Enchanted…ish: Our Shockingly Bad 4 Star Hotel Stay in Slovakia

You would assume that staying in a 4 star hotel that has a 9 rating on booking.com and 4.5 on Google will be pretty good, right?

So did we. Until we went.

This is a story about how many things were not-quite-4-star-level during our 4 star hotel stay in Slovakia.

Oh, can we ask you for a favour? We know we haven’t even given you anything in exchange yet, but hear us out.

Can you read the post and then tell us whether we’re just too demanding? 

Whether all this in fact is okay for a 4* hotel?

Help us – we’d hate to be turning into posh travellers without realising! We’re still in our backpacking era – with the occasional 4 star side quests (even if sometimes unsuccessful ones).

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Here’s a little bit about our journey, if you are new here! If you know us, feel free to skip this part.

After leaving our old life in Scotland in March 2022 (it rains too much there), we travelled full-time for almost 2 years. Sounds fancy, doesn’t it? Well, it was. If you think that carrying overpacked backpacks in 45°C heat around streets that aren’t even on Google Maps is fancy. And that’s just 1% of all the fun we had! 😆

During the 2 years we volunteered in Italy and Bulgaria (free travel while learning new skills, anyone?), explored other amazing European countries and backpacked Southeast Asia. Btw, even our secret wedding was more of an expedition than a wedding. 😅

And, of course, we researched and planned everything ourselves, because you gotta keep the budget low, right? If you are like us, you’ve come to the right place, because we want to share all the useful travel tips and info with you!

Excited? Good. Let’s get into it so you can go on your own epic adventures too!

How to stay in a 4 star hotel for free

We know what you’re thinking.

If you got the 4 star hotel stay in Slovakia for free, why are you complaining here?

Thing is, we didn’t!

This wasn’t a PR stay or something like that.

We’re not such fancy influencers. Yet! You can also help us out here – give us a follow on our Instagram so we can maybe get sponsored 4* hotel stays and bring you more 💩show stories from them? 

Back to the story!

This wasn’t a completely free stay and we did have to give up our luggage to get it. 

Wait what?

Yep, that’s another Enchanted…ish story we might share one day.

If you want to know how we got this 4 star hotel stay in Slovakia for (almost) free, though, read this. We explain everything there.

What you need to know about our 4 star hotel stay in Slovakia

Here is some basic info:

• Which hotel was it? Horizont Resort
• Where is it located? In Stará Lesná, in the High Tatras mountains in Slovakia
• When did we stay there? August 2025
• How long did we stay for? 2 nights
• How much did it cost? If we had paid the full price for 2 nights (which we didn’t because FREE STAY!), booking via the official website, it would have been €226 for 2 people. 

A note on the cheap price: Yes, it was super cheap, considering it was during the peak summer season. But this was weekday nights, instead of a weekend, and we booked the cheapest room called Basic Room (gotta love hotels keeping your expectations in check with these room names).

4 star hotel stays in Slovakia

First, we want to say that this wasn’t the worst hotel we’ve stayed at. 

Far from it. 

As full-time travellers, we had our share of bad hotel experiences. More stories for our Enchanted…ish series?

But this was the crappiest 4* service we’ve ever got—at least so far.

Warning about travelling in Slovakia

Slovakia might be a relatively safe country (aside from the things that’ll try to kill you).

It might have pretty decent water you won’t 💩 yourself from (second 💩 emoji and we’re just getting started!).

And it might have unique experiences you won’t have anywhere else (add these to your bucket list!).

But one thing that travellers are often shocked by?

Customer service in Slovakia sucks.

Not just in hotels.

In shops.

In restaurants.

In administrative organisations (especially in those! You are there to serve them, not the other way around!).

Not everywhere, of course. The smart business owners now understand the importance of customer service and have improved things.

But generally speaking, don’t expect to be treated like royalty there.

Btw this might explain why this 4* hotel is still so highly rated, despite the crappy experience it offers.

Slovak people just don’t expect much, even from 4 stars.

If this got you concerned about your trip to Slovakia, give us a shout on our Instagram. Or book a call with us and we can chat through your plans in more detail—we don’t want you to be stressing about your trip!

Okay, now, let’s judge this 4* hotel, shall we?

Here are the things we think are NOT OKAY in a 4* hotel, but let us know what you think?

#1 The hotel decides when you arrive—not you

Before checking in for this 4 star hotel stay in Slovakia, we were at a different accommodation, in the same village. We spent 2 nights there, as part of our (almost) free stay and then had 2 nights booked in this 4* hotel.

Our plan?

Check out from the first accommodation, walk to the 4* hotel, drop our luggage off in hotel’s storage and go on a day trip in the High Tatras mountains.

Sounds like a good, sensible plan, right?

Not in this 4* hotel!

The problem

When we got to the reception, the receptionist looked totally confused and first said we didn’t have a reservation. 

Naturally, that freaked us out—because this was an (almost) free stay, we worried something might go wrong.

Turns out, she did see the reservation in the system.

Her problem was that it was 9:45am and check in was from 2pm!

Um, we know, we just wanna drop off our suitcase and go for a hike?

It took a lot of back and forth for her to understand what we wanted, while she was looking at us like we were the crazy ones and kept repeating that check-in didn’t start till 2pm.

Keep in mind that Mirka is from Slovakia, so there wasn’t even a language barrier we could blame this on.

It ended with the receptionist opening the luggage storage room up and making a snide comment about diamonds, which was meant to look like a joke, but was clearly a dig at us looking young and not posh. (If only she knew that this was our posh selves showing up—we even had a suitcase!! Normally we just rock up with backpacks, like proper bums. 😂)

To tell you the truth, we’ve never felt more unwelcome in a hotel before! But we were determined to not let it ruin our stay—it was Mirka’s birthday the next day, which was the whole reason we were doing this holiday.

#2 Holey (not 😇) dressing gowns

Once we did check in (after 2pm, of course!!), we decided to go check out the pool and spa.

Karen the lovely receptionist lady instructed us we were to wear dressing gowns to the spa area—again making it obvious she thought we’d never stayed in a hotel before, let alone did a 4 star hotel stay in Slovakia (which is true, we hadn’t, but we did stay in plenty of 4, even 5* hotels around the world, with actual decent customer service).

The fancy-pancy dressing gowns? 

Mirka’s had holes in it. 

Very 4* feel.

#3 The spa secrets

Here are the facts:

• The lifeguard was an older guy who spent most of his time sitting in his office next to the pool.
• The swim-up bar bartender was a young girl who spent most of her time in the office chatting with him.
• Once they disappeared for a decent amount of time and then came back together.

We’re not suggesting anything.

We’re just saying that:

• people swimming around the bar wondering how on earth they can order a drink in a bartender-less bar
• the area around the pool being totally covered in water and deadly slippery
• the wellness area falling apart, including saunas not working and an ice bucket being overturned and flooding the whole spa area with icy water

…is not what people expect in a 4* hotel. But lifeguard and bartender were having a fab time and we guess being happy in your workplace is also important, right? 😏

#4 Bring your night vision goggles

Venturing out after dark?

We hope you have eyeshine vision like Riddick. Or packed your night vision glasses.

Because if you think an entrance to a 4* hotel will be illuminated, you’re wrong.

The picture below is actually too kind—it was darker than that in real life!

This is why we talk about travel safety a lot.

And why we tell you to get good travel insurance, all the time.

You never know what kind of a 4 star hotel stay in Slovakia you’ll have. It’s best to be covered, just in case you miss a step (because you can’t see it 😬).

#5 Mobile people only

Speaking of the entrance—stairs only?

Good luck with a pram, crutches, wheelchair, heavy suitcases or anything else. 

Maybe there was an accessible entrance somewhere, but it definitely wasn’t obvious.

#6 Which beer do you want? The expired one?

Ordered beer at dinner for Daniel. (While breakfast and dinner were included in the price, drinks during dinner time were not.)

Got a beer past its best before date. We didn’t complain because Daniel is British, and, technically, it’s just “best before”.

Mirka did tell the waiting staff afterwards, though, to spare them an angry guest encounter in the future.

The staff looked panicked and we saw them carry the incriminating beer bottles away.

Next day’s dinner, order the beer again.

You can imagine how surprised we were when we got the same beer, with the same past-best-before date!

In the staff’s defence, this could have been a managerial decision, to bring the bottles back.

In hotel’s defence… actually, there isn’t any defence. You don’t serve beer past its best before date at a 4* hotel. Especially when you’re charging the guests a premium price for it. And when those guests point it out to you.

#7 Breakfast happens at dinner time

What’s the atmosphere you want as you’re having a nice dinner in your 4* hotel after a day of hiking around the High Tatras?

The staff clearing the dining cutlery/dishes away and setting up breakfast… right around the tables where the guests are still eating their dinner. 😬

It really created a 4* dining experience (lol!).

#8 Putting elbows on a table is impolite anyway

Another fun dinner story that happened during our 4 star hotel stay in Slovakia?

A waitress took Mirka’s plate away, dropped cutlery on the table, said sorry, left the table with a blob of sauce and food on it and never came back to clean it.

We guess elbows are not meant to be on a table anyway, so *technically* Mirka shouldn’t touch the part of the table right where her left arm normally goes? 🤔

#9 Strangers in a room

We saved the best for last.

When we came to our room after the fantastic and welcoming check-in process (lol!), we noticed there is an extra door next to our bed.

That is locked.

Now, what would you think?

Quarantined zombies?

Portal to another dimension?

Or are you normal and would you just think it’s a cleaners’ closet… for some reason, in a guest room?

We discovered the answer at night.

When we went to sleep.

Switched the lights off.

And noticed there is a light coming from underneath the locked door.

And then voices.

😳

So what did we do?

Something we should have done as soon as we got into the room after check-in.

The best thing to do if you’re worried about your hotel room

We checked the booking.com reviews again and, as it turns out, some of the Basic Rooms are indeed interconnected with a door.

So the lights and voices were just guests next door.

Ah of course! Duh!

How very dumb of us not realising that, right?

Except.

This is a freaking 4* hotel.

And the last thing you would expect is a thin door separating you from other guests.

Meaning there is light coming through the door to our room, for however long the neighbours leave it on.

And you can hear their conversations and TV, because hello, it’s just a door, not a thick wall!

Naturally, in the pics on booking.com you can’t see the door. And our lovely reception lady didn’t bother informing us about it either.

Of course we also didn’t come across it in reviews. You’d have to read every single one of them and that is just undoable.

And we have to admit, with a 4 star hotel stay in Slovakia, we thought we don’t have to be as thorough, as say a 2* guesthouse in Southeast Asia.

Travelling is amazing, every time you learn how little you still know! 😆

What can you do to avoid a bad 4 star hotel stay in Slovakia?

What can you actually do, to avoid having such a fantastic 4* hotel experience, like we did?

1. Start by picking accommodation with high ratings on booking.com/Google/wherever you book. That being said, as you can see, it doesn’t always mean good quality!
2. Always check reviews. Not just on booking.com, check Google ones as well.
3. Learn how to read reviews. That means with a pinch of salt (or sometimes a whole salt shaker), reading between the lines and knowing what people are like.
4. Filter for the lowest scores first. That way you can see what’s the most horrific stuff you can expect. Is it the fact that there were no English TV channels? Or the fact you might bring little bonus home in the form of bed bugs? 2 low reviews, but 2 very different levels of a problem.
5. After filtering for the lowest scores, filter for the most recent ones. Things change over time. This 4* hotel we stayed at? Used to be amazing—based on what people are saying. These days though? Well, you read what’s it like in this post.
6. If one person says something in a review, maybe they just had a bad day. Or they are a cranky person. But if 15 people say something in the last 50 reviews? It’s probably going to be true.
7. If something is really bothering you during your stay, speak up while you are there. Yes, it can be a struggle, especially with certain staff/managers/receptionists, but at least you can say you tried, rather than just raging afterwards in a review.
8. We’ve said it before, but get good travel insurance. You know, in case you trip on the pitch black entrance stairs. Or slip walking around the deadly pool. All sorts of danger lurk even in 4* hotels!

We hope our experience of this 4 star hotel stay in Slovakia didn’t completely discourage you from visiting the country.

If you do have any questions, remember you can drop us a DM on our Instagram or, if you are actually planning your Slovak holiday, book a call with us and we can chat more.

So what do you think? Are we overacting or is this really not a 4* treatment? Let us know in the comments below or on our Instagram, if you don’t want to voice your opinion publicly and embarrass the hotel further (they did do it to themselves though).