Hotel Carpathia — Hotel in Sinaia

We chose Hotel Carpathia to spend our four-night vacation in Sinaia this year, and it was a huge mistake. This is not a 4-star hotel, not even close. Let me start by mentioning the good parts, since the list is shorter.||1. Room|- our room was a decent size, and seemed to have been recently refurbished; however, the design was a bit on the tacky side, too pretentious for what this hotel has to offer; |- the bed in our room was ok in size, but the mattress was too hard; linen and towels were ok; |- toiletries available, slippers, bathrobes, nothing to complain there; hair dryer powerful enough; |- level of cleanliness was acceptable, but not at 4-star standards;||2. Amenities|- the pool was nice, although it is very small and can get crowded; and the gentleman who takes care of the pool deserves some praise, he is the only employee of this hotel that seems to care enough and do his job properly;|- there is a very nice terrace with a garden in the back of the restaurant; this could be a gem, if properly used, but alas;||3. Food|- the breakfast was ok, enough varieties to choose from, pizza is quite good, also some of the sweets; coffee was acceptable; however, the presentation of the dishes could be improved, there was this feeling that everything was just thrown on the counter.||Now for the bad and really bad parts. There is a blunt and obvious lack of thoughtfulness displayed by the staff in the way everything gets done, and a general disregard for all the small details that can turn your vacation from an average to either a great one, or a horrible one.||1. Room|- the bathroom in our room was very small, with very poor lighting; the lights were wrongly placed, as a lady you couldn’t do your makeup properly because of all the shadows cast on your face; |- the toilet was placed behind the bathroom door, without any room in between; it was also placed much lower than the normal height of a toilet, it looked like something for children;|- the bathtub was very small and totally useless; there was no screen or curtain, so when we showered, the water went everywhere; there was mold forming on the edge of the bathtub; a walk-in shower would have been a more inspired choice;|- the bathroom had no ventilation whatsoever;|- the water pressure in the shower was very low; I couldn’t use my usual hair products, there was no way of getting them out of my hair with the amount of water available;|- with no ventilation in the bathroom and no balcony, there was no way of getting the bathing suits dry after using the pool;|- the air conditioning could’t properly cool the room, and a very bad smell came out of it when we turned it on;|- the minibar was not refreshed once during our stay, even if we did use it; the items it contained seemed to have been randomly placed in there;|- the room had no coffee machine, just a mug for heating water, with instant coffee sachets, like 10 years ago;||2. Amenities|- this hotel has an issue with available space; the general impression is that stinginess is the norm at this hotel; everything is either too small/narrow: parking space, doors, stairs, elevators, bathrooms, bathtubs, toilets, stairs, the space around the pool;|- poor lighting is a theme all over the hotel, most significantly in the breakfast/restaurant area; I can understand dim lights in the evening, for a romantic dinner, but not at 09:00 AM when you’re having breakfast;|- the restaurant has a very uninspired table layout, there wasn’t enough distance between tables, and people with strollers would have to swerve a bit before getting to the far side of the room; at the same time, the front of the restaurant was completely empty, they could even move the buffet there and still have enough space;|- the restaurant terrace doesn’t have automatic doors, which makes it difficult to access when you’re carrying your food at breakfast;|- no air conditioning in the hallways, instead you could smell the fried sausages served at breakfast; |- the hotel doesn’t seem to have a service area in the back, therefore everything is happening in front of the hotel, where the reception is; all deliveries with large trucks, people loading and unloading luggage from cars, basically every time going in and out of the hotel you have to brush past a car or a truck; |- the garbage is also picked up in front the hotel, we had a “lovely” experience one morning having to endure the stench while waiting for the garbage truck to leave so we could also get out of the hotel; when the truck left, it left a smelly puddle right in the front of the stairs leading to the reception, where people’s suitcases are often placed; someone cleaned it afterwards, but you can see the permanent grease marks on the pavement;||3. Food|- the breakfast buffet is served in an area that is literally a hallway to pass between the two wings of the hotel; if you leave the hotel while breakfast is still served, meaning before 10:00 AM, you will need to swerve between people with plates full of food; |- one of the two coffee machines was broken and made a very watery cappuccino, if you used a smaller cup it would even overflow; we told the staff and they said that’s just the way it works;|- no mineral water available, and just one type of juice;|- except for breakfast, which all guests joined, the restaurant was literally empty at lunch and dinner;|- all the chairs in the restaurant were dirty, it looked like they were never cleaned;||4. Staff|- the staff we interacted with during our stay were, in an overwhelming proportion, the definition of carelessness and laziness; every time we asked for something, it felt like we were disturbing them;|- one day we wanted to buy some water from the lobby bar, but there was no one there; we waited for a few minutes, nothing; there were two staff members of the reception, they saw us but didn’t do anything; we went over to them to ask for help and one of the guys said they’re just handling the reception (no, he wasn’t doing anything, and no, there was no one there besides us); after we looked at him in awe he finally stood up and walked over to the restaurant, 3 meters away, where the guy from the bar was busy being on his phone;|- the waiters replenishing the food platters at breakfast would just throw new food on top of the existing one, for example the omelettes, the fried eggs and the cheese platter; |- one morning we noticed one of the waiters scolding a lady guest because the terrace door was left open and there was a draft being formed; it wasn’t even that lady who had left the door open, and at the time there was no sign stating the door should be kept closed (it was added two days later), but how rude of a male member of the staff to have this attitude towards a lady who is a guest;|- the hotel doesn’t seem to have a bell boy to help with the luggage; the accessibility ramp was blocked the whole time by scaffolding covering the front of the hotel, and at checkout we carried our own trollers down the stairs, while the staff at the reception was looking at us without even making the smallest attempt to help.||As a conclusion, both the management and the staff seem to have put very little thought into doing things properly at this establishment, not to mention showing even a remote interest in the quality of the services they provide, or trying to create a memorable experience for the guests. We will not be returning to Hotel...

This is not a 4-star hotel, not even close, and we will not be returning here again.

1.Room decent size, recently refurbished, but design is tacky, too pretentious for what this hotel has to offer; level of cleanliness acceptable, but not at 4-star standards; bathroom very small, poor lighting, not suitable for doing your make-up; toilet was placed behind the bathroom door, no room in between; also placed much lower than the normal height of a toilet, it looked like something for children; bathtub very small, totally useless; no screen or curtain, water went everywhere; there was mold forming on the edge of the bathtub; no ventilation in the bathroom; water pressure in the shower was very low; no way of getting the bathing suits dry after using the pool; the air conditioning couldn’t properly cool the room, and a very bad smell came out of it when we turned it on; the minibar was not refreshed once during our stay; the items it contained were randomly placed in there; no coffee machine, just a mug for heating water, with instant coffee sachets, like 10 years ago;

2.Amenities the pool was nice, although it is very small and can get crowded; very nice terrace with a garden in the back of the restaurant; this hotel has an issue with available space; everything is too small/narrow: parking space, doors, stairs, elevators, bathrooms, bathtubs, toilets, stairs, the space around the pool; poor lighting everywhere, including the restaurant; restaurant is too empty in the front and too crowded in the back; restaurant terrace doesn’t have automatic doors, which makes it difficult to access when you’re carrying your food at breakfast; no air conditioning in the hallways, instead you could smell the fried sausages served at breakfast; the front of the hotel is always crowded, the smelly garbage truck and delivery trucks unload here, cars are parked all the time, basically every time going in and out of the hotel you have to squeeze past a car or a truck;

3.Food the breakfast was ok, enough varieties to choose from, pizza and some sweets quite good; presentation was lacking, the food seemed thrown on the platters; breakfast is served in an area that is literally a hallway between the two wings of the hotel; one of the two coffee machines was broken and made a very watery cappuccino, if you used a smaller cup it would even overflow; we told the staff and they said that’s just the way it works; restaurant was literally empty at lunch and dinner; all the chairs were dirty;

Staff the staff we interacted with are the definition of carelessness and laziness; every time we asked for something, it felt like we were disturbing them; we witnessed several situations where they were simply rude, both to us as well as other guests; we noticed a blunt and obvious lack of thoughtfulness displayed by the staff in the way everything gets done, and a general disregard for all the small details that can turn your vacation from an average to either a great one, or a horrible one.

As a conclusion, both the management and the staff seem to have put very little thought into doing things properly at this establishment, not to mention showing even a remote interest in the quality of the services they provide, or trying to create a memorable experience for the guests. We will not be returning to Hotel...

Pros: Spacious rooms Really good matress/pillows (I like a balance between hard and soft, it was just right) Clean bath and cleanliness in general. Breakfast had diversity in food and drinks, it was good but could be better for the money spent Pool was warm (~26C)

Cons: The staff were indifferent/bored (except the cleaning ladies, bless them) Restaurant is toooo expensive for the food quality offered. It's not bad but it's not fantastic. Price/quality is off. Last restaurant order is 20:45, closing time is 21:20 which is understandable due to COVID19 restrictions BUT we ordered at 20:20 and at 21:00 we were told that we need to eat in our rooms because of closing time. If we knew that it would take that long we would have ordered in our rooms to begin with. We had to carry restaurant plates to our room. No help from the staff. That's not welcoming at all. On principle. There were two elevators, both worked but only one at a time because...reasons... I had the impression that they turned both on in the morning for breakfast only. That screams cost savings to me... I remind you that this is a 4 star hotel. Both elevators were very slow. General kistch decorations in the room. Looks good in photos but cheap in person. Small TVs Outrageous prices for the minibar. Up to 350% market price on items. Look, I understand that all hotels will ask a premium for a can of soda but this is outrageous. No balcony (I want my balcony, yeah, but wait there's more). So if you look at the front of the building it's clear the balcony space is there but it's covered by drywall and roof material for the now present window ledge, very wide ledge, like there would be space for a balcony there. The concrete floor for the balconies is there as well. The lights in the room were all kinds of colors (see photos) Also the light fixtures will maybe fall off in the near future. Other small...