Lev Yerushalayim Apartment Hotel

This run down hotel is wonderfully located close to Ben Yehuda Market and city center, and room was spacious. The room was old and looks it as it is poorly maintained. There was a maintance issue that was resolves as we arrived, but cleaning staff was no longer around to clean so shower was left half cleaned after it. The kitchenette had no utensils or pots, so you cannot even slice a fruit from the market, let alone cook or eat something more than a tea. The staff was nice but it makes no sense that there was no maintenance person to help with a light that we found that didn't work at 17:00 pm.

I’ve stayed at Lev Yerushalyim for over ten years. However, after new owners bought the hotel, I had a terrible experience in April of this year. I was in Israel with my girlfriend for both the Passover holiday and also to visit the cemetery where my father was buried. He had passed away last year in New York City after battling pancreatic cancer and this was the first time I could visit the cemetery due to travel restrictions during the pandemic. While Lev Yerushalyim was never a 5 star hotel, it was always clean and the staff used to always be helpful and responsive to guests. I’ve stayed at hotels in numerous countries all over the world, but this stay was definitely my worst. When I checked into Lev Yerushalyim hotel, I had a reservation for 17 nights. Since it was a long stay, I asked if I could pay for part of it now and pay the remaining part when I check out, as the previous owners always let me. The woman at the front desk said no. So since the new owners did not know me, I figured this is their policy and I let them charge my card for almost $3,000 US. I was given an electronic key for my room on the second floor. Upon exiting the elevator I was surprised to see that there was trash all over the hallway floor from the elevator leading all the way to my room. The carpet was visibly not vacuumed in some time. I figured the staff would clean it by the next day, but they actually never cleaned the floor for as long as I was there. I tried the key card in the door, but it did not work. That’s ok. Sometimes that happens. I went downstairs and they ran the key card again. I went back upstairs. It did not work again. I went back down and they gave me a regular key. The regular key worked. However, it didn’t open the door easily and kept turning and turning without opening the lock immediately. The room was obviously not cleaned before we checked in. However, since my girlfriend was feeling sick and it was getting late, we settled in so she could sleep. This room was horrible. The bathroom was not clean. There was urine in the toilet. The toilet was not flushed and the toilet seat was up. The back of the entry door was full of dust as if it was sanded but never cleaned. The heating system was broken. Despite the thermostat dial listing 30 Celsius (86 Fahrenheit) as the highest temperature, the heat did not work at all. Jerusalem, which is high up in the mountains, is known to have chilly nights. The staff said the heating system in the hotel did not work. I told them my girlfriend was sick and she needed a heated room so she wouldn’t become more ill. They sent a portable heater to the room. I turned it on and it did not work. The staff said they would send another portable heater. Several hours past and they still did not send the second heater. I let them know that I still did not receive it. Again, they said they would send it. They never sent it. There were other issues which contributed to the bad experience. The blankets had brown stains on them. There was a closet door near the entry of the room. However, it was not a closet for clothing. There was a sewer pipe in it. Every time someone flushed a toilet above us we could hear it pass through the closet. The top of the headboard of the bed was so low that when you sat up to lean back and recline, you could not avoid from hitting your head on it. There were two televisions. One TV was missing a cable box. Both TVs did not work. When we arrived, the safe in the room was not unlocked as it is always is when you check into a hotel. Not only that, but it was a very tiny and smaller than modern hotel room safes. This one would not be able to fit a small laptop. The room was a corner room which made for an odd triangular shape. Because of the shape of the room and the position of the bed, there were only a few inches to squeeze by to walk to the other side of the bed. While the bed position is something that is tolerable, with all the other issues, and to have to deal with this for over two weeks was just not ideal. I asked the manager if I could check out of the hotel and receive a refund for the days I would not stay at the hotel. He said no. When I told him about all the problems, he was very condescending and said, “Smile, it’s the holidays.” After about 3 days of putting up with this experience, and since I was told I could not receive a refund, I booked a room at another hotel and figured I would return to Lev Yerushalyim if the other hotel was worse. Luckily, the other hotel was fine and had no issues. A few days later I decided to leave some luggage in my room at Lev Yerushalyim so I could travel for two days to the Dead Sea area of Israel and not have to bring all my luggage. Since I was told I could not get a refund for leaving Lev Yerushalyim early, I never checked out of the hotel despite having to stay and pay for a better hotel nearby. When I arrived at Lev Yerushalyim with my luggage, I found that my room was being used as a storage room for housekeeping. The room was also never cleaned since I was there last. There was a maids cart in the room. The bedspread and sheets were on the floor even though I had left them on the bed. The bathroom was being used to store shampoo and soap bottles for the rest of the hotel. I never checked out of Lev Yerushalyim because I was told I could not get my money back. But I wasn’t going to let that ruin my trip to Israel. I had to spend more money to stay at a decent hotel because I wasn’t going to spend 17 nights at a hotel that did not provide basic proper services. Since I realized that it would not be safe to leave my luggage at Lev Yerushalyim, I decided to head to the Dead Sea with all my luggage with me. After I returned home from my trip, I contacted Lev Yerushalyim four times to ask them to refund me for 12 of the 17 nights that I ended up not staying there. After all, they took over the room when I was not in it despite them telling me I could not check out. They never responded. I then sent them my request via FedEx and despite my letter being signed for by the hotel, they never responded. The previous owners sold this hotel to people who do not understand or maybe they just don’t care about the hospitality industry. Before this experience, I would always recommend this hotel to friends, family and my social network followers. Unfortunately, now I can never recommend Lev Yerushalyim to anyone. Luckily there are much better options nearby, like the Ibis and Leonardo Boutique hotels for budget travelers and The Inbal and Dan Panorama hotels for travelers with larger budgets.