Emily Thompson
Google
I previously stayed at this hotel a year and a half ago, and if I'd reviewed it then, I would've given it 5 stars. Now, I can't say the same.
The one thing you want from a hotel is a good night's sleep, and we did not get a single good night's sleep. Every night we heard lots of loud bangs that woke us up from our sleep, which weren't just noisy, they vibrated the whole room! At first we presumed it was someone above dropping something.
Then, on the final night my husband heard some other sounds which at first he thought was loud music, and that's when he discovered the gym below, with a man running violently on the treadmill. He asked the front desk if they could sort it, and then we went to bed to sleep (22:30). 23:30 rolled around, and we heard louder noises from below, with even more vibrations. He investigated and it was someone throwing weights around in the gym below. He did complain to the reception, but the noise continued (at that point he didn't see the point in complaining, as the staff member didn't seem very helpful). We didn't end up getting to sleep until after 00:30 as a result. Then, right on cue at 06:55, more loud bangs to wake us up. So we can't even sleep in to make up for it!
This was in addition to a lot of noise in the hallway of our floor, with people chatting late at night as they came back to their rooms, and the constant sound of doors opening and closing. I've been in hotels where the doors aren't that soundproof, but this one was quite bad. I think previously we didn't have an issue as we were not located right next to the lifts/stairs (before I needed to use a wheelchair). There were also other noises, which may or may not have been the gym, or the rooms surrounding us, we are unsure.
What this has all meant is we've had a very bad holiday. We have had no energy at all to do the things we wanted to do, and ended up having to rest a lot during the day instead (as no one was in the gym then!!). This meant we did not get to do many things we wanted to do. Additionally, I have a neuro immune condition that is worsened by lack of sleep, and this has flared up significantly due to this stay, and will take me weeks to recover from.
It's frustrating because I'm happy with everything else, just not the noise. There's no signs in the gym telling people to not throw weights around, or to be considerate of people sleeping. Why is there a room directly above the gym? Make it a storage room, or get better sound proofing. Or make it so the gym is only open between 8:00 - 22:00, so that guests are not kept up late at night.
Sadly we couldn't pass on this review in person, as we had to wait over 20 minutes for a lift with enough space for me to fit in with my wheelchair (as every other was packed with people), and we needed to quickly check out as we had to catch our train back to Brussels. The lift situation was generally fine, until it came to leaving at 9 when everyone else wanted to use the lift and due to our location on the 1st floor every time one came to us it was full of people from the upper floors.