Crowne Plaza Aberdeen Airport — Hotel in Aberdeen City

I stayed in Crowne Plaza Aberdeen for 4 nights this week. After flawless check in it looked like it will be a pleasant stay. I couldn’t be more wrong. I will not stay there ever again and I do not recommend it by any means.

The first evening (Sunday) I went down to the restaurant to have a late dinner. I gave the waiter my room number. Had a dinner and left the restaurant around 10:30 PM. I was in my room when the phone rang 15 min later. Upon picking it up I learned that they need my credit card number because they forgot to take it earlier. I asked if that can be done tomorrow morning since it was already late. I was told that I have to come down to the reception tonight. I said ok. But then I thought about it twice and decided that it was too late to ask me to go to down to the reception at this hour. I went to bed instead. About 11PM I heard a knock on my door. I couldn’t believe it. I was in my pj’s in bed and they woke me up!

I complained at the reception next morning (after leaving my card number with the clerk), but the hotel manager was not available, however I was ensured that he will contact me about the situation. It took him 3 days, when he called me on Wednesday later afternoon. He sent me a letter offering his apologies and attached 2 vouchers for the bar.

Another surprise was waiting for me on Tuesday morning when I asked the waiter for eggs benedict and was told that if I do that, I cannot take anything from the hot buffe anymore. Very odd, never seen that before. Needless to say, my breakfast experience was spoiled for the rest of my stay especially that I heard this threat every time I had breakfast. I would like to see the hotel policy where this breakfast condition is spelled out.

Another surprise was to see my room after it was "cleaned" by room service on Tuesday. The only place that was cleaned was bathroom and the bed was made. However, my pj's were thrown on the bad in a pile, dirty cups were just left on the table along with the empty bottle and some napkins, the carpet was not vacuumed, the desk was not tidied up. I have pictures, if needed.

Yet another rather unpleasant experience awaited on Tuesday late evening when I was sitting at a table with colleague next to the bar area. Since it was around 11PM the restaurant was closed and we ordered Deliveroo. However, we were forbidden by the front desk attendant to eat the food at the table where we were sitting. I don’t like to sleep in a room full of strong scents, food or others, and that’s why I did not want to open the food containers and eat it in my room. Especially that the windows do not open at all and it would not be possible to even try to air the room. There are no other common areas with the tables so no other choices.

To top it all up, when I was checking out and asked for the invoice I was told that their system was down since yesterday and he couldn’t do anything. I said that I needed it and was told that it will be emailed to me later. This was on Thursday. My card was charged for the dinner also on Thursday. It’s Monday morning now (4 days later) and I still haven’t received my invoice, even thought my card was charged on Thursday. A nail to the coffin.

To sum up, this hotel and its staff are inconsiderate, unprofessional, not caring about the business and what’s most important, the guests. They don’t know their job description and what’s expected from them. Some unacceptable behaviour was clearly shown by some of the staff. For one, shift manager send one of the staff to knock on my door at 11PM forcing me out of bed and opening the door in my pj’s. For two, charging my card without providing the statement, after assuring I will get it in an email. Both behaviours are outrageous. A training on job expectetations, courtesy and guest-centric behaviour is required...

Upon arrival, I was handed a bit of paper to sign and given our key cards. No greeting. No information on booking breakfast or how to access the club lounge. Was immediately charged an extra £100 with no explanation, when I went and asked, the receptionist seemed to have no idea what the charge was until another member of staff said it was a pre-authorisation charge that I would get back when we left. It would be helpful to inform people when they arrive this will happen.

Room had no information on how to work the coffee machine, the air-con, what times breakfast were etc.

At 1am I had a charge made to my credit card for £124. I asked in the morning what this was and a different receptionist had no idea. Tried to say it was another pre-authorisation charge but then said she would refund it. No apology. Within 5 minutes of this, I had more charges totalling £500 on my card. Again, no one seemed to have a clue what was going on and still not one apology from any member of staff. No actual explanation of why I kept getting charges but that they would investigate it. This meant I had nearly £1000 worth of pending charges (the room was £275), meaning I had no access to this money for the duration of our trip.

Our room keys continuously stopped working which we had to go up and down to fix. Again, no apology for this.

Sarcastic comments by members of staff about whether we were in a huff or still not happy.

Adam, a trainee receptionist, dealt with our key card not working for lounge access, (for the third time). No greeting, no apology, just a horrible attitude. Were asked in a really condescending tone whether we had requested access when we booked. Informed him that we paid for a club room which comes with access and had already been in there. When we left, he rolled his eyes at the other receptionist and quite honestly ruined the evening for us.

The club lounge was a complete waste of paying extra for the room. There were teabags but no kettle or mugs etc. A coffee machine that you couldn’t use for some unknown reason. Some packets of crisps and some botanical juice. Not as advertised. If you wanted an alcoholic drink, you had to go all the way through to the bar to ask for one, defeating the entire purpose of the lounge.

Clearly being spoken about by all the staff when we went to the bar for a drink and were getting stared at and it was so uncomfortable that we just left. The lunch menu is basic, being vegetarian, I was limited to a salad or a pizza. At £14, I was expecting something decent but out came a Chicago Town stuffed crust pizza, the ones you buy from the frozen section in Tesco. It wasn’t even cooked on the bottom. When we asked for the bill, a lady came over, handed us the bill and demanded which on one of us were paying.

Upon leaving, it became apparent that they were trying to fob off other people staying who had random charges made to them with the same lies we received. I have never stayed in a place with such rude staff, not one of them had a clue what they were doing or had any customer service skills. A man, who never told us his name or position, had my email address which he said he would send me an email after the results of an ‘investigation’, which I highly doubt was ever going to happen. Surprisingly, have heard nothing from the hotel.

We spent our entire trip either going back and forth to reception, on the phone to the credit card company or sitting in our rooms stressed out and the fact we never received an actual apology is really upsetting. It took nearly a week for the pending charges to come off my...

A good enough stay spoiled only by the quality of sleep and the parking situation, so I will start with these two points. Parking: The hotel has a sizeable car park shared with the Holiday Inn, however it is very busy with in excess of 90% of spaces appearing to be taken up by those who have booked park and fly rates. This is evident in the light corrosion you will see on the brake discs of so many of the cars parked there. Hence we struggled to find a parking space, which is a frustration. Room/Sleep: As a Spire IHG member we received a welcome upgrade to a Club Room which was modern, well appointed, very comfortable, very quiet and of a size one might expect to find in Europe. Regards in room amenities, I did note that the room appeared to be resourced for a single guest, multiple towels but only one large towel, one dressing gown, one complimentary bottle of water, one biscuit, Etc. The espresso machine was a nice addition. Having requested feather pillows with our booking, none were provided, with front desk staff advising that they did not believe the hotel had feather pillows (something I find somewhat hard to understand). Regards the quality of sleep, whilst the curtains do an excellent job of blotting out the light, there was a gap at the top of the curtains and in the absence of a pelmet, a band of daylight streamed in across the bed from approx 3:30am. This coupled with the pillow issue resulted in poor sleep quality. Club Lounge: Whilst we only visited briefly, there appeared to be a very good selection of tea/coffee, soft drinks and alcoholic drinks, the latter being provided I believe for a limited time. Nibbles were limited to crisps and Mars or Twix bars. Hotel General: Of all the hotels at the airport the Crowne Plaza is in my opinion the best from the perspective of comfort, resources and dining. The restaurant bar area was lively and welcoming, with attentive staff. The food was good and in the morning the breakfast was excellent with a buffet that was outstanding and catered to all tastes and needs. In addition, with the Oil & Gas business as it is, weekend rates at the CP and other airport hotels are excellent value for money. In summary, whilst there were a couple of niggles, they can be easily addressed by management should they wish to do so, therefore I have no hesitation in recommending the Crowne Plaza Aberdeen...