Help. Epic hotel choice failure

[BoffinMum]

So here we are in a family hotel in Italy on holiday, near Lake Garda. We are supposed to be here for two weeks and it's costing 5800 euros full board for four of us including DS2 (16) and DS3 (8). We have had a terrible year and this was supposed to be a special holiday to recover.

We all hate it. I hate it so much I could cry.

The hotel itself is really small and the things we thought we would use - spa and so on - are only open 4-7.30 daily (it said nothing about this on the website). We've just had a meal and it's reminiscent of school dinners - I could have cooked it better myself. You can only have dinner from 7-8pm. Nothing like the lovingly garnished offerings on the website, basically stodge. Even the teenager gave up ploughing through it. Our wine eventually came after we had fiinished the meal. There are no soft drinks for kids apart from Fanta, Sprite or Coke. The kids bedroom smells of smoke (as does ours) and has restricted ceiling height so DS2 is going to be banging his head the whole time. The decor reminds me of my grandmother's house about 30 years ago. There is nowhere to get away from the din because it's so small and i currently have a kids' disco under my window (it's 930 pm here) and DS3 is tired from travelling all day but it's too noisy to go to sleep.

I have been down the the manager to explain the problems but he just shrugged and said 'other people like it'. He said we have to stay at least a week otherwise they will have an empty room.

So we are trapped in this glorified youth hostel listening to a kids disco booming away under the window eating stodge and will have to spend 2900 euros for the privilege. And there may be nowhere else to go,

Help, what do I do?

I went on holiday to Lake Garda last summer staying in Riva - visited Lake Ledro, it's beautiful

@Misty9 Get in!

We're there 29th August till 5th Sept. I have dyed red hair, DH is tall with brown hair and we have 2 girls (age 3 & 5). I will think of something distinctive to do so you can spot me.

Which Neilson ones did you hate and like?

Am doing my first ever Neilson holiday (first package holiday in my life) and am a bit nervous about it........if it is crap, I might actually cry

...unless I can turn it around, like it looks you are doing!

I uhmmed and ah-ed between Lake Garda or a Neilson holiday in Greece, it must be an MN thing . Would you still recommend the lake as such?

Lake Garda is beautiful we go every other year and my dcs have chosen it this year over any other option

@apocalypsenowt we're there from 18th to 1st Sept so will only cross over a couple days...but I'm tall with (dyed) blonde hair dh is tall with brown hair and we have dc aged 3 and 5 too! Older boy and younger girl :) dc hate swimming so we won't be at the pool a lot. By then you'll probably find me in a bar of an evening, escaping dh after bedtime

Follow up with his manager/organization as that got his attention - Tripadvisor is your friend. I once checked in somewhere where there were no curtains in the bathroom or bedrooms (clear glass windows). As I was furtively getting dressed, I saw a bed bug and so was checking out within half an hour of checking in. They were adamant about no refunds until I said I had photos of their uninvited guests to warn their prospective guest. I had the refund within minutes and that was years ago, before the primacy of Tripadvisor.

A little bit of research and I found your hotel Kinderhotel Adriana Ledro.
Most of the photos do most certainly make the place look fantastic, with mouth watering meals, etc. There are 170 photos on the website, but suddenly about a quarter of the way through the photos, I stumbled upon a set of VERY BAD photos, clearly added by unhappy guests, of filthy broken cupboards, rotten decking, broken playground equipment, and mouldy torn tents! Might be worth having a look! Presumably those photos got onto their website by accident having been posted by unhappy clients! I would take a day out and see if you can find somewhere better, take your own photos (of the stodge, etc) - and when you have found somewhere, cancel your credit card, and go elsewhere! Good luck and keep us posted.

Have you read the full thread user?

To be scrupulously fair to this hotel they have tried hard at some things. The basement has a very attractive sauna and steam room setup. Only problem is that it's barely open. The standard of cleanliness is extremely high. Many parts of it look attractively modern alpine. There's a big flat screen telly and a fridge in our room. The beds are comfortable. The maitre d' in the restaurant is like every kid's favourite Italian uncle (he was off duty the day the breakfast went wrong). The primary problem is that it's too small to be a resort hotel (which is kind of what Kinderhotels are) and the noise levels can be ridiculous. Plus they should be ashamed of the food they are offering at lunch and dinner. The hotelier needs to go on a customer service course, the kids club needs to look at its inclusion policies, and generally they need to be more honest about the setup here. I sense that they actually may not realise the breadth of what normal Kinderhotels offer. Either that Or they are gaming it.

There - we holidayed at the Nielson resort on main land Greece earlier this year - it was fabulous (but it was early in the season before the schools broke up which might have helped ).

Late to this thread, but loving the Boffin & Patsy meet up

Didn't Justine start MN following a disastrous family holiday? I wonder if she'd stayed at the same hotel?!

Hope you eventually get some resolution from Kinderhotels, Boff and Patsy.

Any response to the complaint yet?

Nope, radio silence from Kinderhotels but the Daily Fail have offered to cover the story. Patsy and I reckon if they cover our hotel bills in full, a fortnight in Mustique each (preferably together) and a case of Bolly each and we might think about co-operating. 😉

Do it!!!!

Ha ha, go for it OP!

Oh yes, and an equivalent donation to the Trussell Trust plus good news stories about 1. Immigration and 2. Claiming benefits, to sweeten the deal.

Gauntlet is down, Mail Online.

(It would probably be going too far to demand an article on how Brexit will push up the cost of holiday insurance once we lose EHIC cards, perhaps, and how Brexit will lead to massive border queues for holidaymakers and cost rises for staycations).

Go Boffin & Patsy!

Are you good at a DM sadface? You will also have to wear an unflattering bodycon dress, I gather. And I hope your kids,are called Harry and Monty for optimimum MC distress effect, and own a 700k house in the home counties...

Hi folks,

Thanks for the classics nominations. This really is a fabulous thread! It'd be a huge shame to lose it.

We're going to move it over to classics now. Hope this is okay, OP! If not, give us a shout.

Lorna.

It's 33C at the lake and rising. Came back to hotel for a siesta but the church bells are bonging again. From both churches.

Amazed this is in Classics. Didn't think a hotel whinge was going to be that interesting tbh. Funny how things all turn out.