I am bit confused as you say there was no Diamond recognition and your rate included breakfast. Do they not give free breakfast to Diamonds?
I am not an expert on Gold/Diamond breakfasts but I was thinking of things like a room upgrade (as reported by
kkong42), welcome gifts/amenities and standard greetings thanking you for your loyalty that you hear at most other hotels. I was quite happy with my room and not getting an upgrade wasn’t a problem. The rate I had booked was called “Honors Stay Longer BB”.
Is room service an HGI standard? Prices seem cheap but probably quite expensive for Albania?
Probably. I only had one lunch in town and a lunchtime food walking tour, both of which at a west European price.
I hate this stupid practice of advertising prices in euros when the country's currency is not the euro nor related to the euro. I assume the hotel actually charged you in ALL, but did they give you an accurate exchange rate? Do they accept euros (including coins) at the front desk at a fair rate, or do they treat it as an exchange transaction attracting commission?
The booked rate for 3 nights including taxes was €181.61. I paid 23,011.64 ALL including the room service. Both EUR and GBP went up in value against ALL during the past month. I don’t think I was ripped off but even if I was it’s not a big deal at this price.
You mentioned the taxi driver wanted €21 - did he have euro coins for change or how was that supposed to work if you didn't have a €1?
TIA taxi/AHA website quotes 2500 ALL or 20 EUR between the airport and city centre. I had a €20 note ready in my hand but no coins ready so decided to pay in ALL.
I got the impression that some tourist facing places accepted EUR but I only used credit cards or ALL cash and didn’t pay much attention.