Never cleaned the room for 3 days. Food and restaurant was terrible cold food and service non existant waitresses were more interested in listening to the constant club music being played. Internet only worked at the bar in reception very slow service. Resort for skiing was ok once you got up the hill but the que was very long for the gondola. Swimming pool was cold and so was the jacuzzi. worst hotel i have stayed in for years

We arrived back from Bansko yesterday, and I've never been so relieved to come home from a holiday!

The hotel is advertised as 5*, and yes, this may be the case by Bulgarian standards, but I have no idea how Balkan Holidays have the audacity to hold it in such high esteem....where do I start?? We had no hot water on any of the mornings of our stay, and when we approached the receptionist staff to question this, we were met with a large sigh and much shrugging of her shoulders. Upon taking this up with our Balkan rep, he informed us that he had sorted out our problem for us and that we would have hot water....not the case, unfortunately.

Our room was generally dirty; the bathroom had a large gathering of dark hairs and other dirt around the perimeter of the floor (neither of us have dark hair), the shower was never cleaned for the duration of our stay, and although our towels were changed "most" days, we often only received one bath towel in replacement, so had to ring and request another. There are no baths in any of the rooms, which I find quite strange for a ski resort hotel. Our mistake being, that although our tour operator's website did not highlight this, other websites advertising the hotel, actually stated that each room had a bath. This would not have been such a problem for us usually, as the hotel does have a jacuzzi within the pool area, but during our stay this was not working, so we had to live with our aching muscles!

With regards to the kitchen area of our room, even though we had two electric hobs, a sink (with no plug), and a fridge, there was the grand total of 3 drinking glasses in one of the cupboards...not a kettle, cutlery item or pan in sight!

Food at the hotel is typically Bulgarian, which is not a problem, but we found the selection quite poor for a hotel that rated itself as 5*. Although we were half board, we ate out every night, which I think speaks for itself.

Generally, we found the hotel staff to be very rude and not at all helpful. Upon checking out on our last morning, we were accused of consuming the peanuts, chocolate, mineral water and beer from the "mini bar" in the fridge in our room. We informed the receptionist that these items had never even been present on our arrival, which lead to a rather elongated discussion,delaying our departure from the hotel...not the best memory to leave with. Our advice to avoid this situation would be to have the porter who first brings your cases to your room on arrival, list the items in the fridge and agree them with you.

We spoke with others, also on holiday in Bansko, who were staying in the Kempinski Grand Arena and the Lucky Bansko, who appeared very satisfied with their accomodation...given that I chose the Guinness over the Kempinski from Tripadvisor recommendations, I would really beg people to think twice about choosing this hotel.

Bankso itself is a lovely resort, the skiing (which is ultimately why we were there of course!) is fantastic, and the Victoria Restaurant (opposite the Kempinski Grand Area hotel) is to be highly recommended not only for both quality of food and service, but is also great value for money.

Stayed there for 3 nights (New Year 2010), NOT even once did anybody change our towels, and only one time the just cleaned up a little!
The room was normal, but the toilet STUNK all 3 days of our stay!
Most of the hotel employees do NOT speak English...Not even close to a 3Star hotel!!
Hotel service was really BAD...they even charged us the nuts, which by the way were NOT in the room in the first place!Hilarious...
Thomas K.

We have only returned today from a week in Bansko, staying at The Guinness and were really pleasantly surprised. This is our second holiday in Bansko, having stayed at the Pirin last year - Guinness was like a palace in comparison!

As we know what to expect from Bansko, we appreciate that the development work being carried out can put a lot of people off but... as we are there for the boarding and not the architecture, this was not something that hindered us.

The hotel itself is really impressive when you enter - the fire is a fantastic focal point - the hotel was sadly very empty when we were there so we didn't get to see any great ambiance but it was very cosy. Again, we were fortunate to be given a one bed appt for the 2 of us so we had masses of room which made life that little more comfortable - the cleaning lady was lovely and left the rooms absolutely pristine each day.

As I noted above, it's not a 5 star by UK standards... why not?

* we stayed half board. Whilst the food was head and shoulders ahead of the Pirin in 2008, it was decidedly bland in many instances and served warm instead of hot. That being said, their chicken soup and greek salads were fantastic!
* The finishings in the rooms, whilst to a good standard, were still somewhat poorly finished off - that's what a builder's daughter will always see!
* We had hoped that being given an appt that we would have the ability to cook for ourselves - this would have been the case as we had cooking rings but no kettle, pots or plug for the kitchen sink.

BUT... on the positive side -

* The staff were very friendly and helpful - many things were lost in translation - menus included but I felt quite ignorant that they had to try to communicate in English as I hadn't made an effort to learn their language.

* As noted above, the rooms were pristine, fresh towels every day

* Lovely sauna - pool fairly cold but great to chill out after a day on the slopes

* Having the fire to sit around at night was lovely and quite homely.

Would we go again - definitely!

Would we go half board again? - probably think more about B&B next time as we found some gorgeous restaurants this time round - Victoria is exceptional!