Hotel-Restaurant Sebastianushof in Bonn

Worst hotel experience I've ever had.

I made a booking for the wrong dates accidentally. I noticed 5 mins later and tried to cancel or change. Not possible online. I ring booking.com, they say the hotel needs to accept the cancellation then I can rebook, they've asked the hotel. I immediately called the hotel, they said they haven't received a cancel request. This is a lie. I explain the situation and that I will book for the correct dates. I send multiple emails to them over the next 24 hrs asking about the cancellation status, or if they can just change the booking to the correct dates. No response. I book for the correct (earlier) dates, thinking that they'll then see both bookings and understand I'm not trying to cancel only correct the date. I email again, having paid twice. No response.

I arrive at the hotel, after reception is closed (they were aware of this and left key card in lock box). The key card in the lock box didn't work. Luckily some restaurant workers were still closing up and could let me in, one then gave me a new keycard. We went to the room and it had one queen bed - I had booked for two separate beds for my sister and I. The restaurant workers couldn't help.

Reception is only open for a couple hours on Saturday which we missed, so I finally got to talk to them in person on Sunday when we leave.

Even though I am there in person, with someone translating German for me, they refused to approve the cancellation for the incorrect later booking. I've literally just paid them twice. For the wrong room vs what i booked. No apology, no understanding, no empathy. It would have taken her one click of a button to return my money but she stood there lying. She first said it's not possible because it was on booking.com. I know this is a lie - I have the email from booking.com saying that the hotel had the option to approve the cancellation but they declined. Then she said it's because they're a "small hotel". Which apparently gives them the right to knowingly exploit my mistake when I made all possible efforts to resolve it, both minutes after i booked, and in person after I'd already stayed there.

Avoid.

Edit: The hotel's response below is misleading. I called minutes after booking, explained the date mixup (not "free cancellation"), was told to ask booking.com. I had ALREADY phoned booking.com who told me they asked the hotel to waive cancellation fee and for me to explain this to the hotel, so they would accept the cancellation and I could rebook. The hotel refused. Booking.com apologised to me and said as the hotel refused, nothing they can do. My emails they ignored were to their official email address on their website not booking.com. As I'm writing this, the hotel still can refund the second booking if they choose but they would rather keep the extra 160 euro. I regret trusting them and giving them the 2nd booking, especially as I went direct through their site to give them more money instead of booking.com taking a cut. Very stupid of me to give them that.

The hotel is a bit dated, but clean! The food is decent for a country inn. The service, on the other hand, is completely unmotivated. We will definitely not book the hotel or the restaurant again because of this employee! It's a shame, as everything else was actually fine. We stayed in two rooms for two nights, each with dinner. To be honest, I've probably never felt worse treated as a guest! When, after asking for a digestif, which we would have downed in one sitting, you're told that the employee has already logged 10 unpaid minutes, I'm not sure where the blame lies. Wherever it is, I'm out and unfortunately can't get back! I wish you all the best of luck!