When looking for a place to stay in Salou I wanted a clean accommodation that's close to the beach and provides breakfast, too. In a way, Hotel President caters for all this but, there are other things they forgot mention on their website. For example, 12 of its rooms are facing the firewall and that you must be able to climb over the toilet to get into the (small) bathtub.
We were given a room on the 2nd floor, facing the firewall. Since it was a short stay and we travelled to Salou for it's beaches I couldn't care less that there is virtually no natural daylight rached the room. However, there are two massive ventillation outputs placed just outside our balcony, and it constantly spewed out greasy smell and not to mention the noise! Even though the balcony door was somewhat soundproof it still couldn't block out the continuous buzzing. The room was hot, so I put the a/c on. Then came a horrible flapping noise! I couldn't believe it, it sounded like a plastic flap was inserted in the ventillation.
I called reception and said that the room is noisy and I would like another one. I am sure the receptionist heard this request before, so with one breath she informed me that the hotel is full and I was the last one to arrive and the first room to be freed up is two days later but since I was going to leave on the third day there is no point for me to move. I told her about the flapping noise but she said she can only leave a message to get it repaired she won't be able to do anything there and then (which is fine, since it was already 9pm) - no apologies, etc to make us feel welcomed or anything.
Finally, the flapping sound stopped in about 15 minutes but it would start every time the a/c was turned on. We had to sleep with the a/c on because it's noise drowned out the industrial sounds from outside.
The bathroom was impossibly furnished. Sit on the loo and you can lean on the wash basin. Get in the bath by holding on to something so you don't fall on the loo (more exciting task when you're getting OUT of the bath!). Glass panes do not provide much water-insulation, so except a river in your bathroom. Showerhead hasn't been cleaned in ages, so water goes everywhere but where you direct it to. It is quite a mystery why the bathrooms had to be made so small - the bedroom consists of two generous sized double beds, so I don't understand why couldn't they buy smaller beds and make the bathroom bigger by a single foot? The beds were OK, but I didn't understand the pillow, that was so big it reached across the whole bed...
2nd night some loud spanish kids arrived to the hotel - I understand that it was their free time too, but one should consider other guests especially after midnight! I called reception and said that the people on the 3rd floor are loud. Turned out, the receptionist was russian and he didn't speak a word of english! My spanish was about as good as his english, so I got as far as saying 'thrid floor' to which he replied nyet... I think eventually another guest has had enough because after a bit of banging the kids went quiet. And later I found out that all reception staff were from Russia.
Breakfast: the selection was OK for 3 days, but for anything longer it would be pretty boring. Yogurt that doesn't have real fruit content, english breakfast with no scrambled egg, but good bread, pastries, pates and biscuits. Poor cereal choice and please-please avoid the 'juice' machine - it's nothing else but a plain too-sweet squash machine dispensing orange or pineapple flavoured water. There were fresh fruits, too, but you had to get there early to get the nice pieces as the basked was never filled up and honestly the fruits didn't look appetising at all. (pears, bananas, green apples, nectarines every day. 5 pieces of each)

I need to mention the rooftop pools, too. The view is quite something from the roof, but I could never manage to get any of the two jacuzzis to bubble. kept pressing the buttons but nothing happened. Other guests have had this issue, too but when they called reception, the handyman was sent up, who seemed to know the trick on how to operate the buttons (perhaps a sign would have helped).


All in all, I believe the Hotel President is a hotel that is missing it's fantastic opportunities - it could be a great hotel but it's not. Previous reviews mention rude guests - I haven't seen those but it is true that the hotel is mainly visited by Russians - it appears that Salou is quite popular with them. Go to Salou but if you choose to book at this hotel make sure you request a room away from the firewall and get prepared to do some loo-climbing!