Royal ASBU Hotel — Hotel in Tunis

I'd give this hotel no stars if possible. I went for dinner at the restaurant on the 8th floor, by myself and had a really negative experience. This place is NOT SAFE for solo female travellers!!!!!!! The male staff have no idea how to engage in a respectful conversation with a woman or de-escalate a situation.

The restaurant staff got my reservation and bill wrong, were quite abrupt and aggressive in their communication, and ended up over charging me. The food while okay was nothing fantastic.

Clearly there are issues with the organisational structure, because the middle-aged male workers seem to not know how to hold a dialogue with a woman. They don't listen to what you're saying, (abruptly) interject with something nonsensical and then walk away mid conversation, leaving you confused. The female staff then try to explain and make excuses for their male counterpart's bad behaviour. They also didn't amend my bill or offer me any compensation when all this happened.

After dinner, I tried to discreetly speak to the Duty Manager to find a fair resolution, and point out that they need to treat their female guests with some dignity. Instead, the people at the front desk never called the person in-charge, took matters into their own hands and escalated the situation by calling in the man that was rude to me, to confront me - in public!!! To be fair, while this man was rather agitated/aggressive initially, he did end up apologising to me. But the whole ordeal created such a commotion that I was made to feel embarassed and really uncomfortable.

When I pointed out to them that I was feeling very uncomfortable and upset, the receptionist tried to say I might be "emotional" because I had too much to drink. I'd had a few sips of wine, while reading my book waiting for the Duty Manager, when they created this unpleasant scenario for me.

I tried calling a cab and leaving as soon as my legs would carry me out of there. But leaving this place then became another giant mess, because the nice bottle of wine I paid for and left almost untouched due to all this unpleasantness was not allowed to be taken with me as they changed their mind about it - (I had asked them for prior permission when I purchased the bottle of wine, whether I could take the remainder with me and they had agreed to it). Again, no compensation was offered. In fact, one of the middle-aged male staff had the audacity to point out that taking the bottle of wine was "disrespectful to their culture." The irony of him refering to respect when there was none shown to me, seemed to be lost on him. There were two young personnel (one male, one female) from Customer Relations who were actually trying to be kind and show me some decency and empathy amidst all this. But they got ALL these people involved in what would have been a general complaint. Just embarrassing and deeply disconcerting, when you're by yourself trying to have a quiet meal and a restful moment in a foreign culture.

I tried yet again to find a peaceful resolution by contacting their management and customer service. But I am yet to hear back from anyone. Honestly, save yourself the unpleasantness and unsafety, go somewhere else! These folk have no idea how to treat women with fairness, dignity and...

I flew here from the US to stay in Tunisia for a month. I chose this hotel based on the location from the airport. The problems started when you take a shower and it floods the entire bathroom. Water comes from the shower out to the toilet and sink area EVERY SINGLE TIME. I kept complaining to the front desk no one did anything. So I just asked housekeeping for more and more towels to mop up the mess everytime I showered. Then one day it’s a terrible rain storm, lights are flickering, elevators are stuck and so when I finally get to my room I see my MacBook Pro, my business iPhone and my AirPods are soaked from the window. The window has water gushing from the ceiling to the nightstand and all over the floor. I run downstairs and tell them what’s going on and the guy working there seems stressed and frustrated. I’m telling him everything is wet and my electronics is not working can someone come up and help me. He brings someone up 40 minutes later and he has GLUE! Water plus glue isn’t going to fix the window issues. I asked can I have a refund and I’ll go to another hotel they say no we will find another room. They showed me 4 rooms and all the showers are faulty on the second floor and are leaking when the shower is turned on. At this point I’m like please just give me my money back and they said I need to speak to the manager in order to do that. I finally get a room and I’m just over it, so I have to move a month worth of unpacked stuff to this new room, and surprise the shower is flooding and leaking AGAIN. So I now have no laptop, no business phone and no AirPods. So I finally find someone at the from desk to help me and I email him. Name is Whalid and he is charge of the rooms. He gives me his card says to email me but “I should have sent it after one day because I might not get a refund it’s too late”. Mind you I explained to him no one at the front desk has helped me when I’ve gone and he wasn’t at the front desk when I went. So I email him again, still nothing. So this morning I ask the front desk lady when will he be in, they say 3PM. Perfect. I go down there at 4PM and he’s like “there’s nothing I can do I don’t know what to tell you it’s too late to do anything it’s late in the day. The manager will be in tomorrow morning at 9AM or maybe 3PM we will see”. So I’m out of 7500 TND because they won’t refund me because their hotel window destroyed my electronics and I still have 5 more days to stay here until I leave for the US. Can someone assist me because I really don’t want to have to get a lawyer to sue to get my money...

99% of the staff dont speak english but points for trying. However some of the staff are very rude and condescending and act as if it is the guests job to know the local language and know how to communicate in either Arabic or french.

But want to mention Salma, who was a rockstar and saviour every time i needed translation. Also her colleague from the travel desk and One of the Room service staff were very hospitable and curtious and acted as translators for me from time to time.

The rooms need to improve as I was almost electrocuted once, thankfully the MCB tripped. The Aircons were not cooling enough. The beds were just not comfortable enough. The head shower in the bathroom didnt work. The house keeping staff start hounding you to get the room done by 10 am.

Additionally, I had given 1000 USD as a deposit, with an expectation that I will settle in local currency at the end of the trip and collect the deposit back. They simply refused to give back USD and returned the amout in local currency at an exchange rate way below market rates.

Also have to mention that it was my birthday during the stay, the hotel noticed this and did send a small cake over and got a call from the front desk, wishing me on the same.

Overall...