Pros: The restaurant and its staff are incredibly nice, open until 9pm (past that, they only serve main dishes) and the meals we had were top notch; we even got a comp'ed appetizer. The pool and spa are open until 11pm and we took advantage of that. There is a table tennis table and a pool table. We had a few extra coffee pods and tea bags added to our closet that they had placed there as extras (no cost to us). You are also close to the Austerlitz Pyramid (just down the road), which is nice to visit (note that this is not the Austerlitz where the 1805 battle took place, just a monument built in 1804 by Auguste de Marmont's soldiers, renamed ”the Pyramid of Austerlitz” in 1806 after Napoleon Bonaparte's 1805 Austerlitz victory). Cons: The facility seems to be ”old world chique” and does appeal to a certain clientele. Due to the way this hotel/restaurant was built and added to over the years, it is quite the labyrinth. If you want to get to the pool, you will have to arm yourself with patience. Moreover, the signs are in Dutch only and the signage is not well done (see the pool reference). Breakfast cost at the time, 18.50 Euro and we skipped it, since there are a few supermarkets and bakeries in the area (car or bike required). Now, our main con was that we reserved a room for 4 adults and we confirmed with a King and 2 twin beds... the fourth bed was a foldable cot or ”camping” bed. The mattress was no more than 2 inches thick and 1 inch once you laid on to it. Needless to say that that person had a rough night. There is no food ordering from outside the hotel, like Uber. The Wi-Fi was really bad from our room. They limit you to 4 coffee pods (a day (based on our total occupancy) and you need to pay if you want more.
Een superiour kamer geboekt voor een nacht inclusief ontbijt. Pluspunten: - grote douche - heerlijk (groot bed) - ontzettend goede verduisterende gordijnen - grote minibar/ koelkastje - vriendelijke ontvangst - over het algemeen een nette / schone kamer Minpunten: - klein balkon zonder meubilair (je betaalt extra voor het balkon, maar je kunt er eigenlijk geen gebruik van maken...) - slecht en traag werkende tv - kitranden douche vergeeld - ontbijt standaard - geen activiteiten in het hotel (bijv tafeltennis, biljart, darten etc). Voor €124 geen goede prijs / kwaliteit verhouding en we zouden dit hotel daarom geen t****e keer boeken.
I booked a 3-day stay at the hotel, and just a week before I was to arrive, it got cancelled because there ”was an error in processing my payment”. It's the exact same card I've been using and has been working just fine. I booked this stay back in august, and up until a week before there's been no problems until they suddenly cancel my stay. That is just less than a week before my stay while they're completely booked up, so I'd have to find another accommodation. There might be a reasonable explanation as to why they couldn't process the payment, but it seems rather weird that the card I'm using, which hasn't had any issues, would be invalid.
The hotel is set in a nice location in the country and a 20 minute walk from the train station which was ok for me, even if it was uphill which is weird in NL ! Check-in was weird, for some reason the two people were talking about us in Dutch and laughing at us, nice welcome. There were three of us arriving at 14:30 but our room wouldn’t be ready until 15:00 so the individually stored our bags, which was weird. My colleagues wanted to use the gym, but despite the fact we were there for almost a week there were no slots…..weird, later found out the hotel had leased the gym to a fitness trainer - why not be honest about it! Rooms have almost no sound deadening, TV didn’t work, no hand soap in the room and piece of foam for a bed wasn’t the best, I guess from that perspective you get what you pay for. Most of the bar staff and waiter staff were brilliant, great personalities and wanted to do their best for you which was nice. The food was a bit patchy and got the impression they were struggling in the kitchen, no different to many hotels and mostly ok, my group had to reject a couple of steaks, but was dealt with reasonable professionally. The meeting room was tight and a bit dangerous from the perspective the laptop power points were on the wall and created quite some trip hazard and the overhead projector build had seen better days and made the colours wishy washy. And now for the downright ugly, now I do get that hotels are struggling to recruit in current climate, but why would you put your worst employee on reception! We had an American VIP join out meeting, he only drinks Coke, as there was no one in the bar area I asked if reception could help. He said he could, promptly brought two bottles of Coke but then told me that I wasn’t “authorised” to put this on my room and I needed to pay cash. I tried to reason with this person that I didn’t have cash on me and as we were spending in the region of 15,000€ with the hotel perhaps he could either add it to the meeting room cost, or food and beverage cost. He told me that he was not prepared to do so! He summoned a colleague from back office and she agreed the only option as I had no cash on me was to leave with the Coke. I was rather upset by this treatment and to my discredit I raised my voice, and despite a colleague was on the phone to potentially another guest and there was a queue behind me, they simply didn’t care and it was more important to them that they didn’t release the Coke with payment ! I left shocked, then entered the kitchen to find the bar staff cleaning dishes as they we short staffed, which I understand, and her comment was “ I don’t know how to charge you for the Coke, but you take it and I’ll figure it out”. Give this lady a promotion and send the clowns on reception to wash the dishes.
We have stayed there twice and both times the service and food was the best you could ask for. All staff are very friendly and helpful. The rooms are always kept clean and we always feel saft staying there and the price is great. If you need a place to stay in Zeist NL. you need to look no farther than the Hotel Theater Figi ” it's the best” Van and Linda Scott