Grand Hotel Beirut — Hotel in Ras Beirut

Before you read any further, leave this page and book somewhere else. If it was possible to give negative stars for a property, this would deserve several of them. ||||We arrived around 9pm, tired from the flight only to be informed that they had cancelled our reservation at 5pm "due to non-payment" when the booking (through Booking.com) clearly stated that we were to pay on arrival at the property. ||||"You have no room here. We always cancel booked rooms at 5pm." said the check-in staff. ||"What?! Why?" we asked.||"Because our payment staff didn't take payment from you yesterday." she replied.||"But I entered my credit card on Booking.com so they could." we responded.||"Well, they didn't. You should have called them to make sure they did their job. Oh well, too bad. Go somewhere else." she finished. ||"So it's my responsibility to make sure your staff do their job?" I asked. She rolled her eyes and shrugged.||"Does this happen a lot? Giving away people's rooms and then having them show up?" we asked.||"Oh yes," she laughed, "all the time."||||The only thing "grand" about this hotel, is the name. They found a room for us to stay after we pressed them due to our cancelled booking in Beirut's high season. First they said there were absolutely no rooms and when we explained that we would then sleep on the couches in their lobby, they magically found a room. It was absolutely horrible. ||||The building is a run-down hovel deeply in need of a complete renovation. The rooms are no better, to say they are terribly shabby is to be kind. The flickering wall lamps and peeling wallpaper are reminiscent of a horror film, the shower was covered in hair and gunk from previous guests, the curtains and furniture was all covered in dust. The pillows were hard as rocks and the air conditioner turned the living area into a freezer while the bedroom continued to swelter. ||||The staff are awful, rude and inept. ||||The breakfast was set out on dirty plates atop a disgusting tablecloth with stains of all shapes, sizes and colours. ||||The photos on here and Booking.com are completely false. ||||Beirut is full of hotels and places to stay, do yourself a favour and choose somewhere other than...

This hotel is ABSOLUTELY overpriced for the services and facilities offered, and the following items mentioned on their website are LIES. Let me explain why, individually:||||Soundproof rooms: NOT true, the traffic noise was loud even on the 9th floor, as also mosque prayers at 4:25 AM each day!||Air conditioning: Very good, but ONLY when there was power.||Housekeeping: Sub-par, towels and beds were not cleaned everyday.||Room service: Just OK when the front desk was reminded each morning to replace toiletries and clean room.||Safe: Non-functional. Safes belong to another company in another building and the front desk could never get them to get a safe working.||Iron: Non-existent in the room.||Minibar: Non-existent. The fridge wasn't working in the rooms. Shop at the lobby sold HOT and OVERPRICED drinks.||||There were lots of power outages, and LOTS of roaches everywhere in the facility. The elevators are very small, and when not working, it was very hard to climb stairs all the way to the 10th floor. An unmarked step at the 1st floor caused me to fall hard, twice.||||Long intervals of time pass by when there is nobody at the reception desk. Poses a big customer service and security issue.||||Except for the convenient location on Hamra street, there is ABSOLUTELY no need to stay in this place at all, whatsoever.. Put in a few extra bucks, and you can stay in MUCH...

Save you're time and money and avoid this place.

Came in on a late flight and booked it through Agoda, we saw the photos on the website and the place looked wonderful but upon arrival it was anything but wonderful. The room was dusty and dirty, wall sockets falling out, loose wires in the bathroom, we were worried about charging our phones without starting a fire or getting an electric shock. The bathroom was gross, mould on the ceiling, dirty tub, it needed a lot of maintenance. Although the sheets seemed relatively clean the bed cover was dusty and felt chalky to the touch. There was some sort of weird sheet covering the window. It was well passed midnight so it was too late to go elsewhere. We wanted nothing more than to shower and sleep but after seeing the bathtub and disgusting rusty, moulded shower head we decided for hygienic reasons it was probably best to skip it.

I'd never stay there again a cheap hostel would have been a much better expenditure or our money. Don't be fooled by the photos they advertise it must be from a decade ago or perhaps there is some room they keep hidden in immaculate condition but the one we were given isn't fit for...