Hotel Du Val

We’d booked a room for two for one night, but found BAD BUGS 🪲 all over the bed 🛏️ and were terrified. It was 2AM when we called reception, and nobody answered. We had to go down ourselves, but only the guy handling the checks was there. Fortunately, they gave us a different room.

I love everything about this hotel. Extra points for the service staff, who were diligent and thoughtful. We love good customer service.

The restaurant downstairs surprised me at all three meals, and it was great. At breakfast I even got hard-boiled eggs, not just the bread buffet. The coffee is Nescaffe from a decent push-button machine, though the menu doesn’t change very often. The hotel feels new and modern, and it was clean. Room doors use secure card access, and my room on the West facade was quiet. There are plenty of other restaurants and convenience stores nearby. The lobby has minimal staff.

I’d have given this hotel five stars if not for two really bad service experiences, both in the evenings. The morning staff were much better, and the woman working in the restaurant then was fantastic with customers. The food there was very good. In fact, service was back to normal the next morning until early afternoon. Maybe the morning team is the “A-Team” and the evening team the “C-Team,” but the difference is unacceptable. The hotel itself has potential and is worth staying at apart from those incidents. It’s in a good, safe, accessible neighborhood, near the ministry of energy, European Union, some United Nations organizations, restaurants, a medical clinic, and more. It’s a small, clean five-story property with about 32 rooms, a few street parking spaces out front, a restaurant, a small reception area, and a conference room. The gym was closed during my stay, and there are security cameras. My basic room had a TV, AC, small refrigerator, two chairs, two small tables, a small safe, a closet, a shower bathroom, and an electronic card key. It was kept clean, towels were changed daily, and each guest got a complimentary bottle of water each day. The first problem was on arrival, straight from the airport. I went to the restaurant for dinner and tried to pay by credit card, US dollars, or by charging it to my room. They rejected all three options and said they only took cash in Algerian dinars. After some back and forth, they finally agreed to put the bill on my room, but it was a bad experience. Two days later, at lunchtime, I called reception to ask how to order room service. The man there kindly transferred me to the restaurant, which took my order, asked if I wanted it charged to my room, and delivered good food. But when I tried to do the same for dinner, a woman at reception answered my first two calls and insisted the hotel had no room service. She said she was alone and couldn’t transfer me, and told me to go down to the restaurant. I reminded her I’d ordered room service six hours earlier, but she kept insisting. On my third call she tried to transfer me, but it didn’t work. I went downstairs, where a skinny young waiter said the restaurant didn’t do room service. When I explained that I’d had it six hours earlier, he said he needed to talk to his colleague. Another colleague came over and eventually agreed to help. Those were both terrible experiences. Otherwise, the hotel would have earned five stars from me.