Lettia Aparthotel — Hotel in Jūrmala

I stayed in room 25. It was not very clean, the floor was dusty, but that’s not all. Around 10:30 p.m. I found a bug crawling on the bed. As I’m afraid of them, I swiped it on the floor and smashed it. I haven’t seen such bugs before, so I decided to google “bed bugs”. Well it was 100% hit, the one I smashed was bed bug. Some time later another one showed itself on the bed, this time I put a glass on it and called the reception. On my “I have bed bugs in my bed” the girl just said “seriously?!”, very professional huh…

However she provided me another room. While I was packing and moving, another bug went out. Unfortunately, I killed it with a glass when trying to move it to its “friend”… so I left two bugs in a glass on the bed in room 25. I had to move at 11 p.m. Well, that was not part of my “relaxing weekend” plan in Jurmala. Another room was cleaner and fine in general.

At 11:15 in the morning I went to check out. The receptionist was the same, she just nod at me and took the keys without saying a word. I calmly asked about compensation for the incident. She said she was waiting reply of her management about that and I’d need to wait. I didn’t have much time but waited for about 20 minutes. All this time the receptionist was chatting with the management in messenger, sending pictures of the bugs etc. No offer to resolve the incident or compensate it in any way.

I wanted to resolve the incident in peaceful manner, so politely waited, spoke calmly, but just got neglect from the management. After 30 minutes waiting I asked again. The answer was “They have your phone number, they’ll contact you”. This was very disturbing and disrespectful from hotel side. I asked for a paper and wrote an inquiry for compensation, asked the girl to sign it about receiving the paper. She refused. Thus I was left without any evidence that the hotel is informed about the incident. This is how this 4* hotel resolves incidents! They totally ignore the customer! They accommodated me in a disgusting room with blood sucking insects, and then refused even to communicate with me about the incident.

After waiting for 40 (!!!) minutes I didn’t get any news from the management, the girl was still chatting with them. I left.

In about an hour the receptionist called and offered me two options: next weekend at their hotel at their expense. refund in cash at the hotel (however the room was payed by card). I was already far away in different city and not planning to return, so I demanded the refund to my account. In 5 minutes she called back and confirmed refund via bank transfer.

By the way. When receptionist came to my room at night and saw the “glass hostage”, she just told me how shocked SHE was, that the linen is washed by professional laundry service etc. Not a single “sorry”. She didn’t even manage to apologize in the morning.

I left the hotel on February 27, and didn’t receive money few days later. But on March 3rd the hotel sent me a letter stating that there was an inspection that didn’t find any presence of bed bugs in the hotel and that they refuse me the refund.

Interesting thing. First they ignore the customer, then they promise refund, then they fabricate an inspection and refuse to refund. I looked through the reviews on Booking. In October one guest mentioned dead beetle all over the room (I enclose screenshot). I bet the dead beetle were the bed bugs after disinsection.

I’d recommend you to think 100 times before booking this hotel. The management chooses avoidance and ignorance in case of incident. Would you like to be...

Do NOT choose this hotel. A building and facilities does not make a hotel - the management does and this place does not know how to operate in hospitality business. ||||So this is what went down in our case. ||We are a family of 4 ( 2 kids, 2 adults) and made our booking (150€ for 1 night) 1 week before our stay, stating that we would need sleeping arrangements for BOTH of the kids. The hotel only offered non-cancellation rates (a bad sign in hindsight, usually you can choose). ||The hotel confirmed our booking and also sent us a message in the morning of the arrival date, that we are welcome.||We arrived 6 PM (so not in the middle of the night or anything). We had to pay for our room at arrival,(before seeing the room, again, at hindsight a bad sign) and when we saw the room, it was clear that it had been prepared for only 3 people.||We contacted the reception at once and at first they politely offered us an extra bed (which was welcomed and of course accepted by us, for the stated extra fee) - but after 10 minutes they called us back saying that an extra bed is not possible. and we should sleep in the same bed with one of our kids.||This was not acceptable for us (because this is not how you get a good night's sleep and well... for 150€ a night you really don't want to sleep in the same bed with your kids) so they told us that our only other option would be to change the room and pay an extra 390 € (not a typo, they actually asked for an extra 390€ in addition to the 150€ allready paid).||Since we were still in Jurmala (not London or Tokyo) that did not sound like a suitable solution so we decided to leave the hotel and requested our money back (since they were not able to provide sleeping arrangements for the whole family). ||And that's when things got ugly.||The young lady at the reception was polite but quite useless since there was an unbelievably rude Russian-speaking (manager?) who refused to talk to us but (standing 1m away from us) pretended we were invisible and instructed her to lie to us. I do understand Russian, so his message was clear.||||- I have been in endless correspondence with the hotel, they refuse to refund me for my money, althouh they were not able or willing to provide us with the sleeping arrangement for all the guests (as agreed when the booking was made) - so we left||- the plainly lied to us, telling we should ask our money back from booking.com (?!? which is such rubbish, since the hotel handles the payments not booking.com)||- their "offer" was to either pay an extra 390€ (!) in addition for the 150€ already paid or sleep in the same bed with our kid. Although they accepted our request (and money) 1 week beforehand.||- they had the opportunity to contact us in the arrival date's morning, if they had run out of extra beds or sth - they didn't. They sent us a message saying we were welcome and they expected us. ||||This is the type of management that should go extinct. ||I have a lot of experience with hotels - this is probably the worst there is in hospitality business. Give your money to someine else who deserves it. Or hopefully the owners will change the management, because the property actually deserves a well...

Spent a wonderful long weekend at Hotel Lettia. The hotel has a great location right in the centre of the pedestrian zone - all the restaurants of Jurmala, a wonderful pine park, beach, cosy local shops, Dzintary concert hall are just around the corner. Sport enthusiasts can rent bicycles directly at the hotel and ride around the city or on the beach. Excellent service in the hotel deserves to be specially mentioned - upon arrival I was welcomed with delicious Riga champagne and chocolate, the room was big and beautiful, equipped with everything you need. A very important point for me personally is the coffee machine - in the mornings you can enjoy your first espresso on the loggia without leaving the room. The hotel has a cosy patio with sandpit and swings, a beautiful little garden, jacuzzi and sauna. The hostess is a super nice and friendly person, always ready to share insights about Jurmala and its most interesting parts. I will definitely come back and bring my husband and kids - as the hotel offers spacious appartments with everything you might need...