DWO Sirius Hotel

"We recently stayed at the Dwo Sirius Hotel in Santa Susanna for 8 nights, and overall, we had a mixed experience. There were some things we absolutely loved, but also some issues that unfortunately affected our overall rating. Firstly, the housekeeping team are incredible! No stone is left unturned when it comes to the rooms, and the hotel overall was immaculate. The housekeeping team, along with the pool cleaning team, get 5 stars from both my husband and me. Everything was kept exceptionally clean and these teams deserve huge credit for the work they do. The entertainment was more of a mixed experience for us. I completely understand that it is difficult to please everyone, particularly when a hotel has such a wide range of ages and different tastes. However, during our 8-night stay, there were only two acts that we personally thought were very good. We actually ended up going to the hotel next door on several occasions to watch their entertainment instead. That said, I do want to stress that this is purely our personal opinion, as entertainment is very much an individual choice and what we didn't enjoy, someone else may absolutely love. Food was another mixed experience for us personally. I struggled with eating at the hotel because I have quite a bland English diet. My husband, however, would say the complete opposite! He thought the choice and quality of the food available throughout the day was excellent and would highly recommend the hotel's meals. The snack options available during the day were also very good. One thing we particularly enjoyed was the hotel's provision of free sunbeds and umbrellas at the beach, at the Illusions Bar. The staff there were absolutely amazing and genuinely went above and beyond to make our visits enjoyable. We had such a laugh with them all! They are a fantastic team — always busy, always lots of laughter, and always polite and welcoming. We really enjoyed spending time there and they deserve a special mention. Unfortunately, this brings me to why our overall rating is 3/5. There were two male members of the bar staff who, in our experience, let the entire team down, which is a real shame because the majority of the staff were lovely. Before visiting, I had read reviews mentioning issues with certain members of the bar team. At the time, I honestly thought those reviewers were perhaps being unfair, or that it may simply have been a personality clash. Having now stayed at the hotel ourselves, I can say that our experience was very similar to what I had read. On several occasions, drinks were slammed down on the bar and there were obvious signs of frustration or huffing when you asked for a cocktail or anything that required more than simply taking something from the fridge or pulling a drink from a tap. It made us feel as though we were being a nuisance simply by going to the bar, which was uncomfortable and certainly affected our experience. There was also one particular night where one of these male staff members squared up to and even headbutted another member of staff. He was subsequently told to go away and calm down. Whatever the circumstances were, and regardless of whether this may be considered normal or accepted within the local culture, it was not something we felt comfortable witnessing as guests. It was a very unpleasant incident. Another issue for us was the availability of water before 11am. The pool bar opens at 9am, but basic drinking water had to be paid for before 11am. Personally, I didn't mind paying for it, but what was confusing was that this seemed to depend on who was serving at the time. On one occasion, we were told, “It is not 11 yet,” when asking for water, yet shortly afterwards a local customer who had simply dropped in was served a pint. As paying hotel guests, this didn't make much sense to us. We completely understand that there may be different rules regarding what is included and what has to be paid for, but those rules should surely be consistent for everyone. It was the inconsistency that we found frustrating, rather than having to pay for the water itself."

"Let’s start with the positives. The hotel and rooms are clean and spacious. The staff are friendly, attentive and always willing to help. The location is also convenient, with the beach being less than a 5-minute walk from the hotel. Another positive, although not directly related to the hotel, is the train station, which is around a 10-minute walk away. There are trains to various surrounding areas, and we used it to travel into Barcelona for the day, which was convenient. Now the negatives, Firstly, we weren’t aware before booking that the all-inclusive drinks were limited to a selected range, and as far as we were aware, there wasn’t an option to upgrade. The selection of drinks available on the all-inclusive package also wasn’t particularly good. The sunbed situation was probably the biggest issue for us and is the worst we’ve experienced at a hotel. Guests have to queue before 9am in a corridor, as the pool is located on the third floor. If you don’t queue, it is very unlikely that you will get a sunbed as there isn’t enough. On some occasions, when the doors opened, people were pushing and shoving to get through, which was shocking. There are also signs stating that towels will be removed if sunbeds are left unattended for more than 30 minutes. However, this didn’t appear to be enforced, and we saw people leaving towels on sunbeds for hours at a time."

"The location is excellent. The food is ok. The staff do their job. The room is small, clean and basic. The bed is comfortable. For some strange reason there is a large window pane between the bed and the shower, some of which is frosted. I found this quite odd. This means that if you get up in the middle of the night to use the loo and need to put the light on, you wake your partner up. They've put a bench in the room but I can't see any use for it and on the balcony there's a bench, a small table and ONE chair. Strange. They give you a kettle and 2 cups but nothing to put in them. I thought someone might have forgotten to put them in our room and asked at reception to get told it isn't included. Odd. It's a nice enough place but I have stayed in better for the price."