Hotel Hymeti's Palace

I recently stayed at Hotel Hymeti's Palace in Pogradec, and unfortunately, my experience was far from satisfactory. Despite the hotel’s claim to be a 4-star establishment, it falls far short of the standards one would expect from such a rating. In fact, it barely feels like a proper hotel at all, given the many shortcomings and issues we encountered. While we found a parking spot relatively quickly, it was frustrating to see that all the designated spaces for hotel guests were occupied by people who weren’t even staying at the hotel. This lack of organization in managing parking clearly indicated a lack of control over basic hotel amenities. Upon arrival, we were greeted by a staff member named Mr. Miri from the restaurant, not the front desk. He didn’t speak English, so my girlfriend, who speaks Albanian, translated for us. We were then guided to the elevator, but to our surprise, housekeeping had left their cleaning items inside. Mr. Miri quickly apologized and sent the elevator to a higher floor, contacting someone to clear it. After waiting for the elevator to be emptied, it was finally sent back down, and we proceeded to the first floor where the front desk was located. To our dismay, the front desk was unattended. Mr. Miri, who worked in the restaurant, tried to help by standing behind the desk, attempting to contact someone by phone to check our booking. After confirming our reservation, he began searching for the key to our room. Instead of keycards, the hotel uses traditional keys, which felt outdated. Additionally, there were no room numbers displayed on the doors, so Mr. Miri had to guide us to the room himself. All of this happened without any formal check-in process—no ID checks, no payment, and no documentation. We were told to return in a couple of hours to complete the check-in, which was highly unprofessional for any hotel, let alone one claiming to be 4-star. Later that evening, when we finally completed the check-in with Ms. Sara, the polite and apologetic front desk staff member, I requested an upgrade to a presidential suite for an additional fee. The suite offered more space, but the issues began almost immediately. On the first night, we discovered that only one power socket in the entire room was functioning. When we called to report this to the front desk, we were informed that there were no maintenance staff available, and we would have to wait until the following day for repairs. This level of service was simply not acceptable, especially for a hotel that claims to be 4-star. The next day, more problems arose. The toilet flush stopped working completely, the water pressure in the shower was weak, and the curtains didn’t fully block out the sunlight, allowing bright morning light to flood the room and disrupt our sleep. Hoping to address these issues, we hung the “Make Up My Room” sign on the door and informed Mr. Miri (since the front desk was once again unattended) about the problems we were experiencing. We also requested that housekeeping clean the room while we were out. Additionally, we discovered that the hotel doesn’t offer room service at all, which was another major inconvenience, especially for a hotel of this supposed standard. When we returned later in the day, we were disappointed to find that none of the issues had been addressed. The room hadn’t been cleaned, and the maintenance problems persisted. Frustrated, I finally managed to speak with Ms. Sara at the front desk. While she apologized sincerely, she explained that the hotel did not have on-site maintenance staff and relied on external contractors, which caused delays. To make things worse, housekeeping couldn’t access the room because the key we had was apparently the only key available for that room. This explanation was both baffling and unacceptable. At this point, I was left with two options: either check out and forfeit the money I had already paid, or move back to the executive suite I originally booked. I opted to mo