Villa St. Sofija

PROS: The location was right in the centre. There were two male staff that were nice, one dark-haired and one blonde. The blonde one offered us drinks on the house every evening and brought them up to our room too. The dark-haired one took our breakfast orders on the last day, and although did not have very strong English, looked to be trying his best to serve us. They also carried some of our luggage up to our room on the first day. The TV had a few English channels like Animal Planet. CONS: Right from the start, it was a disaster. Location is difficult to reach by taxi and my elderly grandmother had to walk down a steep slope to get to the entrance. The entrance itself was difficult to find as it was all in Macedonian, and we only noticed we were at the right place from the TripAdvisor certificate. The hotel is by no means accessible for anyone who is not able-bodied. One must climb up 5 steps just to reach the reception, and they have seemingly never heard of ramps. As we approached the desk to check-in, we overheard other guests having problems with their own bookings. When it came time for our turn, we were informed by the dark-haired lady at the desk that she needed our passports in order to check us in. This was no problem in itself, as every other hotel has photocopied our passports before showing us to our room. However, she told us to go to our room and that she would bring us our passports in approximately half an hour. Being our only mode of identification and therefore the only way we could get back out of Macedonia, we flatly refused this outlandish behaviour. She kept arguing with us until we decided to place everything in our rooms and come back downstairs. When we came back, she was not using our passports and said she needed an indefinite amount of time with them in her possession. After arguing back and forth, not knowing if she was even understanding us, she finally handed over our passports.

CONS contd: This, however, was only the start. In order to access the rooms, we needed to climb up 2 long flights of steep steps, as they have no elevator. When we finally reached what was meant to be a Deluxe Suite, we found it to be quite the opposite. Meant for four people, the room was instead clearly made for two. There was one room with a very low double bed with an attached bathroom that clearly had been remodelled hastily. The bathroom had a modern sink with an unsteady bowl that nearly fell over each time you leaned onto it, a normal toilet and a very strange shower. The shower had jets at the side that didn't work and water was either freezing or boiling. There was zero storage in said bathroom. Next room had two things presented as beds. Mattresses were lumpy and had springs poking out, so two guests slept on the balcony and a chair. Wifi was always glitching, so we had to restart router ourselves many times. Breakfast was a big mess. In a room with horrible sad ballads playing. They had no menu and the lady (same as reception) seemed annoyed when we asked what was available. Everything was ice cold and the portions were crazy. Asked for a fried egg with bacon and received a dinner plate with four ice cold eggs and a plate with a single slice of cold bacon. Crepe looked like soggy skin. The only thing somewhat edible was the toast and the bacon on the second day, which was thinner and slightly warm. The cleaner was also very creepy, moving our belongings around and shuffling around personal items. Doors opened and closed by themselves and horrible statues looked at you while sleeping. Some of our items (umbrella, teabags, booking papers, apple, skirt) went missing even when we asked cleaner not to visit. The TV would turn off by itself too. Teamaking facilities as advertised were nonexistent and plugs were all wobbly. Pillows were too soft, we had to use sofa cushions to prop them up. Toiletries were only provided for two people.