Sofia Balkan Palace

Where to begin to describe our huge disappointment in this hotel. We had stayed there before when the hotel was under the ownership of Marriott, and it was fine. Now it's an absolute joke:

1. The door lock/latch was broken meaning that it cannot be securely locked from the inside
2. The safe was not attached to the wall making it completely superfluous
3. The shower didn't drain, we complained about this twice, and were told they would fix it. Later in the day, we asked again and we were told that it was fixed but in fact nothing was done. (photo and video attached) This meant that the shower could not be used, since running the shower for just over 1 minute meant that it was already filled to the top and leaving it any longer would flood the bathroom floor, causing more damage.
4. There was a golf ball size hole in the wall
5. The iron was completely burnt and we didn't notice this before ironing a pair of trousers which are now ruined
6. On top of that, our room was entered in spite of "do not disturb sign" and I verbally instructed housekeeping that we did not require cleaning.
7. One of the towels was unacceptably dirty
8. There are only 7 parking spots available for this massive hotel. We had to struggle to find parking elsewhere. The description on Agoda shows that it has parking.

The hotel refused to provide any compensation or refund as "the reservation was made through a third party website". This was obviously not true as the third party said they spoke with the hotel who refused to provide refund.

Spend your money elsewhere, this hotel is not worthy of any of it's 5 stars.

It seems I was only fooled by the number of 5 star reviews here. They simply tried to rip me off by giving me a regular room while I booked two suites. One of the rooms assigned to me had a separate living room while the other did not, and reception claims THE TWO ROOMS ARE THE SAME! What a comedy! They keep using the renovations as an excuse for not being able to give the booked room but they sell the rooms and not provide it anyway. If you can’t provide the room you don’t sell it. This is PURE SCAM.

- Floors in the room were always dirty. Housekeeping only changes sheets and renews water bottles. In a 5 star hotel nobody needs to remind you that you need to vacuum the floors when you are cleaning a room.

- I asked for a technician for the AC, reception said they are sending a technician, nobody came. Not ever.

- Housekeeping never ever came and asked if the trash bin needs emptying or if we need the daily complimentary water. This is standard protocol in all 5 star hotels. You however don’t do it.

- Shower and floor-heated bathroom are great though, but with lots of downsides of a hotel the goodness of a shower doesn’t do much for customer satisfaction.

- I will never come to this hotel again. No matter what they offer or say. This was a one time mistake. Not happening again.