"I have thought long and hard about this review. We based our choice of hotel stay for over a week on reviews we read here and to be honest I’m struggling to understand all the five star reviews.
What was good:
• Huge bed that was exceptionally comfortable was the best thing about the hotel (and it’s an important thing to get right).
• I liked that the aircon was quiet and quite mild – I don’t like madly cold aircon.
• Good quality sun loungers on the pool terrace.
• Housekeeping do a good job (and it can’t be easy – see bathroom comment below).
Not so good:
• First appearances – it’s a bland office-like building so someone appears to have tried to dress it up by putting plants in pots at the front door. But if you do that, you need to look after them. Being greeted by dying plants at the door does not inspire confidence that you are arriving at a well-run hotel.
• When we walked in, there was a long queue for check-in. It was nearly an hour before we got into our room. Only one member of staff was checking people in. Another member of staff was on the phone and appeared to be trying to sort out a problem with her PC. At another PC, there were up to four members of staff gazing at the screen but seemingly getting no resolution. When we finally got to the top of the queue, I asked the girl checking us in if there was an unusual problem that was causing the delay, maybe something out of their control. But she informed me it was always like this. Over the course of the week, I did see a lot of people queuing most times we went past reception. She blamed the local government registration form that has to be completed by each guest online. It is undoubtedly annoying but I’ve stayed in a number of hotels in Barcelona that managed to deal with it far more effectively.
• I’m bemused by comments in other reviews about great staff. Not our experience. In fact most of the staff should not be working in hospitality in my opinion. The exception was one of the concierge type guys in reception who always greeted guests with a big smile. His colleague by comparison regarded guests with an entirely expressionless face, looking like an undercover cop who suspected everyone of a crime. Staff on reception never even looked up as guests moved across the reception space and never ever smiled. I have travelled a lot in Spain and have encountered such poor engagement with guests in only one other establishment.
• Unpleasant drain smell in the reception throughout our stay. We're all used to a drainy smell outside in Spain during hot, dry weather but I don’t expect it inside my hotel. There is obviously a blocked or cracked drain under the ground floor somewhere that urgently needs to be fixed. We brought it to the attention of reception staff who have either got so used to it, they don’t notice or are great actors and can feign surprise each time.
• Lifts are tiny and very slow.
• Common areas are ghastly – horrible ancient carpet. Badly overdue a refresh.
• Bathroom in our room looked like it was installed about 40 years ago (hence my comment above about housekeeping doing a good job as very hard to keep such a worn and tired bathroom looking clean).
• We booked a sea view room. The window sill is so high you need to be standing up to see the view. It’s quite nice to see the coast and the beaches but there is a council site right across the road so maybe not the best of views.
• The pool sun loungers are of good quality as mentioned above. However, some of them have a box frame which means that the base of the parasol cannot be moved under them to ensure proper shade coverage. There are also not enough parasols available.
• The base for the sun loungers is plastic grass. Plastic grass is not optimal in a sunny climate. Guests were getting burned on the soles of their feet. In most people’s minds, green grass is associated with a cool comfortable surface and there was a constant string of swearing as people got caught out by it. Bare concrete would be better.
• There is no toilet facility at the pool which is most unusual and meant that guests had to go to reception or back to their room.
• There is no shower or changing facility at the pool or in the reception toilets. We had an evening flight home and had intended to spend our final day at the pool but couldn’t as there was nowhere to shower and change.
Everything written above was said to the staff member who checked us out.
Overall, I thought this hotel was very poor value for money. I have stayed in far better hotels in Barcelona and those hotels would not have cost us more at that time. I would not return to Occidental Atenea Mar and in fact will avoid Occidental hotels altogether on the basis of our experience."
