I am extremely disappointed with Orbitz. I was looking to book a hotel in Tel Aviv, Israel this past Spring. After some searching, I took it upon myself to contact Orbitz via the toll free number on their website. I talked to an Orbitz representative and told her that I would like to book a hotel in the city of Tel Aviv and provided the dates that I had wished to stay in the city as well as a price range that was affordable to both me and my family. The Orbitz employee checked the available listings and within a few minutes recommended a “resort.” She mentioned that this “resort” was on the beach and it was within the price range that I had requested.
When my family and I arrived in Tel Aviv, we went to the taxi station within the airport and gave them the address to the “resort, ” which turns out was not in Tel Aviv at all, but rather in a small town called Mihmoret approximately 30 miles north of Tel Aviv! Since it was Shabbat when we arrived in Tel Aviv, a taxi was the only mode of transportation available to us. The cost of traveling to the resort in Mihmoret by taxi was 350 Shekels (approximately $100), but since there was no alternative, we were forced to pay this amount, even though we did not want to stay in Mihmoret in the first place.
When we finally arrived to the so-called “resort, ” the first thing we noticed was that it was in a residential neighborhood, with nothing within walking distance and since we had no car we thought that it might be possible to take public transportation. Unfortunately, there were no bus terminals nearby. Additionally, there wasn’t a place to catch a taxi, there wasn’t a market, nor was there a beach anywhere in sight.in fact, the beach was a good two or three miles from the “resort.” The area itself did not look very safe at all and we asked the taxi driver to wait while we checked things out.
Upon walking to the “resort, ” we were immediately disgusted at what we saw. A dirty, rundown residence that had been converted into a so-called “resort.” The weeds were growing out of control around the property, the front was littered with junk, dirty laundry was strung up in front of the residence and the area was full of eyesores. When we arrived, we had to ask the driver of the taxi to call the phone number provided to us in order to obtain a key to enter the residence. After about a 15 minute wait, this young Israeli man of no more than 25 years drives up and takes us into the residence. The inside of this residence was just as much of a pigsty as was the outside. The pictures of this place on the Orbitz website had shown a clean and tidy place, but the truth was that the place was rundown and filthy. The rooms were bare and the restroom and shower were one in the same. The pictures sent in to Orbitz from the owner of the residence was false advertising, and Orbitz had taken no precautionary steps to validate that the pictures were an accurate representation of the property. Not willing to stay in such a filthy place, we opted to take a taxi to the city of Haifa (which we had planned on visiting the next day). Once again, we had to pay an additional 350 Shekels ($100) to go to the city of Haifa. If we had a hotel WITHIN the city of Tel Aviv, then we could have stayed the night there and took the train to Haifa the following day for a fraction of the price.
Even though we decided not to stay in the “resort” mostly due to the false advertising on the Orbitz website, we still were forced to pay the $150 for the room (and we had booked the same place for our trip back from Haifa, so we had to pay another $150). Being out $300 is not the problem. The problem is Orbitz lack of professionalism, to at least verify that the pictures posted to THEIR website for THEIR customers to view is an accurate depiction of the hotel.
Below are links to the pictures that I took of the so-called “resort.”
Http://i1228. Photobucket.com/albums/ee458/dshak1234/DSC01392.jpg
http://i1228. Photobucket.com/albums/ee458/dshak1234/DSC01393.jpg
http://i1228. Photobucket.com/albums/ee458/dshak1234/DSC01394.jpg
http://i1228. Photobucket.com/albums/ee458/dshak1234/DSC01395.jpg
http://i1228. Photobucket.com/albums/ee458/dshak1234/DSC01396.jpg
http://i1228. Photobucket.com/albums/ee458/dshak1234/DSC01397.jpg
http://i1228. Photobucket.com/albums/ee458/dshak1234/DSC01398.jpg
http://i1228. Photobucket.com/albums/ee458/dshak1234/DSC01399.jpg
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