Al Manara, a Luxury Collection Hotel, Saraya Aqaba

We had a very bad experience during check in. Despite explaining that we were very tired & hungry (as it's already almost 8 in the evening), and we just need to check in immediately & have dinner; the staff at the reception denied our confirmed & paid reservation at trip.com. The staff knew that we were very tired, and we even offered to guarantee reservation with our credit card (just so we get the room & can have dinner); but he insisted to keep us waiting until he can get the response from trip.com. After waiting for so long, he said that still no responses from trip.com and he just asked us to wait forever. I got really upset after a long argument with him; and i have to strongly argue with him to give us room & we paid with our credit card for a new reservation. WE NEED A ROOM! I showed him the amount I paid for the Seaview Room charged in USD. (I just realised the next day that he charged me the wrong amount instead of calculating it to USD amount with the correct convertion). So i was charged a wrong amount as I was too tired to check how much he charged me. After a long argument & waiting, he finally gave me the room key; and said sorry for the waiting. They said that they will upgrade the room as an apologies. Just when we were in the room, I found out that they DID NOT upgrade the room. That's exactly the room I booked at trip.com; just I had to pay again with my credit card with a much higher rate! I was to tired to argue with the staff, so I no longer care after calling them saying they didn't upgrade us! This staff didn't even try to change the room; after we said this is not an upgrade. We PAID for this room category at trip.com. Nobody apologies for these so many mistakes from the staffs or management. When we checked out, the manager asked me how was our stay? He was not even aware that WE HAD ISSUES that they denied our paid & confirmed booking! Trip.com finally settled this issue with the hotel, and the hotel returned our overpaid credit card charged. Trip.com apologies a few times, they made many efforts to call us a few times. But the hotel & the management acting as if nothing happened! Is this really how a 5 stars hotel service? Luxury what? They treated us like a homeless person begging for room! So UNACCEPTABLE! I have never experienced staying in a 5 stars hotel with such a BAD service like this! This is the worst in our history of travel! This place must keep their act together! Learn hospitality BETTER! Overall, we were very disappointed, & this place is far from Luxury Collection, it's a CHEAP collection!

Best hotel

Nice facility, very welcoming reception, decent food and restaurants options. I like the design of the resort..