"There were just so many things about this hotel that made this the worst holiday experience we can ever recall. I even suggested to our tour operator that they should send an employee as a mystery guest to review first hand this dreadful hotel. We spoke with a number of UK and German guests who all said the hotel was dreadful. The following is a summary of our experience staying at this hotel.
Hotel Bedroom
1. Very very dated ( probably 1970's).
2. Not safe in bathroom, tiled floor is not non-slip and extremely dangerous slip hazard when wet - nearly landed on the floor. We had to keep towels on the floor to stay safe as shower water would bounce onto floor when used. They supply a small towel to stand on but its not big enough as the water bounces everywhere.
3. Noise was terrible from adjoining rooms and above as walls and ceiling must be thin. We could hear showers being taken next door, especially from above our room. We could literally hear people above urinating into their toilet before flushing it. Furniture being moved around, especially the outside patio furniture, could be heard and would awaken us from around 6am.
4. No Satellite TV, No ENGLISH tv channels at all - just a few Italian TV channels, so really no point in a TV being in the room.
5. No Ironing Board and no Iron in room.
6. No alcoholic drinks in the mini fridge.
Restaurant
1. Absolutely no atmosphere at all in the main restaurant ( which was used for breakfast, lunch and dinner ). It reminded us of a school canteen. The photograph on the tour operators website of this hotel showing a lovely terrace with table cloths on tables ready to serve a meal is simply misleading as this is not the case at all. Meals were never served in a lovely setting like that, instead in a dreadful soulless mess hall which better describes it than a restaurant.
2. Food quality was absolutely dreadful. We did not go to Sicily to eat cold mashed potato, solidified pasta. The only thing that was edible was a bread roll and some ice cream. After a few attempts we gave up and had to pay to go out to eat.
3. Fresh pizza by the pool side was not fresh, the hotel had clearly used frozen pizza and then reheated. It was hard and again solidified cheese - disgusting.
Bars and Restaurant
1. This first point is the most SERIOUS as it involves potential theft from an employee. This same point has been verified by other holidaymakers who had the same experience to them as well. When I approached the bar in our sister hotel I asked the waiter for a Gin and Tonic. He was immediately loud and aggressive towards me and refused to serve me and was told All Inclusive does not apply to me, not everyone is all inclusive he said. I showed him my wrist band and said I was all inclusive, he raised his voice again shouting NO NO NO, then handed me a drinks menu and said I would have to pay for a drink. He was trying to get me to pay him for a drink I was already entitled to. I immediately went back up to our main hotel and spoke with a very helpful lady who was the duty manager that night. She immediately picked up the phone and called the other bar and spoke to the waiter concerned and told him we are all inclusive. His response to her was he didnt know we were English ( Strange that as he spoke to us in English and told me to leave unless I paid for my drink ). Interestingly the manager made a comment that slipped saying he has done this before. So very much worthy of investigation into this matter and individual.
2. All drinks (outside of the restaurant) were in paper cups, no glasses at all. Wine, coke, beer, it did not matter, you had to drink out of paper cups - hardly luxury to ask for a nice wine glass. Felt like we were drinking at a children's birthday party being forced to use only paper cups. This was probably the worst part of the holiday, especially when you see friends on social media on holiday drinking out of nice glasses and we are using paper cups ! Just lazy on the part of the hotel and also cheaper I assume than spending money on an employee who washes glasses, but this made our all inclusive experience unpleasant to say the least.
3. Hotel ran out of wine twice and tonic water three times ....Can you actually believe that, an all inclusive hotel that runs out of wine and tonic water, its ridiculous, especially as we paid over £3,500 to be told sorry no more wine !
4. No cocktails at all - that is just wrong.
5. Music was too loud, it was deafening, it was pumping out so loud by the pool ( all in Italian of course) . We had to leave and go to the sister hotel as it was quieter, but of course it doesnt have a pool bar, just warm water from a water machine that was not switched on. Just no thought at all from this hotel.
6. Green algae around the water edge of the sister hotel pool - clearly not been cleaned properly in a long time. Plus steps to the pool were nearly hanging off and dangerous to use.
7. Bouganville restaurant never opened.
8. Completely closed the bar in the sister hotel for several night forcing the residents to flock to the one bar that was open in the Olimpo, too busy.
9. Beautiful terrace bar closed for majority of stay and only opened the grotty area by the pool bar.
10. Entertainment was all in Italian, including can you believe it..... The comedian ! How the hell can any English guests understand an Italian comedian ? You just could not make this up, this hotel does not cater for UK guests at all, it is totally focused on Italian guests.
11. On some occasions, music was so loud, we had to carry our drinks ( in paper cups of course) down to the sister hotel using a lift then the cable car ( as of course the bar was closed in the sister hotel ).
12. Never knew which bar would be open, had to guess each night as there was no communication from the hotel on this.
13. Bar staff wanted to get off home early and would close the bar around 11.15 to 11.30 ( it should have been open to 12pm) I did flag this with our holiday rep and she seemed to have sorted it as it did not happen again. However the point is it did happen several times beforehand.
The Beech
1. Sunbeds were reserved on the beech for Olimpo guests. When we went to the beech we were told that by some young lad who was a lifeguard, that we had to sit on the 5th row or behind that as only the front rows were for the Italians - racist towards a minority and completely unacceptable.
So in summary don’t book this hotel as in my opinion the most dreadful holiday experiences ever."
