I stayed one night at the Hotel President during October 2008 whilst on a business trip to Croatia.

We arrived at the hotel at about 8pm and was greeted by the one member of staff working who was on reception.

The room was small and adequate although there was very little space on the desk for working due to a portable TV taking up most of the desktop. There was a very small round balcony outside the patio doors. The usual features, TV, mini bar, room service etc were available although the prices were a lot higher than I expected (e.g. £4 for a bottle of water!).

The fully tiled bathroom was small with only a separate shower cubicle, toilet and sink but it was servicable and ok for one night. The shower was actually very good and quite powerful.

The bed at the hotel was soft and the pillows lumpy. The room was also very stuffy and the air-con didn't work properly. I later found out this is because it was switched off throughout the hotel.

The one staff member working during the evening was required to man the small in-house bar/lounge next to the reception on the ground floor and the restaurant which was downstairs from the main reception area. This required him to run up/down the stairs all night trying to serve us in the restaurant and keep his other customer in the bar also attended.

The food at the hotel was very disappointing and over priced. I would hazard a guess it was frozen as there did not seem to be any other person working in the restaurant/kitchen plus it was generally tasteless.

Breakfast the next morning was a little better although the service was slow and the music overpowering (I don't particularly like loud, country music first thing in the morning). My colleague had earlier requested the music be turned off whilst she dined (alone) in the restaurant. I was unable to request this as there were other guests present.

The saving grace for the hotel was the early morning lady receptionist who was very helpful... and the laundry service which was extremely efficient and returned my tired business clothes within 3 hours of receipt.

I had heard about this hotel for many years from colleagues who had travelled to this area of Croatia. In reality I think the hotel is past it's best, and is in need of a serious re-vamp, not particularly of the decor (which has a certain style) but definitely of the service.

Zadar itself was a very pleasant town and in particular I enjoyed a spare hour walking along the port and marina after my business meeting. The "Sea Organ" and Solar sun panels were a highlight of the trip.

Do not under any circumstances consider staying at this hotel. The outright 'cheek' of the management of this hotel to brand itself as 4 Star and charge €200 a night to stay here is nothing short of immoral.

We spend 16 days travelling around Croatia and had a wonderful experience. We were on a varied budget, opting for reasonable self-catering / apartment accommodation in some places while treating ourselves to little more luxury elsewhere. All in all, we were relatively happy with our accommodation choices until of course we arrived at the Hotel President in Zadar.

We hadn't pre-booked anything. We decided we would 'treat' ourselves for this last stop on our destination and go for this ‘luxurious 4 star accommodation’ Hotel President. Well…we were in for a shock.
When we arrived, the first thing we noticed was the very shabby entrance. The canopy was filthy and was badly ripped and thorn. But to be honest, that doesn't bother me so much...but it certainly isn't something you'd expect to see from a 4 * hotel. When we arrived into the lobby, everything including decor and design was so average and dated. I could imagine that perhaps 15 years ago or so this hotel would have stood up a lot better. But it now has the appearance of an old run down cheap hotel. As per the previous person’s comment, if they were charging €60 a room, I wouldn't be writing this review. But I think is the most annoying thing about this hotel is the way it advertises itself and charges prices that don’t ever remotely reflect the service and value you would expect. It boasts all this nonsense like the 'aperitif bar' etc, whereas the reality is simply a shabby old room with a couple of old chairs. At most there is one or two staff that runs the hotel, acting as receptionist, bar man, porter all in one. It would nearly remind you of a Faulty Towers type operation.

Furthermore, in a massive contradiction to how the hotel attempts to present itself, we experience what only appeared to be rogue and dodgy dealings. Like the other reviews we got the whole only two rooms left, but the hotel was like a ghost town…not one other person was with us in the restaurant for breakfast. We were also offered the 8% discount for paying by cash…which is all very ‘Dell-boy’ like. I don’t mind that kind of offer from a local who is offering a room for the night, but not from a hotel which boasts such grandeur. And when we initially arrived, we had the choice of a Queen or King room. We chose the Queen but by no means did we get the ‘Queen’. I’d say even if we chose ‘King’, we’d still end up in the same room.

Finally, to add insult to injury we put ourselves through the ‘breakfast’ ordeal. An absolute shambles. Toast was like cardboard. The croissants were at least 3 days stale. We got our white coffee served in a milk jug….but I think they must off milked the local stray cats, because I have never tasted such vile stuff in all my life.

I think it was this experience that annoyed us the most. For a hotel to present itself as 4 * and to boast its grandeur as it does (e.g. look at the website) and then to offer us such crap for breakfast…really annoyed us.

I’ve said enough. All I can say is do not stay at this hotel under any circumstances. This place needs to be honest and either revert to being cheap hotel option and cut its prices dramatically or else undergo a huge renovation and management change to bring it up to the standard reflective of the prices it charges.

We arrived in Zadar without a booking and hoped to stay at the Adriana hotel for a two night stay. Sadly, upon arrival we were informed that is was booked out (the hotel looked amazing and I would defo recommed a stay there). However, we were directed towards the Presidents Hotel as an alternative as they had 'one room left'. It was difficult to get a room anywhere as it was peak season (and we had no booking) so we had no choice but to check into the Presidents Hotel for 190 euro per night (approx 1300 kuna).

The hotel was appalling to say the least. The decor was dated and the front of the hotel was shabby. We went up to the room and were bitterly disappointed. The tap fell off in my hand when I turned it on, as did the wardrobe handle and the room was dark, small and miserable.

Its a disgrace that a hotel of that standard is deemed a 4 star! We stayed in the Amfora in Hvar for the same price and that was fantastic - really lived up to the 4 star rating.

We were also told that if we paid in cash we would get an 8% discount on the original 207 euro charge - madness. We had breakfast the next morning and it was a disgrace - we were offered a milky coffee in a milk jug! - warm milk for the cereal - flies on the fruit - and gone off bread!

If this hotel was charging €60 a night I would think that was adequately priced but for €190 it was nothing short of daylight robbery. They told us the hotel was booked out but we never saw anyone else - it was like a ghost town! We had breakfast with just one other person!

We left after one night and booked into a room in a house around the corner for our second night for €25! Albeit the room was very basic but it served us well and the woman that lived there was friendly and very accomodating (which is more than I can say for the staff at the Presidents Hotel).

We were alerted by the reviews we had read. The hotel has been beautifully finished, and the staff are trying herd to be helpful. The downside is the expense ($1300Kna) in May,and 70kna for the carpark which we thought a bit steep. They tried the 'Visa machine is broken' trick on check in but we explained we had no access for that sort of cash and it was Visa or nothing. The machine worked fine next morning.