Hotels Near Japanse Tuin - Shin Kai Tei in Oostende

The truth - Acropolis hotel We stayed at this hotel recently - what a big mistake! The “standard” room we booked was tiny, you could not stand up when you got out of bed, the ceiling is literally 1m above floor height! (See pic) You literally have to get on your hands knees to get into bed. There are no tea or coffee facilities in the rooms, there is a room next to the reception where you can get a drink but this room was never open. NO AIR-CONDITIONING the room was like an oven. This so called hotel does not even serve lunch or dinner! If you like to listen to tyres screeching all day and evening then stay here, there is a karting track right next door and the noise from this place is constant and deafening! I feel this so called hotel is in financial difficulty, there are unfinished rooms and rooms full of tired dirty furniture. The staff on reception are in need of training, they have developed a blame culture thus every problem is always someone else’s fault. There is a very obvious and unhealthy power struggle going on between reception staff, a woman we called Cruella for obvious reasons seems to be the bad apple here. As an HR Director this is where I would start if this hotel is to survive.

I stayed at Hotel Astoria with my family in August 2022. This is one of the priciest hotels in De Haan which itself is an expensive city. To start with the hotel does not have a step-free entrance, quite shocking in this day and age so if you are travelling with lots of luggage, have a family with a push-chair (like us) or a wheel-chair user rule out staying here straight away. There are about ten high steps to access the hotel, staff offer no help instead they actually look at you like you are a nuisance. At arrival, the check-in staff tried to charge us for the extra bed in the room without bothering to see the booking so be careful if travelling with a family. We were told we can have a complimentary drink from their bar. When trying to claim this offer the staff makes you feel like you are a freeloader, pure rude behaviour followed by a list of drinks that the offer doesn't cover. Basically you can only have a beer or a soft drink. They say they have parking on premises but it's actually just free off-street parking. On the day of our departure there was a fare in the city center so we had to park our car 2miles away. The staff prefers business from walk-in customers in bar and restaurant over hotel guests. Attitude towards children was specially cold and distant, again making us feel like we are causing them extra work.

The location of the hotel was a little difficult for us, we had seen that we were almost 2 km from the centre of Nieuwpoort and the nearby tram stop. Parking at the hotel's site was found to cost €17 per day,€0.80 per hour,we have been wisely thanked for it and put our car along the street ( free) Nothing was noticeable at the hotel, everything was okay,but it was allowed for the price we paid in the whole season (first half of August) Breakfast is €18 per person and per day ...but was extended and constantly was filled up everything, only sad that the English breakfast was as good as cold, apparently the heat retention plate does not work well ( ?? ) Drinks are very expensive in the hotel, noticeably more expensive than in the centre of Nieuwpoort.