5 Lies Your Hotel tells you

Have you ever been tricked by a hotel? Maybe you booked that beautiful room with the stunning décor and amazing location – only to arrive and realise that your room is actually the size of a closet and “walking distance” to the beach actually means a 25km hike.

To be fair hotels don’t actually tell outright lies, instead they tell you the truth (more or less) with clever phrasing and purposely vague camera angles. If you are looking to book yourself into a hotel this weekend, beware these five common ways that hotels may mislead you.

     -          Breakfast Included

Nothing misleads us more than the promise of a quality breakfast. Sure, it’s great to get the most important meal of the day for free, but not when it’s nothing more than old coffee and stale, pre-wrapped Danishes. When you book a hotel and see the words “continental breakfast”, is it too much to ask for a few pieces of fresh fruit and some yoghurt!

     -          Location

If you’re a traveler you’ve probably lost track of how many times a hotel has promised that the beach is just a few steps away from your room, or that the most popular attraction in town is in close walking distance. The problem with this is that the vague wording could mean almost anything, maybe you’ll open your door and step right onto the sand or maybe you’ll have to carry your beach chair about 5km through busy streets.

     -          Ocean View

Is there anything better than watching the sun set over the ocean from the balcony of your hotel room? Don’t count on this experience if you’re booking an oceanview room. There is a big difference between an oceanview and an oceanfront room, an ocean front room looks directly into the ocean and an ocean view room only guarantees that you’ll get a quick glimpse of the sea.  

     -          Free WiFi

A lot of hotels offer free WiFi, which you’d think would be a great thing, after all it’s what you want most. Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean the WiFi will actually work properly. At some hotels the connection is so slow it’s almost impossible to load one page, at others the WiFi might only be available in public areas – who wants to walk all the way down to the lobby every time you want to check your email.

     -          Amenities Included

Don’t you just love the feeling of settling into your hotel and knowing that you’re paying a reasonable price for a wealth of free, awesome amenities? But wait, what’s that extra charge on your bill for? That would be the resort fee! A clever way for hotels to charge you for extra things that you thought you were getting for free – like WiFi, cocktails, toiletries and use of the pool. Resort fees are kind of a lie of omission, as they’re often not revealed until you've selected your hotel and gone through a couple of booking screens.

For a reliable, affordable, self-catering apartment that promises to tell no white lies, contact 808 Cartwright today! Or if you are in need of a speedy shuttle service to and from Cape Town International Airport, contact Airport Shuttle.

Written By: Christine Romans