This post is about on August 10th, 2009.
I made a reservation to Hostel Best in Split some weeks ago. The room has 8 beds and that is what I made the reservation online. However, the woman was still cleaning the rooms even around 2pm and I had to wait them finish.
After I settled down in a bed, the receptionist came and asked me to move to another room giving 30 kuna (she said it was 50kn she offered later). I unpacked my stuffs already, so I told her I just wanted to stay in the room. Another woman - who was still cleaning the rooms - came and asked me to go out from the Hostel or move to another room. She then started shouting.
The problem was the there are 7 "men" will stay in the room and I was the only woman. I really did not mind if others are men or women. I just settle down and play with JavaScript or read Chrisitan stuffs, so there won't be a problem for me. She told me that the 7 mens are problematic and changed rooms couple of times and so on, and wanted to use the room by themselves. The problem is that I made the reservation through Hoselworld.com a week earlier and paid the deposit already. From my aspect, the clerk should know there would be a woman in the room, and these 7 people came after that. I am not sure what their problem becaues they seemed to stay in another room and showed up to talk about the problem with the receptionist. If they could take another room by themselves, then they could just stay in the same room, isn't it? I really did not understand what was their problem to moving to another room where I already made the reservation.
While the clerks and I were arguring about the problem of the room arrangement, the woman working at the Internet Place 2 floor above in the building came and claimed that I was shouting so loud. Actually, the woman cleaning the room started shouting, and I made my voice louder because of her.
Then the receptionist said she would call police. And I said go ahead. Meanwhile the cleaning woman disappeared. The woman working at the Internet Place just stayed in the reception room with the receiptionist. She complained that I was screaming and that was why she visited the hostel. You can see the situation. People trying to push their own view and support each other while I was alone as a stranger in the place.
About 30 minutes or so, 2 police officer came and the clearning woman just explained the situation in Croatian language to the police. The police did not even give me a chance to hear my side of the story about what happened. The police checked my passport and the woman's driver licence.
I don't know if the police came was real police or not because they did not give me the incident number nor even the namecard of themselves. So, I just share the information here. Just in case if they are fake ones.
Also, I am curious what the clearning woman complained to the police. If that was only the screaming that they complained (and ignoring the screaming of the cleaning woman). The problem was the 7 men who wanted to take the 8 bed room in Hostel Best. I was asked to move to another room after I unpacked things. First, the receiptioninst gave me the choice of choosing the room and at that time I had a chance to take any bed in the room. From my point of view, the problem was the 7 men who wanted to take the room. If they wanted to take the entire room, they should make the reservation to take the entire room for them.
Be aware, the people in Hostel Best may not like Americans or journalist style asking questions. You can hear the clearning woman shouting how Americans should go back to America and they are not welcome here in Croatia. (that's what she said when the 2 police officers were at the entrance.)
If you make a reservation at Hostel Best in Split, you might be kicked out from the hostel. I still don't know why the 7 guys wanted to move from another room to that 8 bed one. And that was funny the clearning woman started screaming about hospital thing. You can hear her speaking about hospital issues because of the problem of the 7 guys wanted to take the room by themselves. Is this how people called crazy in Croatia?
How people react to the speech of anti-American thing in these days? That's what the cleaning woman did. For the better trip of the tourists, I share this information as well as to share the clearing woman mentioning about "Hospital" and commenting mental problem in the speach. Also, you can hear the receiptionist's slander, "fuck off" in the video as the evidence of verbal threat I received from the hostel stuffs. I guess sharing the video is easy to find a lawyer who is interested to take care the problem happened to the member hostel of Hostelworld.com. This hostel can treat tourist as if having mental problem when they do not accept the change the hostel made from the condition of the reservation.
As you have guessed, someone probably called the hostel and lied to them about your character. If the hostel employees were independent (bully proof) then they could have continued to treat you as if you were any other normal guest . However, if the hostel owed political favors to people in the community, for example, to stay in business then they would bow to these pressures at your expense.
ReplyDeleteThis is the way third world countries are run. Whoever pays the higher price wins. The looser in a sense is sold out.
You did a nice job of standing up to them and holding them accountable; I hope you got 10 percent more for the inconvenience.
You have done a nice job of exposing them (including San Jose State University) via your writing and videos.