“Gorgeous hotel allows service to get away with a lot. Not 5 worthy but very nice.”
My husband & I stayed for a last minute, long weekend so we wanted a place where we could feel pampered & unwind quickly. We chose Finca because of it's location, the look based on the website and what the hotel offered.
Finca is probably one of, if not the most beautiful hotel we've stayed in yet. The interior design is timelessly stunning and something clearly the hotel & staff take great pride in as it was done by the famous Duarte Pinto Coelho and it was his last project as well. However, we felt that the beauty actually outshone the service to be honest and the staff relied on it to hide behind, and we're finding this more & more. That highly designed hotels, tend to have more style than substance really but the style let's them get away with a whole heck of a lot for the money you're paying and it shouldn't. In our opinion, if you're going to charge the fees, everything should be seamless and thought through.
CHECK-IN:
We filled out an pages long pre-arrival form which gave our check-in time etc. Our room wasn't ready for us but they offered for us to sit at the bar or outside on the patio. We choose the patio as it was a gorgeous, hot day. We were brought nuts and some iberico, manchego & drinks. However, after 20 minutes (& no more service) – our food was melting & so were we! After a 1/2 hour we had to ask if our room was ready. It wasn't & it was almost an hour later (we had to ask again) if it was. We we felt it would've been smart on their end & appreciated on ours, if they thought to offer us use of the pool or pool restaurant (it was lunchtime) & they would take care of bringing our weekend bags up esp. as we specifically booked so we could enjoy the afternoon by the pool.
FOOD
CON: Actually wasn't as great as we expected at Jardin. Just OK to be honest. We've had just as good paella and better at home in the states or in London & service started off strong but the busier it got, the worse it became for us & there seemed to be preferential treatment to some guests.
PRO: The setting was a picture & the live music just added to the ambiance.
** Do note - the staff really push eating at Jardin or Schilo every night which we found a bit much. They also don't ever suggest Don Giovanni because it's not actually a part of the hotel so we forgot about it until right before we were leaving which is a shame because we were told it was very good.
PRO: I had a gluten free tasting menu which I was so appreciated of from Schilo & thought all but one dish was excellent & had gorgeous presentation!
CON: My husband had the fixed menu (which they don't recommend) and he didn't really like it.
**Thing to know about Shilo – the restaurant is set up like a stage. The Kitchen is open to the 'audience', my guess was to gauge the reactions. It had a very theatrical effect however, we found that a bit daunting as if we were under a microscope. Do note to eat later, probably around 9:30 or 10pm. We made the mistake of having our rese at 9pm which only added to the attention. Foodies should enjoy. Non-foodies looking to participate in all that the hotel has to offer, might feel a bit awkward at how seriously the restaurant takes itself.
ROOM SERVICE
CONS: S-L-O-W. Why is it room service is prone to lack of listening? On our 1st morning we ordered straight from the menu – no deviations. No extras to confuse the issue. Not only did it take 90 minutes but the order was wrong. We rang after 50 minutes & they were a bit snotty saying it was going to be right up yet 40 additional minutes later it finally shows & no apology! When we called to let them know this was unacceptable because it held up our plans for the morning & the least they could do was comp, it was a struggle to even get an apology & she was very snooty when she did. I'm sorry but gracious & smoother management would have nipped this in the bud immediately. They are service industry & aspire for a particular clientele, we found this ridiculous.
Another night we just wanted room service for dinner & we had to end up cancelling it because 60 minutes later, they couldn't tell us when we were going to get it & we were getting ready for bed!
PROs: breakfast was always delicious & generous, best meal of the day & they had gluten free bread prepared for me everyday & also with dinner! Points for that.
In-room dining breakfast was was included in room rate.
ADULT POOL:
Ok this one was a MAJOR CON – MUST read. They have 2 gorgeous pools. One for Adults which is Olympic size plus has a huge cabana with tables & a bar. The other pool is for children where the restaurant is. Of course, we went to the adult pool & chose our sun loungers. Even though there were 3 staff milling about by the cabana, they made no moves to come over. We had to go to them to ask for towels. She brought them over & made up the chair.
We asked for the menu at lunch. We were told there was no lunch, only at the other pool. We were truly surprised & thought this was not ideal. If I wanted to holiday with children, I would have come with them.
So we asked if we could have the menu anyway & if they could have it brought up. After all the cabana was set up with dining tables & we kept seeing people come up in golf carts to deliver stuff to the cabana, so we thought that's what it might be for. We were told there was no eating at the pools, only restaurant. What? No eating at the pools? But there's this HUGE deck with tables & everything..it makes no sense.
I am an adult, on a holiday & I would like to do as I please for what I am paying. We've never been to a hotel were we were made to leave the pool or beach in order to eat. What we couldn't figure out was what the world that huge cabana & tables were for then?? Purely show?
Because the staff was laxed, they barely ever came around to ask guests if they could get them a drink & when they did, they weren't fully stocked to meet any or all drink requests. Wine, beer, Sangria, water…that's about it.
** NOTE – we ended up bring some snacks down so we could eat by the pool. Also – get sun loungers closer to the cabana so you don't have to go very far to get something for yourself.
We later figured out that actually, the resort caters heavily to families so we're guessing the Adult pool was more of an afterthought.
BEACHCLUB:
CON – the hotel made a big deal about offering guests a FREE shuttle to their new beach club. However, once there you had to shell out 20 Euros each to 'rent' the same sun loungers that were up in the hotel and an additional 80 euros for the covered cabana (also up at the hotel). You physically cannot be in the club without renting so you're effectively paying a fee for using the club even though you're a hotel guest.
One of our pet peeves is being gipped by hotels because of a bit of greedy mean ness towards guests. You know things like, we give you a free paper but only if you come down to get it, if we bring it up it will cost you 4 euros…that kind of thing. We felt this was like that. The beach club had a restaurant – same rule also applied, not eating on the deck, you have to go & sit at the restaurant & be properly dressed. Service was a little haughty at the cabana restaurant & the food was only OK.
PRO - like the rest of the hotel, it was beautiful, classy & stylish. You can rent loungers on the beach or up by the pool as well. There were also hammocks, not sure what they cost to rent.
SPA:
CON – Kind of a weird setup. There's no waiting room. So as soon as we came to the desk, they asked us if we were ready. We asked if we needed to change 1st so she handed us the robes right there. Then we asked if there was a changing room so she then lead the way to mens & ladies. She started to leave & I had to ask where to wait once changed, there is a bench right outside the locker room & was told to sit there & wait. It was a little strange.
Had 2 treatments, they were OK but not great. Massage & facial. There was a language barrier for both treatments which made it hard to express how we liked our massages etc.
PRO – again very lovely. They also had apples & as bottles of water for the guests to take which was a thoughtful detail.
IN GENERAL:
CONS: Absolutely don't like being told how to dress on my vacation. It's a formality we can do without on holiday as it's a time to unwind. It's the one area when if your paying enough, there should be freedom of choice for the guests as it's really about them not some outdated form of traditional snobbishness which we happen to feel it is.
No DVD player (something for an ipod would be great as it's something that's in majority of hotels but not a biggie really).
Preferential treatment. We saw many guests who seemed to get preferential treatment & were catered to more heavily where staff snapped to attention forsaking other guests.
Service a bit insincere & spotty. For example, we noticed that we got all the bells & whistles when being served cocktails (how it should be mixed properly etc.) when it was slow but as soon as it picked up in the slightest all that flourish went out the window & back to DIY.
PROS:
Had a wonderful library for guests with a nice selection of books to choose from.
The rooms were gracious & well thought out with a yummy 'welcome' basket. It was a chocolate lollipop tree & wine. Had most details a guest could need (i.e; nice sized closets with plenty of hangers & with laundry service, shoe shine offered etc)
Everyday housekeeping left complimentary fruits & replenished our waters in the evenings & a weather forecast is left.
Had a nice if not extremely expensive mini-bar.
Informative hotel book with all the things guests need to know about the facilities & what's on offer. .
There were kids & families all over the place. Even playing baseball in what looked like a formal garden between the pools so it looked like they catered well to families.
Overall – stunningly beautiful but felt it lacked a true heart & was a bit pretentious. However, it was a nice break from London, very easy to get to & if you're looking for last minute end of season sun, you'll get it in an environment that's extremely civilized.
This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC
