Beautiful Hotel, terrible Service
I could go on for days about all the grievances I have against this hotel. I will start from the moment I walked in. I was greated by an unfriendly security agent who appeared to have no idea what he was doing. The visit was in December, a cool 50 or 60 degree average temperature for this time of year. During the visit, however, the city was somewhat warm but I was very hot and needed a nice cool room to check in to. When I opened the door I almost fainted by the heat!!! When I called downstairs to ask them about the air conditioning they rudely replied that they COMPLETELY turn off air conditioning during the winter months despite temperatures sometimes reaching the low 70s. The best I could do was turn the heat off and open the door to the balcony (which by the way was shared with EVERY room on the floor!)
The next thing that happend was the awful television in the room. When I tried to order a movie, the "interactive" menu system failed to work despite replacing the remote. Fair enough, I decided, I just watched one of the three channels offered in English. (Other hotels have at least 8 or 9 english channels).
The next thing is the bathrooms. The shower was rediculous. Instead of a conventional curtain, the shower had a glass door which opened out into the bathroom. Since the door was made out of clear glass, nobody else could use the bathroom while one person was in the shower. Also, you would have to wait until all the water was down the drain before opening the door or else the bathroom would turn into a lake. Also, the door wouldn't close all the way, resulting in frequent flooding and wetness everywhere. Another problem with the bathroom was the toilet, at night the toilet would not stop running, despite several attempts to explain to the staff what the problem was (they didn't understand what a running toilet was). So I just decided to deal with the loud water running noise which occured ALL throughout the night.
The final and most significant problem I hade with this hotel was the staff and service. Throughout my 5 night stay at this hotel, I only spoke with ONE kind person. Every other staff member had the tone of voice like "why is HE calling agian?" All I wanted was a room that was below 80 degrees and a room without a running toilet and maybe even a room that wasnt 2 inches deep in water every time I took a shower. One time I was trying to catch a cab but failing to do so since my hebrew is quite shabby. The man in front of the hotel refused to get me a cab and just pointed towards the street and offered no help what-so-ever.
Believe it or not, I do have a few benefits of this hotel. One, was the view. Almost every room (besides mine of course) had a lovely view of the old city and the rest of Jerusalem. Another pro was the breakfast, although it was not the Best ever, it had a wide variety of food selections.
The overall Verdict: Don't stay here unless you are receiving an irresistable deal that cannot be refused. Also, if you like rooms under 80 degrees, don't stay there in the winter.