I booked at Hotel Garden Palace, a suite for 2 persons and for 3 nights, during July 2007. Whilst I was in Riga for a business meeting this was also to be a ‘special’ trip for my Latvian partner and myself as it has been my birthday and I was still in recovery from breaking my ribs in at least 3 places 4 weeks previously, I was only just fit enough for travel having delayed and rebooked my trip from 10 days previously due to my injuries.
The start of my trip had been disrupted due to thunderstorms causing flight delays which in turn caused my arrival in Riga being delayed by 1 day and this in turn caused my rendezvous with my partner to be disrupted, we should have checked in at the hotel together 1 night previously but because of the uncertainty of when I would actually arrive we arranged that she make other arrangements and we would rendezvous thereafter.
Checking in by myself the hotel tried to tell me that I had reserved a single room but I made it clear to them that I had made a reservation for 2 persons and in a suite, I found myself being allocated a room, not a suite, however I decided not to complain and later that evening I rendezvoused with my partner. At no time, upon checking in, did the hotel ask for details of the 2nd person and I was so weary from to days of travelling I didn’t think to bring it to their attention, apparently it wasn’t that important to them.
After our evening out together it was in the early hours of the next morning that we were arriving, together, at the hotel only for a member of hotel staff to deny us, to deny my partner, entry unless she was able to provide documented evidence of her identity.
I travel and stay in hotel regularly, internationally some hotels ask for passports and some do not, however this is not a legal requirement as a passport may only be passed to an authorised person of which a hotel receptionist is not, however I have never known that one needs to provide documented evidence of their identity when travelling domestically in their own country. This was not a condition of the reservation I made with the hotel, they had not informed me of it at any time previously, and I attempted to discuss it with the particular member of hotel staff.
Admittedly, having had my trip already disrupted and this hotel were now disrupting it further, I was not in the best of moods but it was his attitude that particularly agitated me, as I attempted to discuss the situation and how we may resolve it he walked away from me with an attitude that it was not open to discussion nor resolve. I asked to speak with hotel management and with a sneer he seemed to enjoy telling me that hotel management would not be available until 9 o’clock later that morning and I deemed his attitude as threatening, turning my back on him he then attacked me by throwing his arm around my throat and wrestling me to the floor.
My only resistance, whilst pleading in pain regarding my broken ribs, which I had informed the hotel of 3 days previously when asking for extra pillows to support my back whilst sleeping, was to wrestle free from his attack and the hold he had on me, he subsequently made claim that I had attacked him and attempted to provoke a reaction from me, in vain, that stories would be collaborated between the receptionist and himself accordingly.
My partner had made her way to another hotel, one that we had stayed at previously and without a need for this documented evidence ‘nonsense’ and some time afterwards I joined her. I, almost immediately, thereafter transmitted an email to Hotel Garden Palace reporting the incident, cancelling the reservation that they failed to honour, and informing them that if they wished to take the matter further then we could do it via lawyers. Rather than respond they opted to charge, or attempt to charge, the entire reservation, the one that I never received, to my debit card, a transaction that I have not authorised, and I now find myself in communication with my bank regarding this fraudulent transaction.
I can only warn others to not stay at this hotel, if you do then be very wary of the staff member that bears a similar appearance to this actor www.imdb.com/name/nm0000115 and do not provide them with your card number.
Signed
MC
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