Little House in Bakah

Based on the positive reviews posted on the hotels.com website, I booked a three-night stay from 17-20 January of this year. My experience was not like those reviews. There is no “free parking” except on the street. Baka is a residential area and, as with many areas of Jerusalem, parking is very tight. I found a spot and went to check in. Paid my NIS 1200 or so and we went to the room, an “economy” room on the lower level. We opened to the door and went in. The room smelled as if the door had not been opened in 6 months or more. Everything was worn, VERY worn. It was crowded, and the bed was lumpy, very uncomfortable. The bathroom was covered in mildew. Not very appealing. The next morning, after a poor night’s sleep, my wife, my daughter who resides in Baka, and I considered the matter. This was not a place to spend Shabbat. I booked another hotel and we checked out. I gave a polite reason; did not want to stand there arguing with the receptionist, the same one as last night. I asked her about a refund for the unused nights; she said to take up the matter with hotels.com. I did that. The hotels.com customer service representative told me to take the matter up with the hotel. Eventually, he told me that the hotel would refund one night. I have not seen that refund yet nor, as I mentioned, has the hotel responded to my written enquiries. Although the hotel agreed to refund the third night, and told me that it would be done immediately, after two days it has not shown up on my credit card account. The Little House in Baka gets zero stars.

We stayed for a weekend to be close to family living nearby. We had 2 economy rooms and 1 regular room. The regular room was nice and spacious. the economy rooms were small, the furniture old, but they were all clean and comfortable. It was very good for what we needed. The staff were very nice. The breakfast was great. We had easy parking on the streets outside, The lobby was small but they had continuous coffee and tea which was great. we loved walking the quaint neighborhood, even in the rain. Jerusalem has a special atmosphere that can't be explained.