Hotel Justinia Reviews

The moment we were dropped off (in two taxes because there were five of us, plus luggage) on the steps of the Justinia, we had a bad feeling.

There was no staff to greet us or indeed any sign of other holiday makers around. We were left to struggle with suitcases etc. up flights of steps to the Reception, which was located in a very dark hall. A stale, unclean smell drifted towards us. After about 5 minutes of filling in 'vistor cards' we were given our keys and shown to the lifts. A maximum of two persons could fit in them, so you can imagine with luggage this took several journeys to reach our floor. Even then, we still needed to climb a further flight of stairs to our room. On opening the door (which opened outwards into the corridor, rather than into the apartment - which later became a safety concern), the room on the whole looked OK, but as we unpacked and gradually got our whereabouts, we began to see the flaws:-

The lights above the bed were hanging from live wires.

The windows were old wooden windows, that desperately needed replacing, let alone a good lick of paint - they were crumbling at the touch.

There was a gap around the whole of the balcony door - which would only close by a small bolt by the way - anyone having access to the balcony could easily break in - so my husband, bless him, sealed the whole door frame with gaffa tape (which he takes everywhere for such emergencies)that night to secure it.

Considering we had a kitchenette in the apartment, there was no kettle, no toaster, no cutlery, no crockery - yet there was a sink and a hob!

The bathroom was enough to turn your stomach - the bath was filthy and badly stained. The toilet seat did not stay up and there was a recess above the toilet that was full of cigarette butts and two discarded wine bottles! Again, the windows were dirty and rickety and did not lock properly. There was no hot water and the water we did manage to run from the tap just trickled! The bathroom light worked just the once then there was nothing, so bearing in mind that we had our son's friend with us, we could only use the bathroom at night if we left the door open, so we could see! The towels were supposed to be white, we assumed, but they looked grey and the stench from them of B.O. was disgusting.

We went out that evening, only to find that we were in what seemed the 'downtown' side of Sousse, which was very frightening and intimidating. Not a single holiday maker to be seen, only the local youths, who made us feel very uncomfortable in their approach. After eating in a local restaurant - which I must say - was most impressive and gave us a bit of a respite - we quickly made our way back to the Justinia. We couldn't believe it! We had to fight our way through a crowd of youths, yet again, to get into the hotel. They were all apparently hanging around the entrance to get into the hotel's disco, Latino Bar. Again, not one holiday maker in there, so there was no way we were going to go in! From all accounts it felt as though this hotel was the local hostel, so all we could do was take refuge in our apartment. We were that frightened that waiting for the lifts to arrive seemed a lifetime, so we all decided to make our way promptly up the stairs. To our horror, there were no lights, or at least no switches to put them on anyway and on every landing was scattered rugs, which were rumpled up and I tripped over them on more than one occasion! This was hell, I just wanted to get out quick!

I felt so sorry for our boys because they were looking forward to this holiday so much and here they were, frightened to sleep and were talking about taking it in turn to keep watch on the doors. They even propped up chairs against the doors, 'just in case'.

Well, my husband decided there and then that whatever it took, we were leaving this place first thing in the morning. If he had to scour the whole of Sousse to find other accommodation, we were not spending another night in this hovel!

In the morning, for breakfast, we went into the dining hall, which we had to find a member of staff to ask its whereabouts. The man we asked just pointed vaguely in a direction ahead of us, so we followed. No, this seemed to be a bar, with all chairs on top of tables, as if shut for the season. We went through another doorway. This seemed to be the dining hall, but again, there wasn't a soul to be seen. It could seat, I would say, about 200 people, but in the middle was one small table set with one bowl of olives, one bowl of sliced, 'tired looking' tomatoes, a bowl of manky looking cheese and a bowl of rock hard bread. Well, we almost cried, the look on our boys faces told a story. We couldn't even bring ourselves to have a cup of coffee or tea, because we didn't trust what was inside the urns. We couldn't face this for the next 10 days! There was absolutely no-one about - we came to the conclusion that we were the only ones (idiots) staying here - it was like something out of Fawlty Towers - only we weren't laughing.

We repacked our bags, went down to reception and signed out. Even the Receptionist said she understood and was very sorry. This hotel was sold to us on a 3 Star basis, but the Receptionist said it would barely make a 1 Star.

This review does have a happy ending, thank goodness. For that morning, all five of us went calling on various hotels (before we packed our bags of course), searching for alternative accommodation and telling them our disheartening story. Although we had to pay further, we were very lucky and booked ourselves into the Tej Marhaba (4 Star), which was fabulous and a safe refuge.