"We stayed at Hotel Marina for 7 nights. The hotel is in a great location, the rooms were clean and the staff we dealt with were generally pleasant. However, there was one aspect of our stay that had a major impact on our holiday and that I think future guests should know about.
On arrival, we were given a sheet of hotel rules stating that no food or drink from outside the hotel was allowed anywhere in the hotel, including guest rooms. This was the first time we became aware of this policy.
The rule was strictly enforced. Every time we returned to the hotel carrying any type of bag, security stopped us and asked us to open it for inspection. This happened throughout our stay whenever we had a bag with us. On one occasion, alcohol we had legally purchased elsewhere was taken from us and only returned when we checked out.
Because outside food wasn’t allowed, we couldn’t take a sandwich, snacks or takeaway back to our room. Instead, we had to use the hotel restaurant or room service if we wanted to eat in our room, with room service also charging a €6 service fee on each order.
One thing I’d recommend to anyone considering this hotel is to read the reviews carefully. My impression is that many of the glowing reviews focus on the pool parties and entertainment rather than the day-to-day hotel experience and policies, so it’s worth looking beyond the overall star rating.
If you’re the type of person who likes to grab a pizza or kebab after a night out and take it back to your room, this probably isn’t the hotel for you. We regularly saw people sitting on the hotel steps eating their takeaway because they weren’t allowed to take it inside.
I appreciate hotels can have their own rules, but I believe restrictions like these should be made clear before guests book, not when they arrive. The repeated bag inspections made us feel uncomfortable and are unlike anything we’ve experienced at other hotels.
For some people these rules won’t matter, but for us they significantly affected both the enjoyment and the cost of our holiday."