Spice Palace Hotel

I booked a room that was supposed to have a pool view. They said that wasn't available upon check-in, but maybe the next day. They proceeded to show me what they were calling "pool view", which was not. There are NO pool-view rooms here. At one point, there may have been pool view rooms from a balcony, but the pool is now covered with a tarp roof (why?) which makes it impossible to see from any balcony and blocks the sun while you're in the pool area. (The buildings all around it are so tall, it isn't necessary to provide shade). All the reviews about card keys not working EVERY TIME you return to your room are real. They claim you can't have your phone next to your room key. These items are frequently near one another in a pocket or purse. This has never happened in any other hotel, worldwide. Seems like it's not really the problem and should be able to be resolved. It's true, every time you walk back into the hotel, just stop at the front desk and ask them to reset your room key. Otherwise, you'll walk all the way to your room and your key won't work, and you'll have to walk to the front desk and wait for them to reset it, and then walk back to your room. The bathroom next to the tiny plunge pool always stank, badly. The space was OK for a quick cool-off, but always stank too much to hang out there. There were also employees hanging out in the tiny space during their breaks, which made swimming alone feel uncomfortable. Finally, since you have to put your room key into a device on the wall in your room in order to make the electricity work, you cannot have the shower hot water heater on while you are outside the room (at the pool or at the rooftop restaurant for breakfast or dinner). If you get a second room key upon check-in, you can leave that in for the water heater, while you're out of the room.