Boutique Hotel Soclo

A beautiful, friendly oasis in the middle of a vibrant, welcoming city. Nothing was ever too much trouble, the food was excellent and the Sunday brunch, truly magnificent. The hotel truly felt like a home from home, only with very special care from the excellent staff.

My family had a very negative experience at this hotel, though I’ll begin with the positives: the interior is beautiful, the food is yummy and homemade, i especially liked the pies, great varsity and all taste good, additionally the garden is lovely and well-maintained. However, the service and treatment we received were far from professional. Although some workers were nice, When we arrived, we were told to park in the hotel’s car park—which was completely empty at the time. A staff member even showed my dad where to park and instructed him to leave the car there. So, we did exactly that. Shockingly, after midnight, the hotel called my room—waking up my younger sister, who doesn’t speak fluent English and was understandably scared and confused to receive a call so late. She contacted me (I was out at the time), and I then called the hotel. The receptionist insisted that the car needed to be moved immediately, claiming it was incorrectly parked and causing a problem. I explained that I wasn’t at the hotel, my sister is too young to drive, and my dad—who had been driving since 6 AM—was asleep. I asked why the issue was being treated as an emergency, especially since we parked where we were told to. The staff member was rude, dismissive, and eventually hung up on me. He then woke my exhausted father up around 1 AM to move the car—from one empty spot to another in the same empty car park. From what I heard, the staff member (Vincent, I believe) was not very kind to my dad either. To make matters worse, my dad was so tired that he forgot to lock the car afterward, which could’ve led to a serious issue. Funny enough the next day the car park was still almost empty ( i attached a picture), which makes me wonder why was the matter so urgent it had to be dealt with at night. The next morning at checkout, I calmly informed the other receptionist of the situation, as no one has even apologised to us during the morning regarding what’s happened. While she did apologise, we were offered no compensation—no complimentary breakfast, discount, or even a token gesture. At a quality hotel, something like this should never happen in the first place. And when it does, a sincere apology followed by a small act of goodwill is usually standard. In conclusion: while the hotel looks nice and the food is great, the service fell short and the handling of our situation was disappointing. As someone from a family that also runs a hotel, I know how important it is to have strong management and staff training in place to ensure that guests are treated respectfully and consistently. Sadly, this stay felt disorganised and lacking in that regard, completely ruining our stay at the hotel, i hope you can improve in the future.