single beds. It was larger, with a balcony and a stunning sea view! There wouldn't have been room for a cot in a "family" room at an Adults Only hotel. When we changed rooms, there was some embarrassment: hair was found on the bed linen in the new room (photo)! So, out of seven nights booked and paid for on time, we only received three nights of accommodation as per our package.