Testimonies from guests along the Croatian coast reveal a widespread problem of unprofessional behavior among hospitality staff, from rude waiters to dirty rooms and insufferable ice cream vendors.
A group of eight people came to grab a bite on the island of Brač, but their lunch was spoiled before they even sat down. The waiter greeted them at a completely empty restaurant terrace and ruined the atmosphere with a single sentence, recounted Reddit user LivelyRadish6849, whose experience was shared by Zagreb.info.
According to her account, the group entered the restaurant and told the waiter there were more of them, and two joined tables were already set up on the terrace. The waiter told them they could sit there. Her husband, jokingly pointing out how many they were, said that's where they had planned to sit.
The waiter then, she claims, rudely replied: "You won't sit where you had in mind, but where I tell you." Her husband retorted that they could eat elsewhere if it was too hard for him to be polite, adding that he would understand the comment if the restaurant were full or if they hadn't meant the same spot. After that, the waiter calmed down a bit, and the owner or manager came over, seated them, and pulled the waiter aside.
A post on the Facebook page Savjetnik za putovanja, Travel Advisor was started by Sonja, who complained about increasingly common excuses in hotels. "Lately, I often hear in hotels: 'Oh, well, we have three stars, what did you expect?' and similar. As if they're proud of not providing any service," she wrote.
Sonja added that she is a gastronome and hospitality professional by trade and was taught to be attentive and courteous to guests, but it increasingly seems to her that that old school has died out.
CopperFish7197 compared experiences from four-star and three-star hotels and concluded that the number of stars doesn't have to be decisive. In the four-star hotel, the room and bathroom were clean, but the spa, she claims, hadn't been cleaned since it opened, the jacuzzi was very dirty, and tiles were falling off in the sauna. She described the breakfast as "really pathetic."
Last year, she stayed at a three-star hotel where the furniture was from the '70s, but the rooms were clean, the spa was clean, and the breakfast was so abundant that, as she wrote, it was "stop, look, and choose." She concluded that it all depends on how much effort one puts in.
A particularly unpleasant experience was described by Mirela, who was on Korčula at the time of writing her comment. "So much disinterest in the guest and mocking smirks, from reception to waiters, it's unbelievable," she wrote, adding that it was a three-star hotel.
She emphasized that she is neither spoiled nor arrogant and doesn't expect luxury, just basic culture and professionalism. She noticed from their speech that all hotel employees, as she stated, were from Serbia and Bosnia, which surprised her. "My vacation won't be ruined, but it leaves a bitter taste in the mouth," she concluded.
Duda described a recent experience in Istria, also in a four-star hotel. The room hadn't been cleaned, so she took the vacuum cleaner she found in the hallway and vacuumed it herself. Dust was everywhere, the sofa where the child was supposed to sleep was too hard, and the extra blankets in the closets had large stains. The curtains were torn, and there were too few loungers around the pool.
The only positive, according to her, was the restaurant with diverse and abundant food and very friendly staff. Despite that, she said she would not book that hotel again.
Nina hasn't had negative experiences on the Croatian coast, but she pointed out that what annoys her most are ice cream vendors who "lure guests, cheerfully shouting and tossing scoops back and forth, then touch the cone and money with the same hands, and get sulky if you don't take more than two scoops or ask for half-and-half."
She did, however, have an unpleasant experience in Venice, where a restaurant took her plate literally the moment she picked up the last bite with her fork. "We were in the restaurant for literally 20 minutes. It wasn't crowded, so people weren't waiting to sit down while we took up space," she said.
One anonymous user shared that she worked on an American cruise ship for years, where the rule "the guest is always right" was instilled in her. Even on the toughest day, she says, she would never transfer negativity to a guest. She added that even while working in Croatia, she felt embarrassed when colleagues loudly gossiped about guests or couldn't hide their angry faces.
