Ponient Hotel Dorada Palace by PortAventura World

"Our bedroom was extremely small & cramped, not as advertised. Very disappointing All pool areas are locked until 9am then there is a scramble to get one of the too few sunbeds"

"People saying ignore the negative reviews, I say ignore the positive ones!! If you have any standards at all, avoid this hotel at all costs! We arrived to the hotel around 10am, where they said they were only expecting 2 adults and no children. we were first told our room would be ready for 2pm (1hour before check in), we went and queued at reception at this time for 45 minutes to be told wait another 20 mins, then it still wasn’t ready! We have 2 children, I am heavily pregnant and there was nowhere to get changed into swimwear or even store your suitcase while you wait so this was our first day wasted. Once we got into our room, it continued to go downhill. As previously noted, they thought we were a couple without children, they said this would be sorted at check in. It clearly wasn’t so we were gave a room with 3 single beds, and one child expected to sleep on a grubby sofa (not a sofa bed, a sofa!). We found pills on our bathroom floor, cigarette ends out on our balcony, mould all around the bathroom and balcony, and the floor left our feet completely black to the point we didn’t want to remove our shoes! We spoke to the manager, who was the most unhelpful, rude and quite frankly disrespectful man I have ever spoke to. He did not listen to our concerns, he did not offer us a more suitable room, he did not come and clean the room again for us and just told us both to be quiet as we were the ones being rude but he would not let us get a word in edge ways. He also lied to the tui rep, who was dealing with complaints on our behalf after our encounter with him, that he had tried contacting us all day to get us a new room. He didn’t, he had 2 numbers for us on file with no missed calls, messages or emails and no note left under our door to try and contact us either. The other staff are no better, some no basic English at all, rude, cleanliness not kept on top of around the restaurants or pool areas. Cracked tiles, build up of mould and algae, food and drinks spills everywhere that are just left for hours so you have hoards of pigeons flying or jumping on tables you are sat at. Shuttle to and from the theme park is poor and only available certain times of day so no good if travelling with a young family who tire easily. Food on the evening is nice, however atmosphere is terrible and people act like wild animals. Lunch and breakfast is very repetitive and lunch is a struggle for options with children. Good luck getting a sun lounger, unless you’re queuing at the only door that will open at 9am! Communal toilets in the main area are dirty, rarely any toilet paper, only one soap dispenser and one toilet roll dispenser that isn’t broken and you’re unsure whether you’re walking through wee or pool water. Air con in the main hotel and restaurant is none existent, it is a total sweat box and no relief from the heat. They advertise the tvs in the room have international channels, they don’t it is just Spanish. The list quite simply could go on and on, but to summarise there is no way this hotel is an adequate 4 star or worth the summer holidays price tag!! We paid over £6k, we wouldn’t return even if it was half the price. Safe to say, we can’t wait to get home and won’t ever be returning!"

"I wouldn’t recommend staying here to anyone. It’s dirty. We paid extra for an apartment. For a family of 4. We was given a room with just two singles beds. The room was filthy, there was fag ends in the balcony area that had clearly been there for a week or 2. The floor of the apartment left all our feet black within 5 mins of walking into the room The bathroom hadn’t been cleaned adequately and there was a pill on the floor in there, which with young children. Is disgraceful. When the manager was confronted about the state of the room and the fact there was a pill on the floor in plain site, he refused to come and look at it and stayed in the doorway to the room, claiming me and my partner was shouting at him when we wasn’t. As we could barely get a word in with him as he wouldn’t listen to us and take any of our concerns seriously. After this encounter, we was told cleaners will be in the room asap, but the next time the room was cleaned was on the normal morning run round from the cleaners who give more toilet rolls etc. The pool area is full of broken tiles, and tables and sun lounges either are covered in drinks from the day before, or growing mould on. AC throughout the whole hotel is woeful, many units in the restaurant are constantly dripping and covered in mould around the fans and ceilings. There is also broken glass scattered about in the restaurant and pool area so keep your footwear on at all times when walking around. On a whole. I wouldn’t recommend this hotel, for it to be a 4* hotel, whoever gave them this rating must of been blind. The manager is a disgrace and rude. One of the only positives to take is Lana the TUI rep is very helpful and tried to resolve all of the issues we experienced when we arrived as soon as she could. However, as the manager just didn’t care, she was fighting a losing battle. DO NOT STAY HERE"