"We were looking forward to a well earned break at a beautiful hotel, having stayed at previous Meliá properties the expectations were high but this fell seriously short.
The positives!
The Botanic buffet restaurant at the Level had some great food.
Restaurant Lima was very good.
A handful of staff have great service such as Ximo, Jeyson and Miguel, all from Papamambo.
The not so good!
We had booked an all inclusive premium room through Jet 2. On arrival after pulling your cases across cobbled paving you find reception closed and to go to the Level reception. We arrived there and were told, we don't have any premium rooms available, you have been upgraded to a junior suite. Great we thought, until we saw the room. Dark, dingy, grass bank infront of us, definitely not an upgrade. Back to reception wanting the room we had booked and paid for. We can show you two more junior suites, one with a sea view! Both were better, one with a large terrace - SO WHY WERE WE NOT SHOWN THESE WHEN WE FIRST CHECKED IN??
By the morning we needed to change rooms due to the smell, a drainage or sewer smell, not very pleasant.
We enquired about upgrading to the Level and were told that only the Royal Suite was available. We don't have all inclusive in the Level but you can keep it on this occasion. Great we had paid for this anyway! We would receive a phone call shortly to view the room. Waited and waited, went to reception - did no one call you? NO.
Room looks very large and spacious with two balconies, one with sun most of the day.
We paid the difference and took the room. Initial thoughts were wow, large lounge area, large bedroom, walk in wardrobe, separate toilet and large bathroom. Dig deeper and there are loads of issues. For a Royal Suite, their second best room, you would expect it to be faultless. Very, very dated not touched in the 20 years the hotel has been open. Door architrave falling off or buckling, lights hanging down, plug sockets not fitting properly, the terrace doors not closing fully and loose cord tiles on the balcony floor - actually dangerous.
When you then look further at the Level, the 5* part, it is also very run down. The pool surround flooring has a lot of missing stones, walls have food splatterings on them and when we turned up for breakfast the griddle at the omlete and egg station still had the residue from the previous night meat on it, it has not been cleaned properly.
The tables in the square were the entertainment was held, had but had the tables wiped in days. We used a wet wipe from the restaurant to wipe the table and it was black after.
Staff, other than those mentioned were not great in their service to down right rude not just to us but also other guests. Presently it is school holidays in Spain and the hotel was about 90% Spanish. The service is definitely better and quicker if you are Spanish.
The golf club attached to the hotel is an oasis, we went there on our third day to have a look and asked if we could have a drink. As we were all inclusive we could have any drink we wanted, WHY were we not told this when checking in. The service was excellent everytime we went, Lucia and Fillipe were a real credit to the complex, always smiling and nothing was too much trouble. A total contrast to the actual hotel and they were busy all day.
The Level - there are two Level lounges, one of reception and a family one by the pool. Shrug one had all the kids in. NOT the family one, this was empty the whole time. The lounge was a mess, not enough room at most times, food everywhere, the only alcohol available was beer, wine or Martini. There needs to be an adults only zone in the Level, especially in the restaurant.
Restaurants do not open in the hotel until 8pm, which is fine for us but if you like to eat early, you can't.
OVERALL, this is not a hotel to rush and book. The buildings and grounds are good and make it look so special but it is run down, dirty, smelly, not great staff. It is very quiet in the winter with just golfers so it's a great time to do some upgrading but this won't happen.
TOP TIPS - if you have booked an inclusive and want to upgrade to the Level you can keep your all inclusive. Spend time with Lucia and Fillipe at the golf club, better service, great views and your all inclusive for drinks is covered there to!"
