Review: Lodge at Bridgeview Resort at your own risk, this is why

Last week, my husband and I planned to take a trip to Akosombo for our 8th anniversary. After seeing so much hype from Bridgeview resort, we decided to try the place. At first, I tried booking with booking.com but due to security reasons, my bank didn’t authorize payment so I tried Expedia which has all my details and PayPal because I have booked hotels with them several times.

On booking.com, a clear description of the rooms came as you booked but on Expedia, it’s just the names of the rooms. I booked a 1 double bed luxury room for two nights that amounted to 456USD (paid cedis equivalent of 5462.5cedis).

Because of the payment failure on booking.com, somehow, the hotel felt my booking was canceled. One day prior to our journey, I called to confirm my booking and I was told it was canceled; and that is when I had to explain to them I booked on Expedia and paid with my PayPal instead. They rectified the situation and then told me everything was settled and my booking is confirmed.

My cousin and his newly wedded wife were lodging at Afrikiko hotel at the time we arrived at Akosombo, so we even went there first to have our lunch and they decided to go with us to check in at our hotel before we come back to Afrikiko for a boat ride, so we all went to Bridgeview resort together.

When we got there, reception asked if we were going inside with them and we were shocked; we said no and I even asked them how was it possible to have two couples in a room. They laughed and we went ahead to check our room.

Upon arrival to our room, I realized there were two beds in the room and I prompted the guy who took us there that this isn’t what I booked for, and that it’s just me and my husband, we don’t need two beds, we wanted a room for just one bed. The guy went on to explain further that the one bed rooms is their premium rooms and the one that I booked is even more expensive and nicer. I told him, well, if I can downgrade, I wouldn’t mind (and I wasn’t even going to ask for anything else because the booking I did was non-refundable).

The gentleman said he was going to speak with his manager to see what they can do. Maybe we may have to sleep in that two separate beds room for one night and then exchange for the other; I said no problem.

As we were seated waiting for the manager, we heard a hard knock and the person entered.

He immediately introduced himself and stated I was the one he was chatting with and that the room I booked is what I was given. And I explained to him that, well, when I saw 1 double bed, I thought it was just 1 double bed in the room; and he said no; in hotel terms, 1 double bed room means two beds in a room. And I said, well, that wasn’t my understanding when I was booking but when I was booking, I saw a bed, and a sitting area; here there is no sitting area and I would have appreciated it if I had a room like that.

Immediately, he got very agitated and started telling me that in the whole of Ghana, I would not get a room as big as this in any hotel with two beds and if I didn’t like it, they can give me a refund right now so we leave. We all didn’t appreciate his tone so we said ok. He told us to go to the front desk and take our money and leave his hotel and then he shouted at us that we should get out. That is where we all lost it; like how can you be that rude to people you don’t know? People who paid that amount to have a good time at your place.

Then, I told him I was going to give him a bad review on google; he blatantly told me he didn’t care about reviews because his hotel is always fully booked and my bad review wouldn’t change that and he didn’t need my money either. That is when my husband told him to shut the place down if he feels he doesn’t need anyone’s money.

So we walked to the reception where we thought our cash would be ready waiting for us so we can take it, get out of that place and look for another place; only to get there to be told Expedia would refund. We all lost it. Trust me when I tell you almost every guest came there begging us to calm down and everyone was surprised to hear of this man’s behavior towards us.

The money was eventually refunded into my PayPal which will take another 3weeks to get to my card and there and then, we had to book another hotel; so imagine we didn’t have money to book another hotel; and it was already past 5pm.

We called royal Senchi and they said they had a room so we went there and I gave Bridgeview the review he said he didn’t care about just for him to reply and lie that all four of us wanted to stay in the room. Laughable!

Upon looking at his bad reviews, I realized the owner is one who stereotypes and has a skewed mindset about some kind of people so when he saw us, he was probably thinking we are nobodies who just happened to get money to book his hotel.

I’m shocked that whole establishment does not have a qualified and diplomatic person to be their manager. In fact, I was surprised by this man’s actions and to even think that he came from abroad and he’s this unprofessional towards his customers; because you will never experience this kind of horrible situation in any developed country.

I hope he doesn’t repeat this to any customer and I sincerely hope he finds a manager who can handle all the “stupidities” of customers.