We arrived late in the evening of the 17th. September, 2007, for a 14 night holiday at what has been classed as a good hotel. Unfortunately this has changed in recent months as the hotel has moved to an `all inclusive` status which has ruined it. Additionally, cost cutting (presumably to support the change in status) has also caused facilities to downgrade.
On arrival we were shown to our room which overlooked the pool. Neither the air conditioning or fan were operative and the room was oppressively hot. After an argument we were offered an alternative room for the night; this at least had air conditioning but was grubby.
The following day the necessary repairs had been made and we moved back to our allocated room. There was no apology made for the inconvenience or help offered to move our luggage. We found the beds past their best with the springing collapsed; 4* definitely not.
Five days of relative peace ensued, that is other than children and adults shouting in corridors until after 1a.m., until we found the contents of our wardrobe soaking wet. Water was streaming from the vicinity of the air conditioning unit; whether it was produced by the unit or a leak from the room above we are not certain. Yet another move of room.
At least this room was quieter, being at the end of a corridor, but even so there was noise until the early hours. All was relatively fine for the following few days until the air conditioning unit began to fail in a rather obvious manner. I had the `engineer` come to check it; he simply inserted a thermometer into the grill and said it was alright even though the fan was struggling to run. The hotel Manager also saw and heard the fault but said that she was biased toward the technical staff; at a little before 1a.m. the unit failed with a flash, bang and cloud of smoke - it also caught fire. Interestingly no fire alarms were activated as they were disabled to permit residents to smoke in their rooms.
As a result we moved to an adjoining room which (much to our surprise) had brand new beds in it. The final few days of our holiday were incident free.
To qualify the subject of noise and behavior in the hotel it may be valid to provide some examples. The Spanish are by nature noisy. This is accepted by our Spanish friends. However, the type of families attracted to the hotel were not only noisy but exhibited extremely poor manners; this especially in the restaurant. The staff were appalled by some of the mess left at and around tables. In one instance a napkin was used as a handkerchief and left on the table for staff to clear with no warning. I should add that such behavior was not exhibited by other nationalities and some Spanish families.
Children were `permitted` by the hotel to stay in the only bar available until 10p.m., but often stayed until the early hours of the morning. This inhibited the pleasure for those without families as it was not possible to sit and either watch entertainment or have a conversation without children running around uncontrolled.
On the positive side, the quality of the food was generally very good and was plentiful. The staff were also mainly pleasant and willing to help and serve. They also did their best to ensure cleanliness in very difficult circumstances. The grounds were in good order and pleasantly laid out with some quiet areas available. These are definitely the saving graces of the hotel and without them a stay here would have been worthy of a feature in `Holidays from Hell`.
In conclusion, not only do we feel mislead by our tour operator (Saga) as to the peacefulness and quality of the hotel, but also to its star rating. I have no compunction in suggesting it should not be above 2* based on my experience of many hotels word wide.
This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC
