"We were really looking forward to our stay and, on first impressions, the hotel appeared beautiful. The reception area was spacious, clean and well presented, and the staff we encountered on arrival were friendly and welcoming.
We were initially advised that check-in wasn’t until 3pm, but within seconds another member of staff came over and kindly advised us that our room was ready and we could go straight up, which was a great start.
Unfortunately, once we looked a little closer, a number of issues began to mount up, and by the end of our week we were left feeling very disappointed. In our opinion, this hotel falls well short of what we would expect from a 5-star property.
The room
At first glance, the room appeared lovely. However, closer inspection revealed a number of maintenance issues.
The handle on the patio door was hanging off and the door couldn’t be opened. We reported this to reception and it was attended to fairly quickly, although the repair felt more like a temporary fix.
The security latch on the main room door had clearly been poorly repaired previously. We reported this during our stay, but unfortunately it was never attended to.
The lower panel of the bathroom mirror light repeatedly fell out, and there were several loose electrical sockets around the room. It also appeared that the ceilings had been painted at some point, but masking tape had been left stuck to the walls.
There was construction work directly outside our room, which we had not been made aware of. Thankfully, the noisy work generally finished around 5–5:30pm and as we spent most of our days out of the room, it didn’t have a major impact on us. However, guests should really be advised about ongoing works before or at the time of booking.
We also experienced a considerable amount of noise from the room above. Every footstep could be heard very clearly, which was considerably louder than we would expect from a hotel of this standard.
The bathroom
Unfortunately, the bathroom had several issues too.
One of the two sinks was very slow to drain and appeared to be partially blocked. The shower also drained very slowly.
The rain shower was particularly problematic. When turned up, water sprayed out through the threaded fitting and effectively flooded the bathroom floor. We therefore had to use the wall-mounted shower instead, but the height adjuster was stuck and couldn’t be moved up or down. At 6’3”, this meant I had to hold the shower head by hand, which wasn’t exactly ideal.
Housekeeping
This was one of the biggest disappointments of the stay.
On one day, my wife was feeling a little under the weather, so we requested some fresh towels. After waiting around an hour and a half with no sign of them, we went down to reception and requested them again.
Another hour passed and the towels still hadn’t arrived.
Eventually, I took it upon myself to walk around the corridors looking for a member of the housekeeping team and asked if I could simply take the towels from them there and then.
Throughout our entire week-long stay, the room was only properly made up once. We spent most of our days around the pool and hotel facilities, generally returning to the room at around 5pm, only to find that it still hadn’t been serviced.
This gave us the impression that the hotel simply doesn’t have enough housekeeping staff to adequately service the number of rooms.
Bar
The bar was another area that felt below the standard expected from a 5-star hotel.
There was an extremely limited cocktail selection — around six options — and mixers were served from bottles sitting on the counter rather than being chilled.
There was also a significant issue with bees around the bar area. On one occasion, while waiting to be served at what appeared to be an understaffed bar, another guest was actually stung.
The hotel did put out a trap, which filled very quickly, but this only appeared to be there for one day before being removed. Given the obvious problem, more permanent pest control measures would seem appropriate.
Restaurant and food
The food was, overall, average. Some dishes were extremely greasy and there didn’t appear to be a great deal of daily variation, with many dishes seemingly repeated throughout the week.
There were also long queues for freshly prepared items such as pizza and pasta at both lunch and dinner, often while waiting for these stations to be restocked.
At lunchtime, wraps became our go-to option, but even these involved queuing. There was only one panini press, which appeared to cook around six at a time. This could easily be improved with better preparation and additional equipment, allowing one member of staff to prepare the food while another cooked it.
More concerning were some of the food safety practices we observed. On one occasion, cooked food — and more worryingly, meat — appeared to be being kept lukewarm. When the serving tray became low, rather than replacing the food, fresh food was being poured on top of the existing food. This was particularly concerning and not something we would expect to see in a hotel presenting itself as 5-star.
We were also advised that there would be a themed food night, which we found extremely disappointing. The food appeared to be largely the same as on previous nights, and despite arriving mid-service, we found multiple items had already run out.
Towards the final few days of our stay, approximately a quarter of the restaurant area, including the cooking station, was closed off. It appeared this may have been related to a special group staying at the hotel, but there was no clear communication to guests about what was happening. This further reduced the food options available during an already disappointing dining experience.
Communal areas
The communal areas are also in need of some attention and investment.
There were areas where paint was flaking from the walls, and several floor tiles were cracked, creating potential trip hazards.
The hotel also clearly needs to address the bee problem around the bar and surrounding areas with more effective pest control.
Pool area
The pools themselves are lovely and are probably one of the stronger aspects of the hotel.
However, even here there were several issues.
As is often the case at busy hotels, getting a sunbed required getting up early, but the condition of some of the surrounding areas was concerning. Several areas of paving were broken, creating hazards when walking around the pool.
The handrails into the pool could also be improved. Being in such a hot climate, stainless steel rails become extremely hot, and we saw several guests struggling to use them safely when getting in and out of the pool because of the temperature.
During our stay, part of the pool area was cordoned off while works were carried out to remove and replace sections of patio that were in poor condition. While maintenance is obviously necessary, carrying out this level of work during peak season was disappointing.
We also observed a maintenance worker grouting around the pool edging while guests were attempting to use the pool.
On several occasions, there were also strong smells of sewage around the pool area. We couldn’t identify where the smell was coming from, but it was certainly noticeable and unpleasant.
Overall
Unfortunately, we left feeling very disappointed with our stay.
There are certainly positives — the hotel looks impressive on arrival, the pools themselves are lovely, and some members of staff were friendly and helpful. However, there were simply too many maintenance, housekeeping, food service and general management issues throughout our stay.
For us, the biggest problem is that this hotel is marketed as a 5-star property, yet our experience fell considerably short of what we would expect from a hotel of that rating.
With better maintenance, more effective housekeeping, improved food service, stronger attention to food safety, better pest control and more communication with guests about ongoing works and closures, there is potential for this to be a much better hotel.
Sadly, based on our experience, we would not rate this as a 5-star hotel and would not choose to stay here again."
