We stayed at Crowne Plaza Sofia for one night on 13 June after receiving recommendations from friends who regularly stay at this hotel. Unfortunately, our experience was extremely disappointing.
We booked two rooms for three adults and two children and specifically asked for rooms close to each other. This request was completely ignored. Not only were the rooms not adjacent, they were located on different floors. Since the elevator access cards only work for your own floor, we could not even easily visit each other.
Check-in was incredibly slow. Two receptionists spent around 20 minutes checking us in, which is something I have never experienced before.
Before going to the pool, we called reception and asked for children’s bathrobes. The receptionist, whose name I believe was Tsvetomira, first insisted that the bathrobes were already in the room and then abruptly ended the phone conversation. The level of customer service was unacceptable. The children’s bathrobes finally arrived about an hour later, after we had already gone to the pool and no longer needed them.
The swimming pool experience was by far the worst part of our stay. I strongly advise families with children to think twice before using it. The pool is apparently shared with external visitors who come specifically for training sessions. In a relatively small pool with no physical lane dividers, they expected hotel guests, including young children, to stay out of “their area”.
My four-year-old daughter was hit in the head by one of the swimmers. He later claimed that she was on “his side” of the pool. Instead of apologizing, some people present suggested that I was “probably not European” and therefore did not understand “European Union rules”. Such comments were completely unacceptable and felt openly discriminatory.
When the pool manager was called, nothing meaningful was done because these swimmers were apparently regular users of the facility. I then spoke with a receptionist, again I believe her name was Tsvetomira, who tried to explain that invisible lines marked on the bottom of the pool should have been respected by our children, despite there being no actual lane dividers. Rather than showing concern for a four-year-old child who had just been hurt and was crying, the staff chose to defend regular pool users.
This was easily one of the worst hotel experiences I have had in the last ten years. What shocked me the most was not the accident itself, but the complete lack of empathy, accountability and professionalism afterwards.
Families with children should be extremely careful. Based on our experience, I cannot recommend this hotel.
