I stayed at the Hotel Jericho as the phantom guest!
.First of all this place is horrendously difficult to find and when we did find it it ended up being in an unmarked building, quite literally down a dirt track and on the 4th floor. The two men who always seemed to be sitting outside proceeded to find “the madam” as I went on to call her. After establishing I was in the right place I was shown to a fairly decent room complete with what looked like a fairly decent kitchen.
I seemed to be the only guest and even the madam slept on another floor. Slightly spooky! The huge veranda was certainly impressive and there was also an excellent view.
I immediately put on the air conditioner only to be shown the large meter on the wall and that the electricity was in fact an extra charge. Tinyteddy made a futile gesture at a protest which much to his frustration went basically no where and he eventually stormed outside.
The nights sleep was not without its issues, the worst of which was not the air conditioner or lack thereof but the lumpiest pillow I had ever come across.
The morning loomed with an unforgiving pain in the neck compliments of the pillow. I was expecting breakfast to be included but it wasn’t but for less than two dollars at the market I ate rather well.
Frankly there is very little to do in Cotonou so I simply paid up for the two nights and left. Minor annoyance as I still had to pay for both nights despite only staying one. Sometimes you just need to cut your losses and at about $25 it wasn’t too bad . Imagine how surprised I was to get, not one but two notices from Booking.com to say that I had never turned up. They gave up pursuing me after the 2nd attempt. Maybe they thought I had been the phantom guest!
Tinyteddys feedback: “In truth I didn’t get the issue with the electricity and we ended up arguing about the air conditioner. She didn’t want to pay after the Madam told us the electricity wouldn’t amount to much if we didn’t use the Air con. I’m a furry little guy so feel the heat. I did put up a token gesture of resistance by staying put on the meter for a good hour, but even I know heat rises so I eventually decided to cool down outside by admiring the lovely view”