Orlando Hotel

The room was dusty, with spiders and hair on both the sink and bedsheets, and the TV wouldn't work. When I arrived, the receptionist was asleep on the sofa and was rude when he couldn't find my booking. It took 40 minutes before he finally found it and gave me a key. Honestly, it was the worst experience ever.

The room was good for the price, and Margarita was a really kind, helpful woman with good communication skills. But the night-shift man was a disgrace to the hotel. When we arrived, we wanted to pay, but he had no change, so we said we'd pay in the morning. Then at 2 o'clock at night he knocked on our door asking for the money and was rude to us. How rude can you be, waking guests in the middle of the night? If I come back, this man is the reason I won't choose the hotel.

I enjoyed staying at this clean, tidy hotel, where the staff were friendly. The food in the restaurant was very good, and they had free coffee and Wi-Fi. I'll book here again next time I'm in Sofia.

The next morning, we needed copies of one passport page and a birth certificate, plus printed translations for our US Embassy visa interview. The associate spoke only Bulgarian, though he did make copies for us. They came out so badly they weren't legible. I tried to explain that they needed redoing and offered to pay, but he refused the money. He reluctantly let us use the printer and copier himself, with faces and gestures that felt unprofessional and hostile. I explained several times how important the meeting was. When I returned for a second go, he gestured at his dwindling paper supply, though there was still enough, then made faces and noises, flicked his hair disapprovingly, and treated us worse than anyone ever has. After four sheets of paper, not counting the solid black, unreadable copies he'd made, he turned away, sat down, and took the paper so we couldn't use the printer any more. We had asked the kind associate who checked us in the night before if we could use the copier and printer in the morning. He said of course and pointed out the equipment, saying his colleague would help. That same associate saw me in the lobby at noon the next day and said, "Checkout. You go now." It was full of people, and I felt humiliated. A gentleman said something to him, but he answered contemptuously, flicked his hair, rolled his eyes, and kept talking. Some people laughed. He repeated, "You go now." I got my husband, we grabbed our bags, and left. We were humiliated, though we'd had a much bigger victory at the embassy. That was the single worst service experience of my life.