Herbert Samuel by Orchid Hotels

nWe recently booked 7 rooms at the Herbert Samuel hotel in Jerusalem for a family celebration through an agent. nWe booked and paid for the Friday night dinner in advance at $85 per adult and $42 per child. On the Jewish holiday (erev Sukkot) some of my family wanted to eat at the hotel in the sukkah. I made a reservation for 10 adults and 8 children with the food and beverage manager The sukkah at the hotel is extremely disappointing, narrow and not completely open to the sky. Technically only the men sitting against the wall were in kosher sukkah This is unacceptable for a 5 star hotel. The buffet was identical to the Friday night dinner except that the service was poor, the family was split as the sukkah was too small to accommodate everyone together, the plates could not get cleared and the restaurant was not even full. nThe managers knew the price that I paid and there was no disclosure of the new price on making the reservation. I presumed that the charges would be the same as what we had paid previously. nOn check out an amount of $127 /ILS450 was charged per adult and half for children.(50% higher) My brother-in-law had requested that his 2 dinners be credited from our account as he paid for those himself. The credit was not passed. There was no management available, and we were not phoned to discuss the incorrect bill as had been requested. An unauthorized amount of $1800 was processed for the dinner.nWe contacted the agent to get the duplicated charge refunded and the costs of the dinner reduced.nI have since been in contact with a manager of the hotel by telephone and many emails and none of my requests have been professionally and satisfactorily answered. I was told that the hotel will not deal directly with a client when an agent is involved. However this booking was made directly with he hotel. .nWe have been refunded for the duplicated charges and a maximum discount of 18% passed on the meal charge which was actually 50% more than the identical dinner that we had on Friday. nThere was no value for money for the dinner and the complaint was extremely poorly handled by the incompetant front desk and management. nThe only good aspect of the hotel is the location.nMy advice is – make your own bookings on the internet or directly with the hotels, do not be naïve and trusting and make sure you know the costs of any additional services so that you will not be ripped off. nThis has been the worst hotel experience in all my years of travel.which has been over many decades.n