Andy G.
Google
I booked a Family Room (remember, the word "family" is key) for my wife and our two children, including a baby, during their trip in Colombia. Over two days, an incident occurred that not only endangered my children but also shocked us, especially considering the hotel's claim of being part of the NH network.
(1) Cot. We received an old travel cot without a mattress. Instead, they folded a duvet and wrapped it in an adult sheet as a makeshift mattress. This created a serious risk and jeopardised our baby's safety. When we brought this up with the hotel, they acknowledged the issue but shrugged their shoulders and said they didn't have any other cots available. That this was the only one in the hotel, and they didn't have a mattress. It's a well-established fact that putting adult bedding, such as pillows, duvets, or folded blankets, in a baby's travel cot is dangerous because it increases the risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS).
(2) NO high chairs. A hotel that markets itself as a family hotel and offers a family room had no high chairs in the restaurants; in fact, they apparently had none in the hotel, having lent the "only one we have" elsewhere. Again, we complained. They shrugged.
(3) Whilst the children were playing in the hot room, they found a small plastic bag just under the bed. My wife noticed quickly that this was a bag of cocaine, which had obviously been left by someone previously, with some powder still in it. This, for us, was the straw that broke the camel's back, as less vigilance and our children would have ingested some of it.
We complained. They agreed to move rooms, but as for a cot or a high chair, they shrugged. We talked about compensation/credit/something (we wouldn't have stayed in a hotel without a proper cot, or high chair) and they said "no" and that any refund, partial or otherwise, comes out of the staff's wages, and therefore is a deal breaker.
My question is this: what kind of international hotel chain, advertises as a family hotel and then risks a baby’s life by giving a non-compliant cot? What kind of family hotel doesn't even have a high chair, and what kind of family hotel, in a family room, is so laissez-faire with cleaning that they leave bags of cocaine within children's reach? And the upshot of this? Nothing. No apology, no attempt to fix the situation. Just a bit of a shrug. Surely NH hotels must be more accountable?
