Meridian Hotel

This was easily my worst experience using booking.com. We were tired and it was late, so on the way to Kutaisi airport we made a spontaneous decision to find somewhere to sleep instead of staying at the airport. We called first to confirm we could book. At 11:30 PM, navigation said we’d arrive at 1:00 AM. The owner answered and said, “No problem, rooms are waiting for us.” When we arrived, we called him repeatedly but got no answer. Since we’d been told the rooms were waiting, we went inside the open property. Nobody was there, but two rooms had keys in the doors. It was strange, but it was late, so we went to bed. In the morning, half our group went to the market in Kutaisi, while two girls wanted to sleep a little longer. We’d left the agreed amount in cash for the whole group. Soon after, the owner barged into their room and took personal belongings from the table, including their passports. The girls were terrified. They shouted that these weren’t the right rooms and that they were supposed to pay another 15 gel. They asked for their passports back. Scared, they agreed to pay the 15 gel, but then he changed the amount to 50 gel. He locked them in the room, used force, and pushed them. They called the police. This happened three hours before our flight. They got their passports back and managed to leave, giving up the group’s full overnight payment as well as another 15 gel. Afterward, the owner told booking.com that we’d broken the property’s rules. That’s a complete lie. The room was also in awful shape: no heating, carpets wrapped in dirty, stinking plastic, mold on the walls and floors, and no real security. The owner used force against women, and the police had to be called. This place should absolutely be removed from booking.com. We warn others against staying here.