I planned to stay at the Europa Hotel on a recent business trip to Belfast. I was really excited to stay there given the rich and unique history of the place ('most bombed hotel in the world'). I arrived at about 9 pm after a long day of travel, walked up to the front desk and gave my name. A front desk employee told me in a loud and extremely rude tone that there was no record of my reservation. I calmly retrieved my confirmation number from my bag. She looked at it and then interrogated me about which website I had used to book the trip. I had gone to the hotel's website directly to book the room but she kept insisting that the reservation was not for their hotel. The lady at the front desk insisted that I tell her exactly what website I'd visited. At one point I started to boot up my computer to check the browser history to see if I had somehow made a mistake. I had three colleagues with me and they were incredulous at how poorly she was treating me. In trying to figure out what had happened, I looked more closely at my confirmation and realized that I'd made a mistake and booked my reservation for the wrong night. I calmly admitted my mistake and asked if there was anything she could do. The hotel was booked solid for the night...I planned to stay at the Europa Hotel on a recent business trip to Belfast. I was really excited to stay there given the rich and unique history of the place ('most bombed hotel in the world').

I arrived at about 9 pm after a long day of travel, walked up to the front desk and gave my name. A front desk employee told me in a loud and extremely rude tone that there was no record of my reservation. I calmly retrieved my confirmation number from my bag. She looked at it and then interrogated me about which website I had used to book the trip. I had gone to the hotel's website directly to book the room but she kept insisting that the reservation was not for their hotel. The lady at the front desk insisted that I tell her exactly what website I'd visited. At one point I started to boot up my computer to check the browser history to see if I had somehow made a mistake. I had three colleagues with me and they were incredulous at how poorly she was treating me.

In trying to figure out what had happened, I looked more closely at my confirmation and realized that I'd made a mistake and booked my reservation for the wrong night. I calmly admitted my mistake and asked if there was anything she could do. The hotel was booked solid for the night and there were no rooms available. The representative then asked me to step aside to check-in two other guests before finally taking the time to help me. In fairness, the representative found a reasonable solution for which I was grateful given that it was my fault for booking the wrong night. She upgraded my colleague to a larger room so that I could stay with her and not be homeless for the night. She also canceled my reservation for the next night even though it was past the deadline. Still, I felt the rude and confrontational tone that she took with me immediately upon entering was completely unprofessional and uncalled for.

Rather than imposing on my colleague for the night, I managed to book a room at the Premier Inn nearby for half the price of the Europa. As you'll see from my review there, they were extremely friendly and treated me with respect. I'd rather settle for less posh accommodation and friendly service than the rude treatment I received at the Europa.

I will not consider the Europa hotel again when business takes me to Belfast and neither will the three colleagues that were with me.More