Made any travel mistakes lately?

[featheast]

Booked at IBis budget MEL airport for early departure flight, $107 turns out to be a sleepless night.
And of course, the flight delayed for two hours...

 

[jetlagger]

Booked at IBis budget MEL airport for early departure flight, $107 turns out to be a sleepless night.
And of course, the flight delayed for two hours...

You could have stayed at that cosy McHotel with 24/7 room service.. ;-)

 

[markis10]

You could have stayed at that cosy McHotel with 24/7 room service.. ;-)

Mel Maccas actually closes inside, think its just drive through.

 

[Rebekkap]

Does taking your mother-in-law on a two-week trip to Disneyworld where, despite appearances, it turned out that she didn't enjoy any of it, count as a travel mistake?

Yes! And as an aside, how could anyone possibly not enjoy Disneyworld!? It's the happiest place on earth!

 

[Bazzi]

Spent last week in a cough hotel in Paris after relying on website photos, fact it had just reopened and was part of Accor group (so thus should be of the same quality as the others in the chain). Wrong...

Would be interested in knowing which hotel it was. We have booked 4 nights over New Year in a new/revamped Accor property in Paris.

 

[Milboo]

Would be interested in knowing which hotel it was. We have booked 4 nights over New Year in a new/revamped Accor property in Paris.

Adagio Access Paris Bastille

 

[scaredeycat]

Checked the date for my upcoming booking on SAS from Copenhagen to St Petersburg in July. That's odd, why does it say June? Because that's the date I booked - bugger! Change fee plus taxes $250. Each. For 5 of us.
Makes for an expensive flight.
You live and you learn...

 

[Bazzi]

Adagio Access Paris Bastille

Uh, oh! May have to start looking elsewhere. We have stayed in hotels across the Accor brand and have never once been disappointed. Would you care to elaborate on why it was cough?

 

[Flywithd]

VA GCC: so you wanted to upgrade your Perth to Brisbane flight?
me: :shock: I beg your pardon, you mean Perth - Melbourne right?
VA GCC: nope, I have here Perth to brisbane on Wednesday 5th June..
me: :-| *facepalm, you wouldn't be able to change the destination to Melbourne would you?

luckily I decided to use a free upgrade, otherwise I would of been in Bris.

 

[Milboo]

Uh, oh! May have to start looking elsewhere. We have stayed in hotels across the Accor brand and have never once been disappointed. Would you care to elaborate on why it was cough?

Where shall I start!

You know those lovely photos on its website - although say non-binding but its reasonable to assume they are indicative of the hotel given it is newly opened and what the rest of the chain look like? Well forget them completely as that is a lovely fantasy world. Instead go look up Le 300 on TripAdvisor or their website. The photos shown there are EXACTLY what you get. Given these photos are readily available it seems Accor is willing to deliberately mislead and deceive people. Hotel tells me they have been telling head office to change the website as people are complaining but to no avail.

And - there is only paying cable Internet - no free wifi which was advertised when we booked. Stay between 3-7 days and there is no cleaning. Linen is old and thin and almost grey. If you're lucky your blanket (note blanket not doona) will not be ripped. Expect absolutely no information in the room on how to work any controls, the phone or even how the breakfast room works (its cheaper to go to a cafe and have a petit dejeunner complet). No alarm clocks either.

On the plus side - quite street, a couple of lovely bistros/ brasseries nearby (Le coin and l'artisan), Boulangerie handy and easy few minutes walk to Bastille, Ledru Rollin and Gare de Lyon.

There is a Holiday Inn by Gare de Lyon which looks nice (noting the HI chain in Europe is a lot different than what you get here).

We were stuck there - it was 2 days after we checked in before the manager was back and it was a bad week for Paris accommodation - could not get 4 nights in one place that did not cost over $300 a room and the Friday night was up to $600!

 

[Bazzi]

Thanks for the info, much appreciated.

 

[an*g-bne]

Many years ago, before the days of the web and Google (late 80s), I had a two week trip to Lille in France. CorpTA made all the bookings, and booked me into the Hotel de Lille. Flew into Paris, went to the train station and caught the train to Lille. Hopped into a cab at Lille Station, and gave the driver the address. He looked at it, looked at me, and looked at it again. Then started some rapid fire French excitedly. Had to get him to slow down dramatically and repeat. Turns out the CorpTA booked me into the Hotel de Lille in Paris. 200 km away, where I had just come from. Hopped out of the cab and found a local hotel. Fortunately the taxi driver was a decent sort of person with enough sense to confirm that I hadn't made a mistake.

 

[Skyring]

Mel Maccas actually closes inside, think its just drive through.

Rent a car, then. Just a small one is all you need.

 

[EvanC]

Rent a car, then. Just a small one is all you need.

Or find some other hungry travellers, form yourself into a family of four, and drive your invisible Fred Flintstone car on through the drive through*.

*Tried this in Bendigo after a night on the town. The staff didn't buy it, but the couple in the car in front of us found it so amusing that they not only placed and collected our order for us, but insisted on paying for it too!

 

[Julesmac]

We should probably start a subset of this thread on travel mistakes titled "cough Hotels of the World" or "The 1000 Hotels You must Avoid Before You Die" ! About ten years ago MrMac & I went to France & the UK. Stayed in a hotel in Nice - the Sybillis I think - which we immediately renamed Hotel Siphilis. Then in Dublin a cruddy hotel. In Edinburgh stayed at a refurbished old commerical travellers hotel. Carpet on stair treads patched with gaffer tape. Room not made up. Dining room hadn't been vacuumed since breakfast - yesterday's breakfast. Interestingly enough these hotels were chosen from the Qantas holidays booklet and boy were they misleading. Had booked a trip 18 months prior with a girlfriend and all the hotels were fantastic quality (3 star) As another poster has commented, you book based on photos and can be very disappointed. I was cross that I didn't (a) immediately move to a different hotel, and (b) complain in writing to Qantas. The comments about the Accor hotel in Paris should probably be passed on to the hotel chain from a guest as clearly they are not listening to staff.

 

[jetlagger]

We should probably start a subset of this thread on travel mistakes titled "cough Hotels of the World" or "The 1000 Hotels You must Avoid Before You Die" !

Great idea!
I can certainly recall & make a few submissions, based on my travel experiences in my younger budget restraint days.. ;-)

 

[markis10]

Made a big coughie on the weekend, had to ring Expedia to find out why my ticket was not issued for next days flight ex Asia. Had recently changed computers and Skype did not like the mike on my new one, so could not use it, rather than going down stairs to the mall to get a mike to plug in, used the hotel phone, after all its only a call to Ireland. 10 minutes was the length of the call, all sorted. On checkout, that call cost close to $100

 

[erkpod]

Once I planned to fly into Budapest. When reviewing my itinerary, I noticed that I'd booked the next leg from Bucharest, not Budapest. I learnt that Bucharest is the capital of Romania.

 

[johncitizen]

My biggest mistake, not finding this forum before booking my next two months of travel

 

[JohnK]

I make the same mistake every week.

You'd think I would have learned by now.