Sarah P.
Yelp
We booked this hotel for 7 nights based on their reviews, 4/5 rating, spent $400 a night only to find BED BUGS in our hotel bed and our blood smeared on the sheets. We took videos of the bugs, photos of the blood and went to show the receptionist and her eyes nearly popped out of her head. When she went to get the manager, he was "in the back," she came back solo saying he was busy. I'm sorry, there is nothing more important than BED BUGS in a hotel. We were in town for the Taylor Swift show so she told us all hotels were booked so she couldnt move us, the only option was downgrade our room to a double bed in the hotel, we booked a suite for 2 friends so we had more space for our luggage. We set up a meeting with the manager, named Phillip but he told Expedia his name was Alexander, for the next morning at 9am, we slept absolutely horribly, itching all over, and worrying we would have bugs in the new room as well. So by 9am we were so upset. When I met the manager, he was not phased by the bed bugs at all, he said its NORMAL and happens all the time and all they could do for us was comp us ONE night. So after some research, bed bugs are NOT NORMAL and the protocol is to high heat dry and wash all of your clothes and throw away luggage. Not only that, the hotel has a history of bed bugs over the last 2 years and the reviews show the hotel completely refunded the guests for the HUGE inconvenience. This hotel absolutely DOES NOT CARE if your room has BED BUGS. After stating all the facts, the manager only offered 2 nights. So I decided to reach out to Expedia/Hotels.com to request their involvement since I booked through them, they told the hotel to refund us, they refused. After 3 hours of sitting in the lobby talking with the manager and online help, they offered 3 nights but I had to LEAVE the hotel and check out. So essentially only a 2 night refund, but all hotels in the area were booked for Taylor Swift, so there was no where to go. The manager was so rude and condescending, he acted like we were the problem as soon as we brought the bed bug issue to them. He refused to even speak to us the first day we brought this up. He recorded every conversation we had on his laptop. Every time I said they could do better, he got nastier. We travel a lot, once bed bugs are mentioned or even whispered, hotels freak out and want to make it up to you as the guest, NOT at Hotel van de Vijsel. They dont care if they give all your clothes and luggage bed bugs or not, they will battle you to the end. I had the absolute worst time due to this Hotel and manager, we DO NOT recommend staying here. We literally had BUG BITES AND BLOOD SMEARED ON OUR SHEETS AND BODIES and they didnt care, they acted like we were the nuisance not the little blood sucking bugs.