"I thought that I would leave a review after mine and my fiances recent visit of 9 nights All inclusive to Cala Millor Garden Hotel after a pretty abysmal stay at what is supposedly a "4 star" hotel.
The Good:
On arrival you are made to feel very welcome (with a glass of white wine/soft drink of your choice) which was nice, and they then assist in taking your cases to your room.
The hotel has a nice aesthetic and is generally very clean. Your room is cleaned every day which is always nice to come back to.
The pool and sunbed situation is great. There is no rush to get a sunbed (from our experience) and although the pool is labelled 10:00 - 18:00 (lifeguard duty times), you're able to access it from around 08:00. Each pair of sunbeds usually has its own parasol, and there is plenty of shaded areas if you want to move, multiple pools/jacuzzis and a shaded bar.
The entertainment in the hotel is also good with a mix of things to do throughout the day and usually a show in the evening, albeit sometimes I wasn't sure if the singers that were hired were a parody or genuinely giving it there all (Abba twins were so bad it was funny)!
The location is a little in between good and bad, the good parts are more in relation to its distance from both the Cala Millor strip and beach, which is around a 3-5 minute walk away, with plenty of shops, bars and restaurants around.
I will give a shoutout also to a few of the staff who genuinely try and make your stay worthwhile.
The Bad:
Air con
The absolute worst thing about this hotel is the situation with air conditioning. During our stay it was roughly between 33-37 degrees outside and we were told that due to regulation they can only set the aircon to 25 degrees... no matter where in the building! This means everywhere you go that has aircon in the hotel, it initially feels cooler than the outside but very quickly gets warm again which did ruin a lot of our stay as there was no where in the building to cool down after being in the sun.
As far as I was aware from previous experience staying in multiple hotels in Mallorca, this regulation should not apply to individual hotel rooms, just open areas in the hotel. This seems to be a hotel policy for their sustainability pledge, it would appear that there customers comfort is overlooked.
Rooms
The rooms are very basic and small, you do not get any cupboard space, only some small shelves and a rail with 8 hangers, which for a couple staying for 9 nights is barely anything. The bathroom is okay which includes a sink with mirror and a rainfall shower (only redeeming factor) and do provide shower gel/shampoo/hair conditioner.
The rooms have absolutely zero sound proofing on the entrance door and you can hear everything that goes on outside your room, whether that's the Go karting track/bar opposite the hotel or people arrive/leaving the hotel in the early hours of the morning. My fiance is a very light sleeper and was woke up every single night due to this.
Lastly, the rooms suffer from the air conditioning restrictions which means it will stay on and keep the room at 24 degrees, unless you open the balcony door in which case it turns off. You would think you could just go on the balcony and shut the door behind you, but there are no door handles on the outside of the balcony door!
All inclusive - Food, drinks and timings.
The all inclusive in this hotel is very poor unfortunately.
Firstly the food they serve is bland, very similar every day and there are not a lot of options. I do love fish and seafood but it seems to be the only thing they serve barring pork loin or turkey breast. If you're a fussy eater and dont like the above unfortunately your options are chips, pizza, pasta, salad and bread (assuming they haven't also put fish or seafood on those as well). They do claim to have themed nights but it only seemed to change around 5 of the servings, which again were fish or seafood related. Desserts are usually some form of mousse or mousse cake, fresh fruit and ice cream.
For drinks you have your usual self serve fountain drinks (coke/fanta/sprite etc), tea/coffee and alcohol (assuming the machines work, the coffee machine consistently made cappuccinos with hot chocolate mix during our stay).
At the bars they serve most alcoholic options like beers, wines, spirits and cocktails but there are two issues. Usually there is 1 person working the bar which means the queue can get very long and the cocktails are made via a machine (some do taste okay, but are very weak).
Some of the timings and options for all inclusive are also very limiting, for example the snacks (usually in any other hotel I've stayed at are 11:00 - 17:00) are limited to just 11:00 - 13:00. This means if you miss lunch you have to wait until 18:30 to get anything to eat as part of the all inclusive. The snack menu available to all inclusive is also extremely limited on options, its either chips, nuggets, cheeseburger or ham and cheese toastie...
Spa/massage treatment.
We paid 140 euros for a 50 minute couples full body relax massage which was more like a light rub down but they didn't do my arms, shoulders, upper back or feet, just my lower back and legs. It seemed like both masseuses were very new had never given massages before, so had no understanding of timing or making you feel relaxed. We had no relaxing music or incense of any kind (just the music from the ongoing hotel entertainment). It was overall the worst spa experience I've ever had.
Staff
As I previously mentioned, some of the staff at the hotel are genuinely very nice and make you feel very welcome, particularly most of the reception team and concierges, the experience manager, and some of the bar and dining staff. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for others, who were often abrupt, rude and generally unhelpful.
A particularly sour part of our stay was when we ordered a taxi through reception. We were told it would be around a 15-minute wait, which was no problem, so we decided to wait outside. After around 30 minutes, I went back to the lobby to ask where the taxi was. The man on reception told me that the taxi had already arrived twice and that, because we weren't outside waiting, he had cancelled it.
I explained that we had been standing outside the hotel the entire time and that no taxi had arrived or even driven past. Despite this, he did not believe me and instead told me that I must have been standing in the wrong place. There was no attempt to investigate what had happened or offer any solution, which I found particularly frustrating.
Overall, whilst there are some genuinely good aspects to the hotel: the cleanliness, pools, location, entertainment and a number of friendly stay but unfortunately, these were outweighed by the negatives during our 9-night stay.
The air conditioning, basic and poorly soundproofed rooms, disappointing all-inclusive offering, poor spa experience and inconsistent customer service all significantly impacted our holiday. We went into this expecting a 4-star hotel and, based on our experience, unfortunately felt that it fell well short of that standard. There are certainly things the hotel does well, but for the price we paid, we expected a much better overall experience and would not personally choose to stay here again."
