Hotel Aton in Graz

Booked a room for the night, they charged in advance and didn't provide check in instructions. Waited for an hour in front of the hotel for someone to show up or answer phone unsuccessfully. Had to book another hotel for stay and even then they refused to make refund. DO NOT RECOMMEND, HORRIBLE SERVICE.

Before describing the above record, consider the following when making a reservation: 1 It is more a youth hostel with private rooms than a hotel; 2 Front desk service is limited and irregular; 3 Front desk “staff” are either very young ladies or housewives, all as nice as inefficient, with both no hospitality experience nor a basic command of English; 4 Cleaning standards are very poor; 5 No telephone or safe in the room; 6 Very blue collar neighborhood with weird characters and rather aggressive homeless people walking around from early afternoon to well into the night. Take precautions. Now, the surreal experience. Judge for yourself. The following statements were made over the phone by a “senior” hotel staff member while addressing my complaint about housekeeping: “Excuse me, but I sincerely do not understand why you are angry, offended, about the dirty, stained towels. After all you stained them” (see attached photo)(towels were not changed by housekeeping but hung in the bathroom’s radiator); “Yes, we have an email to contact us but I do not have access to it” (The hotel lobby has signs showing the hotel’s own email, different from Booking’s) Not even in the poorest, underdeveloped countries and regions I have visited have I had such a terrible service. Certainly, I did not expect it in Austria, a first world nation, nor in Graz, a city second only to Vienna.