Van der Valk Hotel Gent

was really good experience also suprise so good breakfast

nothing

It was easy to access

Too far from the centre of the city.

Breakfast was lovely staff were very accomodating and even allowed us to go to the kitchen to use to microwave to heat our food up.

Absolutely nothing. My partner and I had no faults during our stay. It was by far our favourite hotel of our entire trip!

nice building, very good breakfast

The hotel itself may be acceptable, but its customer policies are unnecessarily complicated, unfriendly, and frankly excessive. They leave guests feeling distrusted rather than welcomed. This was by far the most disappointing aspect of our stay, and it is something future guests should be aware of before booking. The room service menu offered only 3 or 4 very limited options, all of which were poor in both quality and value for money. To make matters even worse, if you wanted the food delivered to your room, the hotel charged an additional €15 delivery fee. On top of that, they blocked €150 on your credit card before allowing you to place the order, supposedly for possible future charges. This completely defeats the purpose of having room service. If guests are already paying for the food and an expensive delivery fee, why require an additional security hold? Even more frustrating was the hotel's payment policy at check-in. Although our stay had been fully prepaid, the hotel charged (not simply pre-authorised) a €250 security deposit for each suite. This policy was not mentioned anywhere on Booking.com. The amount remained unavailable throughout our three-day stay, was actually charged to the card on the day of departure, and was only refunded the following day. Such a practice unnecessarily ties up guests' money and should be clearly disclosed before booking. Another surprise was that the minibars in the suites were completely empty. Even ordering a simple drink from the bar required scanning a QR code, placing the order electronically, and paying in advance before the order was even prepared. With all these restrictions, prepayments, deposits and security holds, one naturally wonders: what exactly is the purpose of charging such a large security deposit?