Jerusalem Castle Hotel — Hotel in Jerusalem

We stayed at the Jerusalem Castle Hotel for a week in October. ||It had good points and bad points but it should be avoided for the time being pending completion of extremely noisy construction work at the next door property. Building work in Israel is permitted to start from 7 am, and in our experience there was often significant noise (enough to wake us up) from 6.15 or 6.30 am. ||We thought we were getting a superior room with a balcony, and as we were staying for a whole week assumed we would get something reasonable. ||We found that we were in Room 217, at the end of the corridor, which was the closest room on our floor to the construction work. The balcony was bare, devoid of shade, and right by the noise of the construction work. ||Our room was extremely small, probably the smallest we have ever stayed in. On the plus side, it did have lots of shelves, and a fridge, so we did have somewhere to put stuff, but there were no cupboards/closets, and only minimal (three hangers) hanging space. ||The bathroom was also very small, and the basin was egg shaped, presumably to provide some modest area for putting toiletries around it, under the lip of the outside edge of the basin. With its curved sides, and poor controls on the mixer tap, I never mastered how to avoid having the water splash all over the toiletries and over me when I had the tap on. The shower was just about ok, but hard to adjust in terms of the angle of flow. ||Breakfast was pretty grim. Instant coffee and a modest collection of tea bags. On one morning the manager brought in a proper 2 litre plastic bottle of orange juice. On all other mornings, it was a sweet and sickly orangeade rather than proper orange juice. Most mornings, there were some proper fresh croissants and pains chocolats, but on both Friday and Saturday these were stale and unpleasant - perhaps understandably for Shabbat in Jerusalem but not on Friday. And there was not much rush to clear away dirty plates or wipe tables as people vacated them during breakfast. One always had to ask - or ignore them.||The front desk staff were mostly affable and helpful, doing print-outs to provide directions when we were walking to places within town. ||Management seemed a bit haphazard, in terms of the cleaning. One day our room was just ignored and not cleaned at all. Other days we returned to find the cleaner had left his mops and cleaning fluid in our room. We asked for a second hand towel as well as our threadbare larger towels. Some days we got our second hand towel, some days not, it seemed random. Sometimes we were endowed with spare toilet paper, sometimes they took it away again. ||We needed a taxi for the airport on the Sunday when we left. It is difficult in Israel, as Nesher have a monopoly, and if they dont answer the phone on Saturday evenings for booking for the following day it is not the hotel's fault. But when I asked what they normally did on Saturday evenings, because presumably they had clients leaving most Sunday mornings, the manager flew into a rage and started using four letter words at me - not something I have often experienced in adult life (I am 67). ||The plus points for the hotel, if the construction work ever finishes, are the location, in a nice , otherwise quiet road in Rehavia, the most pleasant area in central Jerusalem, within walking distance of the best restaurants and the Old City. There are some nice coffee and sandwich places very close, and also plenty of synagogues if one is there over Shabbat and looking for a nearby service. ||In the meantime, until the construction work is over, the hotel is best avoided, and in any case, clients staying there might do best to ensure they have their own coffee/tea and orange juice. I would suggest that third party confirmation is needed about the construction work, rather than just relying on what the hotel might suggest. ||We were deeply unhappy at the fact that our room was tiny and noisy, which overshadowed the whole of our stay in one of the world's most...

Me gustaría también dar mi opinión adicionando y complementado así el anterior comentario de mi novia Elena Lepko (nótese que este comentario se refiere al momento en que intentamos reclamar directamente con los propietarios del hotel sobre los puntos destacados anteriormente):

1 - Primero que todo, me gustaría destacar que en ningún momento se nos ha tratado con ningún tipo de respeto, y más en lo que hace el tema racial. Me explico, mi novia lleva viviendo en España más de 12 años pero conserva el pasaporte ruso. En el momento del check-in, el chico recepcionista destacado en el comentario anterior, se intentó comunicar en ruso con ella. Pero el problema reside en el hecho de que, al día siguiente, cuando intentamos reclamar que el tipo de habitación que nos proporcionaron, no era el correspondiente al descrito anteriormente, los dueños (una mujer rubia y supuestamente su marido), soltaron un comentario muy poco apropiado hacia ella y cito textualmente que el hombre se dirigió con las siguientes palabras: “puede que hayas vivido más de 12 años en Europa, pero el carácter ruso aún lo conservas” haciéndose mofa de ella y burlándose de su carácter “fuerte”, según ellos . Al escuchar cómo se referían a ella de esa manera, no pude hacer más que escuchar impresionado, impotente y sin poder decir palabra alguna. Yo soy de nacionalidad y nacido en España, pero mis padres son de origen asiático. Al oír esas duras palabras hacia mi pareja, no hicieron más que empeorar la situación en la que estábamos y nos hicieron sentir como si fuésemos unos meros extranjeros y me sentí de todo menos acogido.

2 - Por otro lado, veréis que en el comentario que el hotel le ha soltado a mi novia, es que intentarán arreglar esto y también ponen que se disculparon apropiadamente. En primer lugar, se disculpan por nuestra reacción, cuando deberían de disculparse ellos por tratarnos como heces humanas. Jamás intentaron arreglar este asunto y nos fuimos del hotel con ganas de volver a España, porque como he comentado anteriormente, nos hemos sentido ultrajados y poco acogidos. Pienso que es importante que cuando te vas a otro país, que es relevante que te hagan sentirte como en casa, y en este caso, han logrado hacernos sentir como completos extraños en un país que obviamente no es el nuestro. Jamás he tenido que hacer ningún tipo de comentario de este tipo, pero es que de verdad, que este hotel se lleva la palma con su pésimo servicio y trato.

3 - por último me gustaría destacar, y sin extenderme demasiado, que la última mujer con la que hablamos en recepción, nos explicó que todo esto era puro marketing. Este mensaje va para los próximos visitantes a Israel: si venís a Jerusalem, por favor, no reservéis en este establecimiento. Vais a pagar un precio superior a lo que vais a recibir, tanto en el trato como en el tipo de habitación provisto. Me refiero a esto como persona que ha estado en varias propiedades hoteleras por Israel (Tel Aviv, Netanya, Nazaret, Arat, Ein Bokkek y finalmente Jerusalem). Me gustaría mucho destacar que en todos los establecimientos anteriores, hemos recibido un trato excelente y nos han acogido cálidamente en dichos lugares a excepción de este último, que ha sido un trato, reitero, pésimo en letras mayúsculas.

Sin duda, si alguna vez volvemos a Jerusalem, os puedo asegurar al 200% que ni siquiera voy a oler este hotel de nuevo. Y me gustaría que la próxima persona que lea Este comentario, que se lo piense dos e incluso tres veces antes de arruinar sus vacaciones en semejante antro. Quedo a vuestra disposición por si tenéis algún tipo de duda.

Lo próximo que haremos Elena y yo, será subir la comparación de la habitación que patrocinaban por su página web con la habitación que nos proporcionaron. Y no nos quedamos atrás, también os mostraremos algunas de la fotos del estado de dicha habitación para vuestro deleite...

We stayed here for 3 nights with breakfast included. Given key to room and on entering hadn't been cleaned from the previous occupiers, it was quite late. Given another room which was confirmed as being noisy but on inspection was filled with cigarette smoke. We were advised that our original room would be sorted while we went out. On return room was tidied up but not that clean and the garden door couldn't be locked! Bedroom was OK, small but comfortable. The bathroom needs updating. Breakfast was a not breakfast, couple of croissants and cornflakes with orange juice and hot drinks all on shelves at the side. Others were surprised at how little was available. Couple of members of staff were completely uninterested in looking after the guest and if you didn't ask for items to be replenished, as none left, they wouldn't bother. Won't be going back to this hotel again. When away I always look forward to going back to the hotel after a day exploring, to relax, freshen up and then go back out for the evening but I didn't want to go back to the hotel so stayed out as much as possible. Not what I...