I have booked the Garden Palace hotel in Riga for 5 nights during my business trip in August 2007. I had to leave the hotel next morning and check myself in a different hotel near by.

When I arrived I've been allocated a single room which I reserved, but the room size was really small even for a single, it was a cupboard, this hotel is rated 4 stars, but this was not a 4 star hotel standard. I travel a lot on business and holidays and have stayed in many hotels all around the world.

When I put on a television for the first time I was confronted with full blown porn video, which could startled even a grow up man.

There was a bathtub in the bathroom, just a shower. There was a lack a of air due to the size of the room, but no air-conditioning and the fan provided didn't work. There was shouting in the night from the courtyard. There was no sound proofing in the room, you can hear people walking in the corridor and the walls vibrated every time the doors were closed by other guests.

The following morning I was woken up at 8 am with the noise of the chainsaw outside followed by constant banging of brickwork and a guest paying a violin!!!! I didn't had a good rest before my busy day.

The breakfast food was bland, old looking and inedible.

When I came to check out the staff on the reception didn't know what they were doing it took 3 different people to eventually to get an invoice.

Now I am trying to get a refund for 4 nights I din't stay there, hotel wants to charge me for 4 nights as a late cancellation fee, which absolutly not exceptiable.

Me and my family stayed in a junior suite in this hotel for 3 nights. We ended up in the annex, which is over on the other side of the courtyard. It was a big suite, in two storys but it had only 2 VERY small windows and no balcony as is mentioned on the hotel website for junior suites...

We also hade no hot water for the last 1,5 days and only just before we checked out we found out that it was only the annex that had no water so they could have moved us over to another room... Cleaning was ONLY made if you asked for it, so if you forgot they never cleaned your room. Breakfast was quite poor also....

This hotel is by no means a 4-star hotel.... It should be rated as a average 3-star. I have stayed in other 4-star hotels in Riga for bsuiness so I can compare and the standard is NOT good enough...

I booked at Hotel Garden Palace, a suite for 2 persons and for 3 nights, during July 2007. Whilst I was in Riga for a business meeting this was also to be a ‘special’ trip for my Latvian partner and myself as it has been my birthday and I was still in recovery from breaking my ribs in at least 3 places 4 weeks previously, I was only just fit enough for travel having delayed and rebooked my trip from 10 days previously due to my injuries.

The start of my trip had been disrupted due to thunderstorms causing flight delays which in turn caused my arrival in Riga being delayed by 1 day and this in turn caused my rendezvous with my partner to be disrupted, we should have checked in at the hotel together 1 night previously but because of the uncertainty of when I would actually arrive we arranged that she make other arrangements and we would rendezvous thereafter.

Checking in by myself the hotel tried to tell me that I had reserved a single room but I made it clear to them that I had made a reservation for 2 persons and in a suite, I found myself being allocated a room, not a suite, however I decided not to complain and later that evening I rendezvoused with my partner. At no time, upon checking in, did the hotel ask for details of the 2nd person and I was so weary from to days of travelling I didn’t think to bring it to their attention, apparently it wasn’t that important to them.

After our evening out together it was in the early hours of the next morning that we were arriving, together, at the hotel only for a member of hotel staff to deny us, to deny my partner, entry unless she was able to provide documented evidence of her identity.

I travel and stay in hotel regularly, internationally some hotels ask for passports and some do not, however this is not a legal requirement as a passport may only be passed to an authorised person of which a hotel receptionist is not, however I have never known that one needs to provide documented evidence of their identity when travelling domestically in their own country. This was not a condition of the reservation I made with the hotel, they had not informed me of it at any time previously, and I attempted to discuss it with the particular member of hotel staff.

Admittedly, having had my trip already disrupted and this hotel were now disrupting it further, I was not in the best of moods but it was his attitude that particularly agitated me, as I attempted to discuss the situation and how we may resolve it he walked away from me with an attitude that it was not open to discussion nor resolve. I asked to speak with hotel management and with a sneer he seemed to enjoy telling me that hotel management would not be available until 9 o’clock later that morning and I deemed his attitude as threatening, turning my back on him he then attacked me by throwing his arm around my throat and wrestling me to the floor.

My only resistance, whilst pleading in pain regarding my broken ribs, which I had informed the hotel of 3 days previously when asking for extra pillows to support my back whilst sleeping, was to wrestle free from his attack and the hold he had on me, he subsequently made claim that I had attacked him and attempted to provoke a reaction from me, in vain, that stories would be collaborated between the receptionist and himself accordingly.

My partner had made her way to another hotel, one that we had stayed at previously and without a need for this documented evidence ‘nonsense’ and some time afterwards I joined her. I, almost immediately, thereafter transmitted an email to Hotel Garden Palace reporting the incident, cancelling the reservation that they failed to honour, and informing them that if they wished to take the matter further then we could do it via lawyers. Rather than respond they opted to charge, or attempt to charge, the entire reservation, the one that I never received, to my debit card, a transaction that I have not authorised, and I now find myself in communication with my bank regarding this fraudulent transaction.

I can only warn others to not stay at this hotel, if you do then be very wary of the staff member that bears a similar appearance to this actor [--] and do not provide them with your card number.

Signed
MC

We stayed in this hotel for 3 nights. Here is my pros and cons which only concerns the room where we stayed in. The other rooms could be better equipped or have better location.

The pros:
- Clean and tidy
- Security cameras in the corridors
- Easy booking by credit card directly with the hotel.

The cons:
- Delays in answering to e-mails (>14 hours) when booking
- No safe in the room (the safe in the reception can be used for 1LVL / night)
- No air conditioning
- Lousy breakfest
- Every night there was noise from a nearby night club. Some persons could find it difficult to be able to sleep.

The neutrals:
- Average location
- Average staff
- City view (sounds nicer than what it really is)

So it's nothing special at this price level. I would give the hotel three stars instead of four.