St. Petersburg, Hotel Vera

I stayed here for 10 nights as I have stayed at the hotel before and had no problems.

All the staff I met all spoke good English and were very helpful. They made me feel very welcome here and gave me information on how to get to Peter and Paul's Fortress.

On my first night here, I got chocolate on the bed sheets and 7 days later the same sheets were still on the bed despite the cleaners visiting my room every day.

As I am British I did not want to make a fuss but on the seventh night, I walked into my room and the cleaners had beento my room and moved the rubbish from my dustbin and left it in the middle of the floor in my room upon my return and still had NOT changed the bed sheets,

This was now to much, I went down to reception and asked to speak to the manager, I asked her how often do they change the sheets, she stated every 3-4 days, I explained that this had not been done therefore I have still got the same bed sheets on since the day I arrived at the hotel, then I gave her the rubbish which was left in the middle of my room.

She lOOked shocked and apologised to me, gave me another room as it was late at night and there was no cleaners working that night. She dealt with the situation well and I would have stayed here again but now this as happened I will not be returning here which is a shame as I liked all the girls on reception and at the bar as they are always very friendly.

The location is ok, abit far from Hermitage which is along walk away but I knew this as I have stayed here before and it's not a problem because there are cheap trolley buses which will take you wherever you want to go, the girls on reception will be happy to help you get transport and info regarding this.

If I had not had this experience with the cleaners I would have given the hotel higher rating but they let me down on that aspect.

•Stayed February 2013, travelled as a couple

John, Great Britain

Response from Hotel Vera:------

I read your review of Hotel Vera on Tripadvisor, and am rather upset and frankly surprised with your comments about cleaning problems in your room. Cleaning has been our strong point and what you describe is absolutely mind boggling.

I have investigated this matter with my staff and requested cleaning reports for the days from 10.02.13 to 15.02.13, and talked to Administrators Natalya and Elena whom you may remember.

Here is what I have learned:

10.02 - the room was cleaned, towels replaced

11.02 - the room was cleaned, towels replaced

12.02 - the "do not disturb" sign was posted all day; the towels and garbage were passed to the cleaning staff for replacement and disposal - this was the scheduled day for bed linen replacement

13.02 - Yulia once again refused to let the cleaners enter to clean the room, and again gave the cleaners the garbage and towels for replacement and disposal; bed linens were not replaced since our staff was not given access to the room

14.02 - the room was cleaned, but the linen replacement was scheduled for the 6th day, on the 15th; when scheduling linen replacement, the administrator was not aware that it had not been replaced on the 12th or 13th as it should have been, and we are truly at fault for not accounting for such irregularities in our system

15.02 - Yulia did not let the staff in, kept saying, in Russian ("come later, later"). Here again was our fault in not checking extra time after 18:00 and before the end of the shift at 20:00. Thus the garbage stayed in and the linen was not replaced.

I realize that we have failed you and I am sorry that you do not plan to patronize us in the future.

But I also do believe that the cleaners' failure is not as dramatic as you have described it in your Tripadviser review.

I do thank you for bringing this story to our attention, and we will address and correct the failure of management in scheduling cleaning tasks with due attention, as we discovered in course of this little investigation.

In fact, the responsible persons have been reprimanded.

If you ever change your mind and visit us again, we will be happy to see you in Hotel Vera.

Yours truly,

Leon ,Hotel Vera owner

Reply to Hotel Vera:---

Dear Sir,

I do not take lightly what you have said in my response to me, Yulia told the cleaning staff twice to come back later , which they did, as the bed had been straightened but the sheets had never been replaced despite your cleaning staff returning to the rooms after being told to return later! They returned later as requested but never replace bed sheets!

I was at you hotel alone from 9th Feb 2013 - 13th Feb 2013. Yulia did not arrive until 12:22 on 13 Feb 2013, and chocolate got on the sheets on 9th Feb but were never replaced, I do not appreciate this response, as you are clearly making up excuses for what happened, including that I have exaggerated my information given on Trip advisor!

I suggest you get all the facts right before contacting myself with you responses to me as I am now very angry to receive this reply from you.

It is a fact that when we returned to my room, the cleaners had been to the room and moved the rubbish to the middle of the room upon our return to the hotel.

Therefore, the cleaners had returned to my room, changed the towels, left the sheets and moved the trash from the bin in the corner of the room, left this in the middle of the room and did not take it with them!

I know the cleaners had come back to the room because they had changed the towels and the rubbish was not in the dust bin anymore, It was in the centre of the room, This is why I went to see the Manager of your hotel. FACT!

Reply From Hotel Vera : ----

I am sorry you feel that way, but Hotel Vera has been operating for 7 years without a single complaint about our cleaning. I will undoubtedly let the cleaning staff know of the details you have described in your letter. I do not doubt your statements, and as I have indicated earlier in my letter, I do fault the desk staff for poor supervision of the cleaning staff; I will also instruct management to break up the cleaning team that works these shifts so that we can do a better job in the future.

Yours truly,

Vera

Conclusion--- This hotel admit some faults but then try and put the blame onto the customer by saying my review is_Quote from Hotel Vera

" I also do believe that the cleaners' failure is not as dramatic as you have described it in your Tripadviser review."

All the above is a true statement of the poor treatment by this Hotel who like to blame its customers and make out they did not return to clean the room as they were told to "come back later" ! which the cleaners did and still did not clean the room.