The Hotel Strandparken in Holbaek, Denmark is advertised as a conference and functions hotel – but in reality it is very 'tired'. Several months earlier we had reserved a superior room for 8 nights which overlooked the fjord but we were given a room that was anything but superior overlooking a side road with trees. Our complaint about this was simply met with dismissal by an ‘anything but helpful’ receptionist. They had had several months to get this right but still messed it up! The first thing you notice in the hotel after leaving the main area is that the corridor to the rooms walls are discoloured, marked, disgusting and desperately need painting. Our room was very basic with lumpy beds and zero cupboards (shelves instead). Window between bathroom and bedroom. We had to close a curtain over it for any privacy - but even the curtain was so thin that it's virtually see-through! Housekeeping in the room was 'hit and miss'. Sometimes vacuumed, sometimes not. The bathmat was missing for two days. We were only given one bath towel other days. One of the sliding main window curtains was out of its 'runner' and hanging loose. This wasn't fixed during our entire 8 night stay. The room’s TV was not working at all on the first day. On subsequent days there were only 10 channels with no English language ones at all. In the short time we were examining the channels the picture was constantly pixelating and screen intermittently going blank. Then there was the ridiculous problem of service lorries visiting the hotel early morning and waking everyone up unnecessarily. The hotel’s wi-fi was free but very poor signal strength in the room so the internet connection was very intermittent. The room’s air conditioning wasn't working so we experienced some very hot and stuffy nights which added to our sleeping discomfort. The hotel’s dining room carpet was dirty. There were cobwebs at the top of its walls and thick layers of dust on the light fittings. At breakfast there were identical items EVERY morning. No variations and no toaster but at least the food was edible. Our single evening dining room experience however was very poor. The smoked salmon salad that I ordered was just about acceptable – but the vegan ratatouille my wife ordered was completely inedible. This consisted of nearly raw vegetables with tomato puree squirted over them. She requested bread but this request was ignored. We were forced to pay for the inedible ratatouille by restaurant staff despite our objections. Apparently, their manager would not listen to these objections. After exhausting all other avenues and reasoning with them, I told them that I would be writing to their Managing Director on return to England. This was met with blatant sneering, they just didn’t care. Eventually though, the cost of the ratatouille was refunded when we checked out. Frustratingly, it should be noted that the young evening staff in the dining room have poor attitude problems, are rude and are arrogan
43 Reviews