Thermae 2000 — Hotel in Valkenburg aan de Geul

After years of visiting this wellness, I made a booking for the hotel for Jan 1st to 2nd to start the year in full relax mode. |It was a disappointment at best.||First impressions are everlasting impressions in any business. Especially in the hospitality business. |When anyone walks through the doors of a hotel, those first 2 minutes determines the entire perspective on their stay.||My initial experience walking into this place unfortunately set a nasty outlook. We showed up an hour earlier then our booking foreseed, and thus, basically got told to "take a hike". ||Allow me to elaborate… During the booking, I was asked to put an “estimated time of arrival”, however, as an internationally travelling guest, it is obviously impossible to input an exact time of arrival. |Little did we know that this was going to be such an issue.||We got told that, because I had input 12:00 in the system as my ESTIMATED arrival time, we were not allowed to check in or access the spa. We were even told that the wellness spa was closed, and would only open at 12:00 since it was Jan 1st (Regardless if we paid 2 full days of access). |I couldn't help but wonder, if this is the case, why even offer 2 days of access for those specific days? It’s basically selling something that will never be delivered… in my business that’s called theft.||Now, when I asked what could be done to accommodate us, they told us basically to take a hike.... Yep, "Ga wandelen" is what she said, to be exact. ||As pissed off as I was, I couldn't help but notice loads of people inside, some getting stuff out of rooms, going to drop stuff in their cars, and going to the wellness.... yet, for us, nothing could be done to accommodate us! Nothing at all..... so, 340 € for a one-night stay just can't seem to offer any flexibility in this hotel. |Not even access to sit at a restaurant, nothing, nada, ziltch! ||So we went for amazing jetlagged hike across the village and came back an hour later! ||By the time we returned, there was a huge line up at the check-in desk. We waited in line. The gentleman at the check-in apologized and offered us a complimentary bottle of wine in remediation for the inconveniences caused earlier. He also told us that we could enter the first room that had been cleaned, which was immediately available. He escorted us to our room and offered some information about the hotel facilities. I got the impression that this young staff member understood what happened, and really wanted to make our stay enjoyable - (our complimentary to him, good hospitality!!)||The hotel was modern and well kept, some renovations and upgrades had been made. Our room was clean and accommodating, good size and well furnished. Coffee in the room was great! The bathroom had a full-size bath and was very functional. However, very little soap was available. Thankfully, previous experiences dictate me to bring my own. ||We started our experience at the wellness spa – I will review the spa separately. ||For dinner, we opted for the 3-course meal at the hotel restaurant. The dishes were well prepared and the combinations were very palatable. (Compliments to the chef!). Service however needs improvement. Once seated, guests shouldn't be left unattended for too long. A menu or suggestions should be brought promptly. The meal also took a long time, almost 3 hrs! Despite the fact that some guests might appreciated an extended stay at the dinner table, perhaps an "express service" could be offered for guests who wish to spend less then 2 hrs at the table. ||In the morning we went to the breakfast included in our package. The breakfast was very complete and offered a great variety. The coffee was good for machine coffee. The staff however seem to once again be overwhelmed and pay poor attention. Feeling ignored, we got tired of waiting to be seated, so we found a table and proceeded to get our food. Needless to say that the sign "please wait to be seated" is just cumbersome as it serves little purpose for the moment. ||After breakfast we vacated the room promptly at 11:00 as instructed. I couldn't help but think that perhaps another jetlagged international guest could use the room as bad as I did when we arrived sigh !!!||We then proceeded to the spa and enjoyed a full afternoon of quality treatments. ||Our checkout was quick and correct. The person at the front desk ask if our stay was enjoyable and I informed him that I would be sharing all of my input shortly.||All in all, the Thermae 2000 Spa in Valkenburg is very good place to relax and unwind. Unfortunately, I cannot saw the same for the hotel. For price is not aligned with the level of quality and attention I’ve received in other hotels of this kind. If was to return for an overnight stay in this area, I would stay at another hotel and enjoy the spa during the day. |There are many improvements needed in order to justify the current price, of which:||1. Be flexible with your guests! - You don't know how far they've travelled. The fact that they chose to stay with YOU should be enough to reward them with top-notch service. Your establishment positions itself as a multilingual International upper-scale establishment, thus flexibility is indispensable!||2. Soap is not that expensive - I happen to run a small hospitality business myself and soap is not the biggest expense. This is a spa hotel! In hostels, or low-cost Hotels, I expected to see soap scarcity, but not in a hotel of this caliber! Try offering it a little more generously, it's not a budget buster!||3. Your staff needs to be commiserating, attentive, and work as a team - on numerous occasions the staff had no idea what their colleagues had previously done, or following up on, for customers. As well, hospitality professionals should be attending to customers BEFORE attending to each other - when customers are waiting for something, but staff are making jokes and laughing together instead of attending to the customer, this kind of behavior really says "you're not that...

After years of visiting this wellness, I made a booking for the hotel for Jan 1st to 2nd to start the year in full relax mode. |It was a disappointment at best.||First impressions are everlasting impressions in any business. Especially in the hospitality business. |When anyone walks through the doors of a hotel, those first 2 minutes determines the entire perspective on their stay.||My initial experience walking into this place unfortunately set a nasty outlook. We showed up an hour earlier then our booking foreseed, and thus, basically got told to "take a hike". ||Allow me to elaborate… During the booking, I was asked to put an “estimated time of arrival”, however, as an internationally travelling guest, it is obviously impossible to input an exact time of arrival. |Little did we know that this was going to be such an issue.||We got told that, because I had input 12:00 in the system as my ESTIMATED arrival time, we were not allowed to check in or access the spa. We were even told that the wellness spa was closed, and would only open at 12:00 since it was Jan 1st (Regardless if we paid 2 full days of access). |I couldn't help but wonder, if this is the case, why even offer 2 days of access for those specific days? It’s basically selling something that will never be delivered… in my business that’s called theft.||Now, when I asked what could be done to accommodate us, they told us basically to take a hike.... Yep, "Ga wandelen" is what she said, to be exact. ||As pissed off as I was, I couldn't help but notice loads of people inside, some getting stuff out of rooms, going to drop stuff in their cars, and going to the wellness.... yet, for us, nothing could be done to accommodate us! Nothing at all..... so, 340 € for a one-night stay just can't seem to offer any flexibility in this hotel. |Not even access to sit at a restaurant, nothing, nada, ziltch! ||So we went for amazing jetlagged hike across the village and came back an hour later! ||By the time we returned, there was a huge line up at the check-in desk. We waited in line. The gentleman at the check-in apologized and offered us a complimentary bottle of wine in remediation for the inconveniences caused earlier. He also told us that we could enter the first room that had been cleaned, which was immediately available. He escorted us to our room and offered some information about the hotel facilities. I got the impression that this young staff member understood what happened, and really wanted to make our stay enjoyable - (our complimentary to him, good hospitality!!)||The hotel was modern and well kept, some renovations and upgrades had been made. Our room was clean and accommodating, good size and well furnished. Coffee in the room was great! The bathroom had a full-size bath and was very functional. However, very little soap was available. Thankfully, previous experiences dictate me to bring my own. ||We started our experience at the wellness spa – I will review the spa separately. ||For dinner, we opted for the 3-course meal at the hotel restaurant. The dishes were well prepared and the combinations were very palatable. (Compliments to the chef!). Service however needs improvement. Once seated, guests shouldn't be left unattended for too long. A menu or suggestions should be brought promptly. The meal also took a long time, almost 3 hrs! Despite the fact that some guests might appreciated an extended stay at the dinner table, perhaps an "express service" could be offered for guests who wish to spend less then 2 hrs at the table. ||In the morning we went to the breakfast included in our package. The breakfast was very complete and offered a great variety. The coffee was good for machine coffee. The staff however seem to once again be overwhelmed and pay poor attention. Feeling ignored, we got tired of waiting to be seated, so we found a table and proceeded to get our food. Needless to say that the sign "please wait to be seated" is just cumbersome as it serves little purpose for the moment. ||After breakfast we vacated the room promptly at 11:00 as instructed. I couldn't help but think that perhaps another jetlagged international guest could use the room as bad as I did when we arrived sigh !!!||We then proceeded to the spa and enjoyed a full afternoon of quality treatments. ||Our checkout was quick and correct. The person at the front desk ask if our stay was enjoyable and I informed him that I would be sharing all of my input shortly.||All in all, the Thermae 2000 Spa in Valkenburg is very good place to relax and unwind. Unfortunately, I cannot saw the same for the hotel. For price is not aligned with the level of quality and attention I’ve received in other hotels of this kind. If was to return for an overnight stay in this area, I would stay at another hotel and enjoy the spa during the day. |There are many improvements needed in order to justify the current price, of which:||1. Be flexible with your guests! - You don't know how far they've travelled. The fact that they chose to stay with YOU should be enough to reward them with top-notch service. Your establishment positions itself as a multilingual International upper-scale establishment, thus flexibility is indispensable!||2. Soap is not that expensive - I happen to run a small hospitality business myself and soap is not the biggest expense. This is a spa hotel! In hostels, or low-cost Hotels, I expected to see soap scarcity, but not in a hotel of this caliber! Try offering it a little more generously, it's not a budget buster!||3. Your staff needs to be commiserating, attentive, and work as a team - on numerous occasions the staff had no idea what their colleagues had previously done, or following up on, for customers. As well, hospitality professionals should be attending to customers BEFORE attending to each other - when customers are waiting for something, but staff are making jokes and laughing together instead of attending to the customer, this kind of behavior really says "you're not that...

RUDE RECEPTION. DO NOT GO THERE IF YOU WANT TO RELAX OR DE-STRESS. AND DOUBLE CHECK THE RECEIPT AT CHECK-OUT. The first time I went there is with a girl friend. She suggested Social Deal because it is cheaper. I bought 2 Social Deal vouchers (7 hour entry + activity (chair massage, tea ritual or yoga lesson). However, when I checked their website, they had actually better arrangements that we would like to try out. So, I also booked via their website 2x the Spa arrangement 7-hour entry + massage: russian, shiatsu or wellness (2x the price of social deal) and thought I would just use the SD vouchers with my boyfriend next time. I had a really nice time on my first visit so I was looking forward to the 2nd visit. I tried to use my SD vouchers online but one of them is invalid (niet geldig). I really do not want any hassle when I'm on vacation so I called their reservation office (we spoke in Dutch) at 9am the day before our trip and asked why I can't book it when I have never used the vouchers. She asked for the voucher codes, which I did and voila, they sent me the reservation via email. They didn't ask me if I need to call social deal,or if there is any problem. Nothing, so I thought everything was ok. When we arrived there the next day, the guy at the reception said that I already used one of the voucher. He said I was there last month and I that I already used one of them then. So, I, an Asian-looking girl, tried to explain in Dutch that it is a different reservation, with different prices and arrangement. Now, they are trying to look at their computer and insisting that I really did use it that time. I had to find my own email reservation to show the difference. Already weird because I'm sure if I have a copy of it then they also have the same info. Now, I showed the woman receptionist that it was a 7-hour entry + activity of choice. I was still trying to scroll down to the specifics found at the bottom of the e-mail when she already started ACCUSING ME of already using the reservation because it is the same: entry and activity. CUSTOMER SERVICE 101. DO NOT ACCUSE YOUR CUSTOMERS IF YOU DO NOT HAVE THE FACTS AT 9AM!!! What a cumbersome experience. Especially when your customers are there to relax! They should be able to compare that the two reservations are very different, the prices and arrangements are different. Seriously! Now, that is explained, i thought it was clear. BUT NOOO, they are not done with the ACCUSATIONS. NOW, they are saying, that I used the voucher the day before. Huh? What is it exactly, did I use it last month or yesterday? It is not possible because Im hundreds of km away. It is also not possible because at 9am the day before, I already called the reservation office for a reservation for this day, not for the day before. I had to explain again and again that this is not possible. In the end, he said someone from a town that I never heard of never know anyone from used my voucher. MAGIC. So, how did they not red flagged that person who apparently used my voucher from yesterday when I already reserved for another day. It is not a good start of a relaxation if the reception is this rude and accusatory. Especially without them checking the details. They had every chance to call or email me the day before. After all these accusations, I never heard an apology. It is like nothing happened. Not even a complimentary water to chill my head, nothing. OUR BAD EXPERIENCE DID NOT STOP THERE. The last one of them is at check-out, my bf checked the receipt and they tried to let us pay for the "should have been free chair massage" that comes with the deal even though we followed their instruction to use each armband. So, even after my litany, you will still go there, CHECK YOUR RECEIPT. Also, if they say 30-min massage, it means 5min-waiting, 5 min walking many stairs and changing clothes, 15 min massage, 5 min changing back and walking out. Public spas in Germany have better facilities and customer service than here. When my bf talked about it at work, his colleague had a bad experience...