The Alma Hotel and Lounge in Tel Aviv

This was the first time I checked out of a hotel and cried because of such rude and negative service from the manager. I am giving this hotel 1 star for the aesthetic — the hotel and the room was beautiful. I am giving a second star for all the friendly female staff we dealt with — they were all lovely and very sweet. But the male manager, bald guy with a grey beard, was absolutely horrible. We checked in on a Sunday afternoon and the next day (Monday) when we left the hotel for the day the cleaning woman was next door and asked us to leave our door unlocked. This was strange since she should have a key but we complied because we wanted to help her out. When we came back hours later we found our door wide open! All our stuff was out — underwear, jewelry, many souvenirs and gifts we collected over the two weeks of our stay across the country. I couldn’t believe our door was left unlocked and wide open. Anyone could have walked in or stolen something or done something else (my imagination went wild). We don’t think anything was taken but we’ll only know for sure when we are back home and unpack everything. The main issue is how unprofessional it all was. That’s never happened to me and I’ve travelled all over the world. I stayed in cheap, bad hotels and Alma isn’t a dirty hostel — it’s an expensive hotel. This was a huge invasion of our privacy and a great security concern. We told the front desk what happened and the woman was also shocked and said she will tell the manager and cleaning staff and they will check the security footage to see if anyone came into our room. They never did check the security cameras or at least they didn’t tell us if they did or not. We were expecting some type of compensation or gesture but we ended up talking to multiple staff and finally the manager said they will “send us a gift”. We ended up getting a box of 9 macaroons on the morning we checked out (on Wednesday). This maybe would have been a nice gesture on Monday or Tuesday, not the morning we were leaving to catch an international flight with only carry on bags. We tried to give them to our taxi driver but he didn’t want them… I didn’t want them either. I don’t eat cookies first thing in the morning and I didn’t need issues at the airport or an extra thing to travel with. I had two issues with the room itself — 1. The king sized bed had a queen sized blanket which was a bit of a pain and the first night my husband and I were fighting for the covers and 2. The shower flooded the entire room, not just the bathroom but the entire room. We had to use up all our towels to clean it up to avoid slipping and falling. The cleaning woman on Monday did not give us new towels and after the security issue we asked for no one to enter our room to clean or do anything. When we checked out on Wednesday the manager was at the front desk with his sour face, no smile, and negative and aggressive energy. I mentioned to him that the room floods from the shower (something they should know about and fix for future guests) and he was visibly frustrated, sighed, rubbed his forehead and eyes and as if I was irritating him. I was so taken aback by his attitude — I thought he was going to tell me to screw off! I left so uncomfortable and feeling horrible. I cried a little in the taxi… having our door left open for hours and the managers lack of care and attention made me so uncomfortable and tense for our entire stay. It really ruined our last few days in Israel. Again, the female staff were all lovely — but the manager was awful. I saw him in the lobby bar area on Monday speaking to one of the female staff and I saw how rude he was to her too. This guy shouldn’t be in the hospitality industry.

We’ve stayed in this hotel about three times a year in the past ten years. Unfortunately it’s no longer the luxury boutique hotel it used to be.
The location is excellent, central, right a few steps from Rothschild Blvd., with public parking (for a fee) in the area.
The property and furniture would need a thorough renovation: torn armchairs, severely deteriorated wooden floor covered with a low-quality patch to hide the damages caused by wear and moisture (especially near the shower), the shower fixed roughly with tape to avoid leaks, peeling paint on balconies.
But the worst aspect is cleanliness: black mold in the shower, a plastic straw tied to a tree branch that overhung a balcony, no cleaning service in the room during our stay (and we stayed four nights!): the receptionist told us their policy is now to clean the room only if guests are staying at least one week, just once mid-week. You can ask for clean towels, but still… no cleaning service in hotel rooms during your stay, seriously? Unacceptable.
Also, the mini fridge has been removed.
The receptionist is present only a few hours a day.
Not worthy a three or four-star hotel.

My parents recently stayed at this hotel. When they booked, they were told the rooftop and restaurant would be open. My parents, in turn, overlooked that the hotel was dark and miserable, and thought that if the rooftop was open it would be acceptable. They arrived to the same miserable hotel where unfortunately the rooftop and restaurant were not open per their expectations. To make matters worse, they received an early check-in at 12pm instead of 3pm. The hotel staff charged them for the early check-in eventhough they specifically said they would not at the time of booking. When my parents complained the hotel were inflexible. This despite the fact that the reservation was for 12 nights prepaid. Lastly, on check in they wanted to charge an additional 300 shekel per day incase of any breakages. Besides the fact that the charge is, in and of itself is completely outrageous, the room is in such bad condition that everything is broken anyway. This is not a nice property and the staff’s attitude is anything but welcoming.

Room was very very noisy, on the street without any proper window insolation.
Also very dark and non lite.