I want to address my experience with Gold Horn Apart Hotel in Baku (36 Ataturk Avenue). I booked to stay at this hotel with my daughter as she attends the International Astronautical Congress 2023 in Baku using Expedia. On the 5th night of our stay, my daughter and I were watching TV around 12:30am and a random man unlocked our hotel room door and entered. He then closed the door as he saw we were inside and left. I went down to the hotel reception and told the staff what had happened. I requested that he call the police but he refused to do so. I then requested that he checks the security footage, which shows the unknown man entering our hotel room and leaving. Following this, I told the staff to contact this man and go to his room. The reception hotel staff was very hesistant and also had poor English. He also refused to call the police despite my multiple requests to do so. This led me going to the street and looking for a police car myself at 1am. I could not find a police car, and so, begged one of the drivers outside to call the police. Following this, the police arrived and they noted this incident and said they will investigate this. I was worried because I was going to leave the country the next day and my daughter was going to stay the remainder of the duration - 4 days at this hotel. I did not feel secure and ultimately booked another hotel for the rest of her stay. I ended up paying for another hotel, and checked out of Golden Horn Apart Hotel early midway through my booking. The hotel staff did not ask about the early checkout or refund the remainder of the stay although this whole situation is their fault. They provided the man who entered our hotel room with a hotel room card which opens our door. They did not give him the right card for his room. They incorrectly gave him the wrong card. This is a big security problem. Also, the man was alone and opened our door very late into the night (after midnight). There are many concerns, including what the man would have done in the room had he not seen us inside, or if we were already asleep. Although this is clearly the hotel’s fault and they took no action for responsibility, I ended up losing money as I needed to transfer to another and more secure hotel, and Golden Horn Apart Hotel did not return the money for the days we did not stay. 4 nights of booking were not refunded. Also no action or reconciliation was achieved from their part which is very disappointing and shocking.
Expedia should protect their customers. It is the first time that such incident happened to me.
Professor Ghani Albaali
Expedia Name Warka Abdul Kader
Golden Membership
Desired outcome: I would like to see the action of Expedia.From my side, I will send my complain to the ministry of tourism and ministry of interior affairs. It is an extremely important issue.