Paid for three nights, stayed one in a room inferior to the room I reserved. Recommend this hotel is removed from Airbnb.
Astoria is in a great location and has good, comfortable furniture, a great interior, a small but tasty breakfast buffet, and there's this pleasant pine wood smell in the corridors between the rooms.
The staff are decently friendly.
Their reservations system leaves a lot to be desired, their rooms are sometimes not cleaned after checkout, and even in the cleaned rooms the coffee cups are dirty.
I received confirmation for two nights a Double room with a Queen bed on 15.09.2020 at 21:49 UTC+1. Total price: 91 EUR.
I arrived at around 23:00 to find that my reservation did not exist on their system, and the reservation team, who are off-site, could not be reached.
I called the German, Austrian, Bulgarian lines, which were all closed. I was forced to incur significant charges by calling the California AirBnB support office, where I reached Sam.
After numerous calls back and fortg between myself, the receptionist, and Sam, I was asked to scan my card and reserve a further 45 EUR before I was allowed to check in.
I entered room 107 at around midnight. The room was obviously untouched after the previous guests had checked out who knows how long ago: the bed linens were strewn about, the towels were draped around in the bathroom, obviously used. The bin in the room was full.
I took some photos of the state of it all, and showed them to the receptionist. She apologised and provided me with a key card to room 305, which had twin beds instead.
I bought some soft drinks from the late night shop across the street, and poured some into one of the coffee cups in a neat little tray in the corner. Sadly, I did this without looking into the cup first.
At 07:20 I went down to have breakfast, then went back to room 305. At around 10:55 I went to the reception to ask for the key to room 107 and the return of the extra 45 EUR reserved last night. The receptionist (Petra i believe) had no idea of anything I and Sam from Airbnb had told her colleague the previous night. She told me there was still no reservation in my name for 15-17.09. The receptionist called the reservations department and handed me the receiver. They couldn't see a reservation either, so I took down their phone number.
I called the German and Austrian lines, but got no answer. With less than an hour remaining before chackout time, I was again forced to call overseas.
From 11:06 to 11:13 I spoke to a kind person I think it's named Mary, though the signal seemed kind of choppy, so I may be wrong. I provided the phone number I had written down. I also provided it over text to Maljini. I was assured Sam would be contacted and would call me back as soon as possible.
At 11:42,with 18 minutes left before checkout time, I still had not heard back from Airbnb. At 11:49 I called the California support line again, explained the whole thing, and noted that Sam may not be at work as he was definitely working 11 hours ago, and that I the matter was now beyond urgent.
A few hours later, I asked Airbnb for a refund.
It is now 14:04 on 17.09.2020. After multiple messages to Airbnb support I do not yet have confirmation that they will issue a refund. I