When we checked in, the very nice receptionist asked if we already had tickets to visit the Alhambra. We told her that we had not made arrangements at which point she said we probably not be able to get tickets as they are sometimes booked out months in advance. Mind you, it is late November and the weather very bad, but, we were shocked and disappointed, but, she said that she would check it for us and call us to our room to let us know if tickets would be available. 30 minutes after arriving to our room, we called the reception and she informed us that there are no tickets available. How disappointed we were, coming all this way only to find out we would not be able to visit the main sight of the city and the reason for our trip to Granada. We asked her if there was no way, no agency, no way at all to obtain tickets somehow. She said she would check. She then called back and said fthere was one agency who could provide us a tour and tickets the day after tomorrow at a price of 69 Euros per person. We were scheduled to leave early to Gibraltar the day after tomorrow so had a discussion in our room about it and finally decided we would have to skip Gibraltar in order to visit the Alhambra. We went to the reception on our way out and told the receptionist we would accept the tour. We then left the hotel, walked into town and stumbled across the tourist information office. We decided to ask about tickets there to the Alhambra and the very nice girl told us there were tons of tickets available and she would help us to book them online. We booked them right then and there for 14 Euros each for the next day. We really could not understand why the hotel receptionist would insist that no tickets were available and force us on to an expensive tour. When we returned to the hotel, we informed the receptionist that we would NOT be taking the tour and she was not happy and said that it would probably not be possible to cancel. We told her we would NOT be going on the the tour and NOT paying for the tour. The following morning, we had a call from the reception telling us that the agency refuses to cancel the tour. We informed reception we would not pay for the tour and we went and had a wonderful time visiting the Alhambra. At the Alhambra, most people were buying their tickets right there at the ticket booths.
No matter how many good points there may or may not be about this hotel, the hotel staff could have ruined our stay in Granada and maybe we would have left without ever having visited the Alhambra. We never asked for the receptionist's help and she was the one who started the conversation when we checked in. Had she never asked, we would have just gone to the tourist office, booked our tickets, and never had this bad experience. Because of this we would never book this hotel again.
A few more points for management of the hotel:
-the water pressure in Room 401 is deplorable and I was left with shampoo in my hair and no water
-charging an additional 2,50 Euros for capuccino at breakfast is cheap, especially when the first morning there was no more milk at the coffee station and the second morning, no more beans. Everyone in the breakfast room was frustrated by it and there was only one person working the breakfast room, so very understaffed.
-nice to have coffee and tea in the room, but we never had spoons to stir the sugar/milk. This seems to be a housekeeping issue
-the wall paper is peeling off badly in the men's pubic restroom. Lack of maintenance
-please do not put old artificial flowers in the rooms. Better to have no flowers at all. But that was really the least of our concerns.
There are countless other issues to be addressed, but, we won't be staying here again to see if anything has been fixed.
