I stayed in hotel "Ambassador " with my husband from 7th of May and we had to leave on 13th of May. Firstly, the description of the hotel is from previous decade and the facilities of the hotel at the moment could be described as a complete ruin! We booked the hotel through Venere.com and we were supposed to start the holiday on the 5th of May. Then we got a cancellation of the arrangement with the explanation that there were no tourists enough to open the hotel! Immediately I e/mailed the "Goranov agency" and demanded that my holiday starts in time I planned. They offered two days in hotel "Pliska" and then we would be transferred to the "Ambassador" when it starts working!
"Pliska" was excellent although it was rated as less popular hotel: the staff is young, kind, the rooms are clean, the pools were both open and clean and the food was delicious and healthy. The internet is excellent and cheap. But, as we booked the "Ambassador" on the 7th of May we were transferred to Ambassador. The staff speaks no language properly: bad English, bad German and is unkind, arrogant, lazy..The manager of the hotel is unprofessional middle-aged fellow who thinks that he is some kind of successful businessman! He wears a suit and a neat tie but nothing works in his hotel! We were placed in room 217 on the second floor and as soon as we unpacked our stuff we went to see the promised biggest open air swimming pool with a garden. But it was empty, and the garden was untidy. Then we went to see the out door heated swimming pool as it was in hotel description and such a thing does not exist!
Then we went to the indoor swimming pool with hot "mineral" water and it was cold as ice. The pool was dirty all around and the walls smelled badly. Under the radiators there was an amount of huge dirt you could not ignore. We protested about all of this but the manager said everything would be fine, since they just started the season! I asked him why did they offer the arrangements on Venere.com if they were not ready to start but he did not answer because he can hardly say two sentences in English. Next day after a breakfast you could find in a worst nightmare( piece of cheapest salamy, old feta cheese in crumbles, old bread, poor and tasteless vegetables) we went to see if any of the swimming pools was working! Nothing again! Only this time we could not find the manager and the reception girl told us that the indoor swimming pool will start the next day! the outdoor swimming pool was never filled ( until the 13th of May it remained dirty, empty and out of use although all other hotels filled their pools). So, for the first two days we could only walk by the beach. The weather was windy, cold, rainy and the sea was freezing. Nevertheless we came by our own car so we went to Varna almost every day to amuse ourselves and to buy warm clothes!
Then we discovered that the prices in markets and restaurants in Golden Sands were more than tripled compared to Varna restaurants: a three-course meal for two in Golden Sands ( Evergreen restaurant) costs 60 euros while the same meal ( even better and tastier) you can get for only 20 euros in Varna!!!
So, after three days spent in walking around, touring the strand and Varna the indoor swimming pool started to work. On the 11th of May a group of Russian, German and Hungarian tourists arrived and only then the hotel started to serve a normal breakfast although still with cheap salamy, bad cheese, mostly eggs( fried, cooked, omelet) and the only hot food was a bucket of fried cheap weenies! A lot of bread though, only tomatoes and cucumbers for salad and two kinds of jam. Now, of course we did not come to eat and luckily we did not take all inclusive package but I am a diabetic and I expected more fresh fruit and vegetables.
At the indoor swimming pool there was another disappointment: the water temperature on the 9th of May was hardly warm enough to swim and the lifeguard was provided only until 16.00 so we were forbidden to swim after 19.00 as it said on the noticeboard.
There was no internet in the hotel, no hairdresser, no sauna, no fitness - nothing worked! You could use your own room, the restaurant worked only for breakfast and the indoor swimming pool started to cool down. In the hotel brochure it said that the water in the pool was mineral brought with 42 degrees Celsius and then it was cooled to 26 or 28 degrees Celsius for swimming! This is also a notorious lie! The swimming pool was filled with plain water because I recognized the same bad smell from the bathroom shower( the first two days running water was yellow and stinky. If the water really was mineral it would be hot at any moment because it is easy to cool off the 42 degrees to whatever temperature you want! The room was cleaned daily but the linen was 200 hundred years old: stinky, warn-out blankets smelled so awfully and it was cold at nights. The carpets had a colour I could not recognize ( grey-black-dark blue?) and it has not been cleaned for ages. The mattresses were old and over-used so my back would hurt every day after sleep. I slept on the beach bed for hour or two to rest my back!
Anyway, we were tricked and cheated, but we traveled 870 km and we took 14 days off work so we decided to give it a try and do something.
But, on the top of this all, on the 12th of May the water in the swimming pool got cold and on the 13th of May it was locked! We complained to the staff and they said : "One day in a week the pool does not work". We did not buy this nonsense and we went to the reception. Then the manager showed accidentally in the hotel lobby and we had a dispute about everything especially about the only facility that worked: the indoor "heated" swimming pool. He took us to the basement where the swimming pool was, and the door was locked as we said. He looked around, talked to the member of the staff and then the lifeguard opened the door to the swimming pool: he was alone inside in the pool and he locked the door! The manager and the lifeguard disputed in Bulgarian and then the manager said " You see, it open. Go swim!".
I was very upset so I went to my room but my husband went swimming. He returned 15 minutes later because the water was freezing and he could not swim longer than 15 minutes. We called the reception and they said it would be hotter in the afternoon. When we went to swim at 13.15 the swimming pool was locked again. This time there was no manager in the hotel, only room-maids and one poor girl at the reception who blushed for them all!
That was it!!! We called the "famous" Goranov agency who stood for Venere.com and I demanded to speak to Mr Ivaylo Goranov. The secretary said he was not available but I said I woul come to Varna by my car and look for them! So, they said they would see to it that everything was settled. After two hours of waiting, nobody called or said sorry! So I phoned Goranov agency again. There was a lady who would not say her name and she offered us an explanation that the Ambassador manager claims how "everything was all right"!!! I went mad and I demanded another hotel or cancellation!
after another hour ( it was 16.00) Goranov agency called to offer a transfer to Pliska hotel ( 22 euros per night at that time was the price of the room for two BB). I accepted and asked about the price difference since we paid 28.9 euros per night at the Ambassador.
They said no money was to be returned and no excuse and no apologize. NOTHING! I felt like I was a prisoner, a criminal asking for better jail!
The cup was filled! We packed up in 23 minutes and we left the hotel at 18.00. Tired, nervous, disappointed and furious we took the long and dangerous trip back home at the beginning of the storm.
Our holiday was ruined and we were fooled! I know I will never go back to Bulgaria and especially never go back to Golden Sands.
Egypt, Tunisia, Turkey, Greece- YES!!! Bulgaria - NEVER AGAIN!
If anyone knows how to sue against such people please send here a note!
On the top of all we were charged one night more and God knows if they will refund the rest of the money.
Mrs Danijela Bojanic
Belgrade, Serbia