Hotel Lebed — Hotel in Municipality of Ohrid

To say this is a 4 star hotel is widely misleading. Hotel Lebed is hardly a 3 star hotel, perhaps more appropriately rated between 2-3 star. For ease of reading, I will separate my review into pros and cons.||Pros:||The room was spacious, with ample luggage storage. The room was furnished with a writing desk with chair, a small table with stool, a bench, a bed side cabinet, and a large cabinet with two compartments for luggage storage. There were also hangers.||The hotel has a bar which offers an excellent exchange rate on beverages (1 Euro = 61) should you want to enjoy a nice drink on the premises.||The hotel is essentially lakeside, only 1 block in from the lake front, providing easy access. The hotel location is decent in that regard, though, it is not fully central (the hotel is about a 1 km walk to the centre of Ohrid, and a 2 km walk to the Old Town and hilltop Fortress). ||Breakfast buffet is offered with the room, and it starts at 7:30 am. There was sufficient selection, including hard boiled eggs, fried eggs, pre-prepared omelettes, hot sausages, sliced cucumbers, sliced tomatoes, olives, a small selection of cheeses and cold cut meats, cereals, whole fruits for takeaway (oranges and nectarines), cold cereals, cold milk, plain yogurt and fruit yogurt, a good selection of pastries, cakes, muffins and breads with jams and butter. There was a canister of coffee (which was terrible, hot water with colour, essentially) and hot water for tea. There were also some juices available.||Wifi was secured, password-protected and wifi signal was strong in the room and throughout the hotel.||There was a flatscreen tv with limited channels, but some channels available in English including news and 24 kitchen. My remote control did not work, but I could change the channel on the top of the television set.||Ample towels were provided (2 hand towels and 2 bath towels), but no floor mat curiously. So I used one of the hand towels as a floor mat.||There was clean glassware in the room, should you choose to indulge and purchase a bottle of wine from one of the nearby supermarkets.||Many mirrors in the room, and sufficient lighting in the room. Blackout curtains for keeping the room dark at night.||Staff were professional, friendly and helpful.||Cons:||The air conditioning was non existent. I had the air conditioning set to 5 degrees Celsius and it was blowing hot air all evening long. The room was very warm both with and without the air conditioning. It felt more like a fan blowing warm air. Other guests complained of a similar situation.||The hotel in general but especially the rooms are very dated. The carpet is dirty, stained and old, there were signs of water damage in the walls, ants crawling everywhere on the carpet, the room was furnished with old wooden furniture, and the bed frame sunk. ||Cleanliness left much room be desired. I found little black hairs all over the bedding, in the shower, and all over the sink. It was an "ick" factor for me knowing these belonged to other guests (I have blonde hair, so I can say with certainty these were not mine). The room didn't feel clean...||The layout of the room in some aspects was extremely bizarre. For example, the bed was cramped in between a large cabinet and the wall, which meant that you had to crawl to the mid of the bed to get out of the bed. The toilet sat directly in front of the shower wall, making sitting on the toilet and getting in and out of the shower an awkward experience.||Although the shower was mostly enclosed (large walk-in shower), the water pressure was dismal, a trickle of water at best coming out of both shower heads. Temperature was great, but water pressure really needs to be fixed/adjusted.||The toilet has seen the end of its days. The flush mechanism barely worked, and there was a lot of mould around the toilet, and in the bathroom generally. I overheard other guests complain their toilet flush mechanism wasn't working.||A major con is that there was no fridge in the room, which would be expected if this was indeed a 4 star hotel.||Power sockets were in short supply in the room, only 1 power bar by the television providing access to 3 sockets. None bedside, which would have been nice.||The bed wasn't very comfortable. The mattress sank when you sat or slept on it and the firmness was off. The pillows also didn't provide much comfort. The bedding was fine, but the little black hairs scattered on the bed really put me off.||I appreciated having breakfast included, but the eggs were pretty oily/greasy, and the coffee was awful. It was like hot black water which made me long for even something as basic as Nescafé instant coffee.||No kettle of coffee making supplies in the room, which, again, for a self-proclaimed 4 star hotel, this should be a provided amenity.||There were exposed electrical sockets, again, hinting at the need of renovations and overhaul. The hotel is quite dated and is in sure need of complete renovation.||Travel tips:||Samuil's fortress located in the Old Town is well worth the visit. At the time of writing, it closes at 4:30 pm. Leave 1-1.5 hours for your visit as the fortress is large and offers impressive views of Ohrid! For me, this was the highlight. Entrance was 120 denar for 1 adult. At the bottom of the park are two churchs (St. Clement and Panteleimon and St. John Kaneo). Both are worth visiting after the fortress! Entrance to St. Clement and Panteleimon cost 150 denar for 1 adult. St. John Kaneo is free to enter and offers spectacular views of the church overlooking the lake! Nice spot to catch the sunset and watch all of the passing boats and paddle boarders!||Overall impression:||Overall, I would say that Hotel Lebed is an average 2-3 star hotel. A far cry from the 4 star standards the hotel holds itself to. I think for a similar price, one could locate better quality accommodation nearer to the city centre! It was fine for one night, but I would not return on choice, opting for other...

I’m sorry but this is definitely not a 4 star hotel. We asked for our rooms to be changed because the mattress smelled awful and I mean AWFUL!! As soon as I sat on the bed, there was a terrible smell which was all over the pillow and sheets then I located where it came from which was the mattress. It was nasty! They asked housekeeping to come and change the bedsheets but there was no way I was going to sleep on that bed. We changed rooms but still had to change the covers because they were super smelly. The whole room had an odor plus it was clearly a room where someone had smoked in it before. We sprayed everything with our perfumes. We woke up the next morning stinking of cigarette smoke. Yuck! Very outdated! From the furniture to the elevator that takes 60 seconds to go from the reception floor to the 2nd floor. Also, I don’t quite understand the artwork in the room, it's rather creepy. This is a wall in the bathroom (see photo). Do you see the black squiggly lines?? That’s someone’s hair!!! Bloody disgusting. After we showed them the photo of the hair and requested a clean room, we went for a 3 hour walk only to return back to the same room UNTOUCHED! The hair was still on the shower wall. We couldn’t believe it!! We went straight down to reception and asked him to come to the room. He said that he came before but didn’t see it. When we pointed it out to him he said “but it’s only here”. Yes, the disgusting pile of hair from a previous guest is stuck to the wall HERE, where the new guests are going to be staying. He couldn’t care. Also the staff were all smoking in the lobby. I walked down to the lobby twice after changing my room and they never once asked me if everything was okay. The lamps in the bedroom were like strobe lights, completely old and broken. It really set a bad experience for our trip to North Macedonia because we were so uncomfortable and were dreading to head back to the hotel in the night. If I could, I’d give this place a 0/5. Cleanliness is the most important requirement when it comes to accommodation. Sorry to say that we couldn’t find 1 good thing to write about the hotel. I had to place towels down on the bed to lie on them because it felt so gross. Avoid!!...

The walking distance to the center is more than 20 minutes, it is close to the lake, there is a park with a walking path in front and you can take a walk at night, these are the good ones.. The rest is quite troublesome. Namely; the hotel is a small building that gives the air of an apartment and we filled the hotel with a group of 33 people, the front of the reception was blocked with our collective entrance, there is a tiny seating area and they narrowed the front of the reception. We got the room key, we waited 15 minutes to go up to the room, there is only one elevator and it takes three people, we went up the stairs and opened the door with the classic key method, the cream carpet of the room was covered with brown stain islands here and there, fortunately the room is relatively spacious and you can move around comfortably. The bathroom is small and made of navy blue tiles, a floor that makes you want to "not take a shower" and old shower cabin doors that you can keep in your hand when closing. However, the bed was comfortable, let's not deny it. My daughter's room is still the same as a guest who complained about the curtains seven years ago, there are four old store curtains that are curled and run away from each other and there are no other curtains, both beds in my daughter's room are made of cotton and collapse when you sit on them. However, I will not belittle her, my daughter's shower cabin was renewed. It was not finished, we went down to the restaurant section for dinner, we sat at a table with plates with chopped lettuce and a few tomatoes as salad. No soup, the main course came directly, a fixed menu, potatoes and schnitzel. I love schnitzel, but the staff member carrying the plates dropped one of the plates he was stacking with one hand, what I saw from the crack of the opened door while cleaning the broken ones was like "this is not going to happen anymore". I headed towards the kitchen without listening to my wife and children's pleas to stop. When I opened the door, the male staff member was still picking up one of the cooked schnitzels on the dinner plates with his hands and fingers (without gloves or using a fork or knife or any other tool) and putting it on the plate, and was also putting as much of the fried potatoes as he could with his fingers next to the schnitzel. When I said in English "Your hands are not clean, why don't you use tools like forks, knives and ladles, this is ugly and unacceptable," he looked at me with an expression of ignorance and upon the warning of a female staff member who understood what I meant by my hand signals, he said "Excuse me, excuse me" and started using the fork and knife. When I went back to the table, I explained the situation and left the rest of the food and left, when my wife said "Oh, as you said, the man is still putting the food by hand, I saw it when the door was opened while the staff was leaving." Apparently, we had to eat at a hotel with no sense of cleanliness, praying that we would make it to the morning safe and sound without getting food poisoning (food poisoning occurs when the germs on the hands are transferred to the food touched by dirty hands) and deciding not to have breakfast here if we did.||||||||Merkeze yürüme mesafesi 20 dakikadan uzun, göle yakın, önünde yürüyüş yolu olan park mevcut ve gece yürüyüşü yapabilirsiniz, Bunlar iyi olanlar.. Sonrası bir hayli sıkıntılı. Şöyleki; otel apartman havası veren küçük bir yapı ve 33 kişilik grup oteli doldurduk, bizim toplu halde girişimizle resepsiyon önü tıkandı, küçücük bir oturma alanı mevcut ve onlarda resepsiyon önünü daraltmış. Oda anahtarını aldık odaya çıkış için 15 dakika bekledik tek asansör var ve üç kişi alıyor, bizde merdivenden çıktık ki kapıyı klasik anahtar yöntemiyle açtık ki odanın krem halısını yer yer kahverengi leke adaları kaplıyor, neyseki oda nispeten geniş rahat hareket edebiliyorsunuz. Banyo ise küçük ve lacivert fayanstan yapılmış "duş almama" isteği uyandıran bir zemin ve kapatırken elinde kalabilecek eski duşakabin kapıları. Ancak yatak rahattı haklarını yemeyelim. Kızımın kaldığı odanın ise yedi yıl önce perdelerden şikayetçi olan bir misafire inat aynı haliyle duruyor, dört adet birbirinden kaçan ve kıvrılmış eski store perdeler var ve başka perde yok, kızımın odasındaki her iki yatakta sağolsunlar pamuktan yapılmış oturunca çöküyor. Ancak haklarını yemeyeceğim kızımın duşakabini yenilenmişti.Bitmedi, akşam yemeği için Resteurant bölümüne indik, salata niyetine doğranmış marul ve bir kaç domates konan tabakların olduğu bir masaya oturduk. Çorba yok doğrudan ana yemek geldi, fix menü, patates be şinitzel. Severim şinitzeli ancak tabakları taşıyan personel tek eline üstüste koyduğu tabaklardan birini düşürdü, kırılanları temizlerken açılan kapının aralığından gördüklerim "artık buda olmaz yahu" kıvamında idi. Eşim ve çocuklarımın dur yapma demelerini dinlemeden mutfağa yöneldim. Kapıyı açtığımda halen yemek tabaklarına pişmiş şinitzellerden birini eliyle parmaklarıyla (eldivensiz, çatal bıçak veya başka bir alet kullanmadan) alıp tabağa koyan, kızarmış patatesleri de aynı şekilde parmaklarla alabildiği kadarını şinitzelin yanına koyan erkek personele İngilizce olarak "ellerin temiz değil, neden çatal bıçak kepçe gibi aletleri kullanmıyorsunuz, bu yaptığınız çirkin ve asla kabul edilebilir değil," dediğim de anlamadığı belli olan bir şekilde suratıma baktı ve el işaretlerimden neyi kastettiğimi anlayan bir bayan personelin uyarısı üzerine "pardon, pardon" diyerek çatal bıçak kullanmaya başladı. Masaya geri döndüğümde durumu anlattım ve yemeğin gerisini bırakarak kaltık ki eşim "Aa dediğin gibi adam halen yemekleri elle koyuyor personel çıkarken kapı aralanınca gördüm" dedi. Anlaşılan temizlik anlayışı olmayan bir otelde yemek yemek zorunda kaldık, inşallah sabaha sağ salim zehirlenmeden (besin zehirlenmesi kirli elle temas edilen yemeklere ellerdeki mikropların taşınmasıyla olur) sabahı bulabiliriz diye dua ederek ve sabahı bulursak kahvaltıyı burada yapmamaya...