Hotel Room Windows Facing a Concrete Wall

[DeathNote11]

Arived at our hotel on the Isle of Man & the windows are approx 4ft away from a concrete wall. No natural light & just absolutely depressing & claustrophobic.

There isn't a reception, there was a code to get in then the room key was in a key safe. I've text the number saying we can't spend 5 days in this room & I want to know if they can change rooms. If not, I want a refund so I can find somewhere else to stay. I've checked through all advertising & paperwork & there's no mention of any rooms having this problem & I most certainly wouldn't have booked it had I known. Person on the other end of the phone number has ignored my message so far (they had sent me a text a minute earlier so definitely a manned number). It's not a cheap place in comparison with others nearby.

Am I right to think I can request a refund if they can't/won't change rooms? It was booked through booking.com & paid by credit card. Payment for the entire 4 night stay has already been taken.

AIBU to think guests should be told if a hotel plans to give them a room with such an undesirable feature?

This happened to me on a ski trip. It was disappointing, but hardly the end of the world unless you had specifically paid for a view. By all means raise it where you can to get a room change and mention it on post holiday reviews, but do try to be proportionate about it.

It happens. This is the “lovely” view from my hotel in Canada.

To "warn others" of what exactly? That the hotel fulfilled it's contractual obligations?

Wouldn't bother me at all as for me a hotel room is to sleep and change in, not for sitting in and gazing out of a window.

Did you specify you wanted a scenic view when you booked?

Can't you just do what normal grown ups do, laugh about it and crack on with your day?
Or have you specifically travelled there to sit in your hotel room and look out the window?

Don't let it spoil your holiday though, how long were you really going to spend looking out of the window anyway? Go outside and enjoy the views. Come inside and close the curtains and be cosy. I only stay at budget hotels so usually have views of walls and bins and carparks but I can't think why I'd spend anytime at all looking out of the window. Maybe to briefly check if it's raining but I'd check the forecast on my phone anyway. If you're in the hotel room you're mostly sleeping, watching TV or in the bathroom aren't you? Surely most of your time is going to be outside?

I'd be surprised if you could get a refund on this basis

I don't think the hotel has done anything wrong. Unless they advertised a view, and you booked on that basis, they have given you a functional, clean (I presume) room with the facilities you booked in mind

Also , judging by responses on this thread, it isn't that much of an undesirable feature, many (myself included) wouldn't really care that much so I don't think its something the hotel needs to mention when booking

YABU. I’ve never even seen a window mentioned in a description of the room, it’s not listed as an amenity. So there’s not necessarily a guarantee of a window at all. Many hotels have basement rooms without windows, or rooms with a window but the view or is over a grimy internal service courtyard or part of the roof covered in pigeon debris.

Your room hasn’t been mis-sold unless it promised a particular view. As you have booked it for 5 nights, presumably you are actually planning to be going out and doing things most of the time, not sitting in your hotel room? For the same reason, I always wonder why people pay a premium for a sea view, when they are only going to look out of it in the morning while they get ready for their day out, and thereafter have no use from it at all.

Ha! Our hotel on a trip to NYC last year was so close to the next door building we could have easily climbed out of the window and on to their fire escape.

It didn't really bother us as we were only really there early morning and at night to sleep.

Can't you just turn the light on?

It’s exactly the sort of useful thing people do say on tripadvisor. ‘Rooms 211 to 215 have a view of the bins and are very noisy at 5am when the bin lorries arrive’.

That's a shame, because the IoM has fantastic views! But Douglas is pretty built up, so unless you're in a hotel on the front, with a room at the front I can imagine the views aren't great!

Don't let it spoil your trip. Get out there! There's so much to do on the island.

Have you been to Port Erin? And the manx electric railway has the best views!

Which hotel are you in?

But yes, get out, especially today as the weather is really nice. Get the electric tram to Laxey and then up the mountain and watch the motorbike races.

Or the steam train to Port Erin and have a wine at the Foraging Vintner and stay for the sunset.

I do get the disappointment though after spending 5 days in Port del Soller in Mallorca with a view of a wall 4 foot away - I was seething as DH had turned down my suggestion of a balcony room with a view on the grounds that all the rooms are bound to have a view. No, they bloody didn't.

We had similar in New York last time we were there. We’d originally booked a hotel in Queens, right by the river and every room had a view of Manhattan. Had a call a week or two before saying it had closed for refurbishment so had been allocated another hotel, what we were offered wasn’t comparable so we were then ‘upgraded’ to one called Skyline (which was dodgy as fuck, one floor was a heavily guarded homeless shelter).
No view of the skyline though, we were at the back of the hotel and all we saw was a white brick wall.