Prima Park — Hotel in Jerusalem

If one is even thinking of booking this hotel – don’t! They market this as a 4-star hotel which is a complete joke. If this is a 4-star property, the Super 8 chain is 6 stars. The building is totally worn down, with no updates apparent anywhere. Hallways to rooms had loose ceiling tiles, and a garbage can sat in the middle of the hall on the 7th floor to catch the water dripping from the roof. Common areas like at the elevator landings had trash scattered around. On my floor in the morning there was a lovely collection of sunflower seed shells strewn about as well as one shoe, random paper cups and torn up pieces of paper. One of the two elevators was out of service, I was told this was persistent for days. The wait for an elevator was 5 to 7 minutes at times. I found walking down from the 7th floor much quicker. The rooms are small, but that is expected in older hotels in Jerusalem. What is not acceptable in a “4-Star” hotel is worn out furnishings with chipped wood backs and stained seats. Flickering lights add to the ambiance. The exterior lighting on the 7th floor shined in so bright that even with the drapes closed I could read a book. Windows are single pane and don’t seal well, the noise from the streets was ridiculously invasive. Being at the intersection of two major streets there was a constant cacophony of honking, sirens and un-muffled car exhaust. The thermostat was about as functional as the rest of the hotel – not at all. Setting a temperature made no difference, no fan would come on and no change in temperature was possible. The bed sheets were barely the size of the mattress and would not stay in place. What they passed as a comforter/blanket was about three inches wider and taller than the size of the bed making it useless. I found taking two of them and overlapping made it almost useable, as long as one a) has no one else sharing the room and 2) doesn’t move at night. Parking was “free” but they have only about 20 spots for all the rooms. Everyone pretty much parked in the curbs – painted bright red/white which in Jerusalem means NO PARKING – making the driveway barely wide enough to negotiate. Checking out early Sunday morning, there was no desk clerk to be found and the two parking areas had gates closed so couldn’t even get out. After about four rings of a bell, the desk clerk finally woke up (!) but had no idea how to check me out, and I had to ask repeatedly for him to open the parking gate so I could get out to make my flight. Last but not least, the price charged for this dump was considerably higher than nearly all the hotels in the area – I booked for a 4-star hotel in this location and the ratings made it seem that it should be good. Those people either have really poor standards or they were rating someplace else and confused it with this one. They should be ashamed of robbing people for the rates they charge. Needless to say, I’d suggest the park bench across the street over this hotel – at least with the park bench you know up front what you...

This is a PSA - WARNING ! If you can avoid it, do yourself a favour and choose another hotel for your stay. The 4 Stars are indeed a lie - after european standards, more a normal 3 - not even a 3+

If you need just a night for a stay over you can book it. If you're planing to stay for a longer period - just dont.

Positive: Its clean! Nothing to complain here. its very central - but that are other hotels too staff is very nice, friendly and ambitious to their level of competence free WiFi in the whole hotel area

Negativ: The rooms a worn down and have seen better times long ago. they need a makeover urgently The TV didnt work at my rooms or my mates room. but the TV worked at other rooms - you could here them! (even if you dont want to because you want you sleep) you can hear everything on the floor because doors and walls are poorly soundproofed everything is noisy: the old refigerator is noisy, the AC is noisy, something unidentified - noisy, so make sure to take some ear plugs with you to get some quiet for an international hotel i expect the service at the lobby to be fluent in english to help international guests. my level of expectations wasnt meet (personal reference but i can imagine yours too) breakfast: you can skip that just go some meters and take something on the walk. on our last to days we avoided it completly and only drank the coffee which wasnt really 4 star quality either (tipp: Go for "Cafe Sira" for breakfast - lovely place on a sidestreet with excellent food and coffee) the mattresses are way out of the league of a 4 star hotel - but back- and neckpain is free the so called Gym is a joke - if thats a necessity for you like it is for me - its just a room, without a window, sticky air - no place to train anything. see picture in the gallery idk maybe its a cultural thing but staff didnt mind to discuss their issues with another in front of the guests - in my opinion that dont happen in a professionell business. But consumer centric service orientation isnt a business skill that you will experience often throughout israel

As a result of my experience i'm going to advice my travel agency to remove Prima Park from the list of acceptable hotels...

I stayed in this hotel for the first time during a trip in Israel as part of a larger teen trip in Israel. The hotel was nice there was a big selection of food that catered for the majority of the allergies that were on the trip. I felt like I was not in Israel since I couldn't really speak in Hebrew with the staff and that to me seems like a shame. The location for cars is good and it is easy for you to access with a car but with a bus it is harder. On Saturday night my group was getting ready for going out for dinner and a staff member approached me and asked me to leave a good review on google maps. Why? should I leave a bad one now? I asked my self those questions I was able to get away when my group left. I felt like I was being forced to do something that I don't want todo and my privacy is being taken away from me. The same staff member entered a room when he smelled smoke in the hallway. He was told by myself and other people that there people in the room that where changing and that if he was to wait a minute he could enter but he still entered. We had an issue with our bathroom I reported it to the front desk and then I had to leave for an activity. 3 hours have now passed and I return to my room to find that the problem has not been dealt with I had to go back to the front desk to get there help with the problem. All in all the hotel is pretty good and I have never had the need to stay there before and I don't thing that I will...