briansN2743ED
October 6, 2021
I booked months in advance for the London Marathon - great location, with restaurants nearby, public transport to the start line, and it said parking was available. After booking I tried to contact them countless times over messaging (through *******), email and phone (always voicemail) asking to reserve a parking space. I never received a single response. I finally got through about 2 weeks before the marathon and spoke to someone who really couldn't be bothered, and said I couldn't reserve - it was first come first served. No good to me so I found/paid for a parking space myself, about a 2 minute walk away. I thought I was sorted. I booked a meal for the evening at a local Italian. On the Saturday morning, just as I was about to leave home, they called me to basically say don't come, as I had not paid my security deposit. I asked if they were cancelling my booking right at the last minute and they said no, they had cancelled it a while ago and this was just a "courtesy call" to remind me not to come! I read them back their email which said the deposit was payable when checking in, and there was no mention of payment in advance - they said the email was wrong, but I was still cancelled. I complained to *******, and after a couple of hours ******* told me they had sorted it out so I should start my journey into London. We arrived around 4pm, but was refused entry as we had not paid our deposit!!! I made it clear I was very happy to pay it and they finally accepted that I really did want to pay it. They said that they would get their finance department to contact me within 15-30 minutes. This went around in circles for hours while we were sitting in the reception of one of the apartment blocks they use (wet as it was raining, hungry, and needing the toilet after hours of travelling and waiting) - most of the time I called them I got their answerphone. ******* contacted them numerous times and was told each time I would be contacted within 15-30 minutes. After a LOT of complaining to ******* they finally agreed to move me to an alternative location - we arrived at a very poor quality alternative (which was probably all that was left by this time) - AROUND 10PM. Needless to say I was extremely stressed by this point, had not eaten dinner, and found out the alternative accommodation was 2.5 miles from the marathon start line with no public transport. All of the careful planning I did counted for nothing. As ******* moved me to different accommodation I can't even put a review on ******* to say how terrible City Stay are, as it only lets you review places you actually stay at! I do wonder what ******* does to discourage this type of appalling behaviour - City Stay can treat people like absolute rubbish, completely let you down, and the only 'penalty' seems to be that they don't get paid for your stay (which they had already accepted anyway as they cancelled!)?!? AVOID AT ALL COSTS!!!