Do not trust billing process and invoices presented to you
Headlines of our experience with the positives first:
1 Friendly staff
2 Good bar with barista class coffee
3 Cleaning OK
4 Massive prepayments in Uganda Shillings requested when checking-in at 4 a.m. despite reservations made 6 months earlier in USD
5 We asked for and urged the prepayment to be made in USD but were refused that possibility
6 Unfair currency conversion factor from USD to UGX meant an extra room rate payment of 9 USD per night in addition to the homepage room rate of 140 USD
7 End payment process was awful and cost us 2 hours in debating the wrong and confusing invoice numbers
8 Unsatisfactory billing process which felt very unsafe for us as customers
We were a family of 10 having a 12 nights stay in 4 rooms and the negatives by far outweigh the positives.
As a Certified Internal Auditor I feel obliged to let others know and give them the opportunity to avoid the below pitfalls.
We arrived very late at the hotel from Entebbe Airport and we experienced a complete lack of flexibility despite us just wanting our reserved rooms to get to sleep. Instead the guy in the reception presented us with a request for massive prepayments in Uganda Shillings when checking at 4 a.m. despite reservations made back in January in USD. We asked for and urged the prepayment to be made in USD but were completely refused that possibility. As if that was not bad enough we later found out when doing the end payment that the hotel was using a surprisingly unfair currency conversion factor from USD to UGX, which meant an extra room rate payment of 9 USD per night in addition to the homepage room rate of 140 USD per night. This all felt like a trick. The hotel later explained that we were treated incorrectly and should have had the opportunity to pay in USD. However, they saw no reason to compensate us for the losses incurred.
Furthermore, during the stay we found out that room rates did not reconcile between a) the reservation initially made b) the reception and c) the Reservation Desk. This cost me at least 2 hours of my holiday time debating with the Reservation Desk for 2 of our rooms. I was sure that we came to an agreement, which I later found out was not the case.
The end payment process was awful and cost us another 2 hours in debating wrong and confusing invoice numbers and mixing of strange amounts between two room invoices. There was no way the wrong room rates in the invoices reconciled with the initial reservations made in USD. We ended up calculating our own invoice, which was when we identified the surprisingly unfair and costly currency conversion factor from USD to UGX. Furthermore and even worse, the extras for restaurant and bar were miscalculated to an extent beyond comprehension. Still, after calculating our own invoice the debate did not stop. This was a nightmare.
In the end we were overcharged up to 100 USD extra per room due to the unfair and costly currency conversion factor from USD to UGX and in addition I gave up arguing and accepted being overcharged the said strange extra amount as I would alternatively have missed the transport to Entebbe. The strange extra amount was refunded after our holiday but the hotel ignored the overcharges due to unfair currency conversion factor from USD to UGX.
Unsatisfactory is the right word and the two star rating is only due to the said positives such as friendly staff and a good bar with barista class coffee.