Theranda Hotel

This isn’t a four star hotel. Nobody at the front desk spoke English, so it was impossible to communicate problems. My room had stains on the wall, mold in the shower, cracks near the sink, and other issues. I left and booked an Airbnb instead. The manager then told Agoda they hadn’t charged me, but they had asked me to pay for the two nights I stayed, which I did to avoid any problems. Agoda was no help at all.

We found the location hard to beat: the square with the airport bus stop is about a 10-minute walk away, as is the main area for bars and restaurants. Tirana Park takes around 15 minutes on foot, and there are plenty of cafes and restaurants just a minute away. The rooms were as expected, and breakfast had a really good choice of pastries, eggs, and fruit. Everyone was kind and welcoming. They let us leave our luggage and check out half an hour late, too.

Even with the windows open, we weren’t disturbed by noise from the lively neighborhood. The reception service was great, and they were happy to help with anything. Breakfast is simple, but there’s plenty of it. Theranda also keeps the historic feel of its setting in Blloku, and it’s an easy walk to the main square.

I wanted to like this place. The location is very good, the price was excellent, and some of the staff were lovely. The receptionist did her best with what seemed like very limited resources, and she sorted out printing our boarding passes on the morning we checked out. Tirana airport required us to print them in advance. The receptionist working the night before had told my partner to do it at the airport, which would have meant paying a fee of over 40 euros. The residential area also felt a bit dodgy to us, though that may depend on what you’re used to. Without that kind receptionist, I’d have given the place one star. There were serious problems in the room. I was bitten while asleep, and we found ants more than once. After waking up bitten, we stripped the bed and saw that the fitted sheet on the mattress had hair and stains from previous guests. I wouldn’t expect that even in a homeless shelter, never mind a place Google lists as a four-star hotel. The toilet flush was coming away from the wall, there were no sockets by the bed so we had to unplug the fridge to charge our phones, and the shower had black mould. The shelf inside it was wobbly, too. When I told the receptionist about the bites, she said she’d make sure the room was cleaned. The ants were back less than six hours later. Around midnight there were even more. The person on reception then looked puzzled, brought up a mop, and cleaned the area where the ants were, but left the food scraps in the corner they were coming from. He disappeared downstairs without apologizing or saying whether anyone would fix the problem. It wasn’t until the next day, day four of our five-day stay, that someone brought fly spray. It worked very well, and we didn’t see another ant or get bitten for the rest of the stay. Service coverage was another issue. There was nobody at reception when we first arrived, though it was before check-in, and nobody there again when we came back later. We later found the nice receptionist helping the cleaner with her work. After she went home, there seemed to be nobody to speak to. I saw two people sitting in the lobby playing PlayStation, and on one night there were four people playing there with nobody behind the desk. When we returned after mentioning the ants, someone was finally at reception, but only to mop. I also noticed a fire extinguisher with expired dates, 2022 and 2023, which could be dangerous. Cash is still king here, and the Speed Taxi app made things easier. An airport taxi had a fixed fare of 1500 lek. I don’t know what changed since the earlier good reviews, but this didn’t feel like the same place.