Rio Design Hotel, Rio de Janeiro

The hotel was decent, but the room wasn't near as nice as the photos on their website would have you believe. Great location though, and the service was fine. The main problem I had was that I made a few short calls using the long distance service posted on the room telephone. The rates aren't listed, which should have been a red flag, but I really needed to call the U.S. and decided I would do it anyway. You have to pay with your credit card separately from the room charges, so you don't find out how much you've been ripped off until you get back home. I made two calls that went straight to voicemail, and one call that was probably 5 minutes long. I returned home to find out my account had been charged $170 for these calls! $42 each for the calls that went to voicemail, and $87 for the 5 minute call! I looked up the company (BBG communications) online and found hundreds of similar complaints. This company is a total scam. I called them (their number isn't even posted on their website, so I had to find it elsewhere) and they argued with me and gave me rates and times which didn't even make sense. They told me I could have checked the rates before using the service, although I do not recall any option to do so. Although they tried to tell me the charges were legitimate, they still gave me a $67 credit to my account. Now why would they do that if they hadn't done anything wrong? I was still stuck with over $100 in charges, which I had to dispute through my bank, and I am currently waiting for the result.