Sara Guardian Hotel, Tripoli

Be carefull. Before you know it a request for information is considered a booking and you will run into troubles when you arrive at the Tripoli Airport What happened? After a request for information, the hotel immediately made a booking without asking for my confirmation. I did not know my exact dates yet, but requested information for three nights. Because getting into Libya is hard, i asked if they could provide a letter of invitation. They could not do that, but could arrange a visa for 199 per visa. 199 euro per visa?????? After looking around at different sites I found that arranging a visa on arrival is a maximum 80 euros. I sent the hotel an email that the visa was too expensive. Suddenly the currency rate got better I guess, because a visa turned cheaper over night. The owner said he made a mistake and instead of 199 for a visa it became 90 euro per visa. Reason??? It was 199 for two visa and not for one (A strange calculation). I was a little disappointed with this way of taking my money by Sara guardian. I send them a mail on the 5th that it was to expensive for me to pay so much for a visa and i did not like the fact that they tried to let me pay to much for is. I booked another hotel with a normal priced visa and even a guide for three days. As I said. I never confirmed my booking with Sara guardian and never did I receive a cancelation policy (not even on the website). The only thing that happened was me requesting information. Arriving at the airport i was in for a surprise. Ali, the owner of the hotel send a driver to the airport and started threatening me over the phone to pay 200 euros for the room because i did not cancel. ?????? Cancel??? I never made a booking, just requested information. He threatened to beat me up, call the police and come to the hotel i stayed in if i did not pay de driver 200 euros. I offered to pay 50 euros (which is the rate per night plus the costs of the driver). This was not enough for the owner however. Fortunately I had the manager of the Zummit hotel with me, who took care of the situation. It was not the end of the story however. For three days he stalked me with emails threatening to go to the police, verbally abusing me and more. I loved Libya and would definitely advise to visit this beautiful place, but please be careful if you want to stay at the Sara guardian. It’s number one on trip advisor, but that's only because the paying guests are important to Mr. Ali. As soon as you do something he does not like… you are in for a big treat. Not very nice in a country which you do nit know and you do not speak the language of. My advise? Go to the Zummit hotel and ask for Habib as a guide.