Hotel California

"Warning! Think twice before you consider staying at this hotel. They advertise themselves as a 5-star hotel, but the treatment I've received from them is anything but. I stayed at Hotel California in September and, shortly after checking out, realized they had double charged me for my rooms. After ignoring my first few emails, they finally acknowledged the double charge and said they would process a refund. It's now been almost 3 weeks and multiple emails later and the refund has never been processed. Now the hotel is closed. This is a situation that could have been easily and promptly resolved, and yet they have chosen not to refund my money for an overcharge they have admitted was erroneous. I travel extensively for both business and leisure and have never experienced such terrible treatment from a hotel."

"During our week-long vacation in Montenegro, we encountered unprecedented treatment at Hotel California by Aikon when checking into our chosen room category, a package we'd booked more than six months earlier. First of all, this isn't a 5-star hotel! We stayed at the same chain, the Riva by Aikon, a solid 4-star hotel, which is significantly superior in both comfort and service! Furthermore, if I understand correctly, 5-star hotels at least have their own pool (in our case, this wasn't essential, as the hotel was right on the seafront). Upon arrival, we were immediately given the keys to a ground-floor room. I usually request a higher floor with a sea view when booking, if possible. The room we were assigned had a balcony enclosed by a concrete fence, approximately 80 cm high. The fences between adjacent rooms on this balcony are purely decorative (photo attached). So, The advertised "sea view" was only partial if you stood upright. There was no way to sit and watch the sunset or simply enjoy the sea view (which is why I always book sea-view rooms on trips like this). Furthermore, the room greeted us with a musty smell or something similar. As it turned out later, the air conditioning system hadn't been cleaned in a while (you can see this in the photo). The hotel employee who accompanied us offered to spray the room with air freshener. This prompted us to demand a different room in the same category as advertised. We were told there were no such rooms available. We were offered a "family" room (in an Adults Only hotel) for the following day for an additional 560 euros!!!!! Or a sea view room without a balcony (a French balcony) of a lower category (smaller room, no balcony) with no option to refund the price difference. We had to accept the latter option in order to check in and begin our planned vacation, timed to coincide with our wedding anniversary. It should be noted that in this attic room, the closet was just over a meter high, making it practically impossible to fit my wife's dresses in it without wrinkling them (photo attached). On the third day, we were provided with a clothes stand, which at least somewhat improved the wardrobe situation. The plumbing and some furniture were also in disrepair. I checked room availability on the hotel website and Booking. We also observed the periodic turnover of guests and concluded that they had rooms in our category available for guests staying for one or two nights. Therefore, the hotel, in addition to having higher revenue from these rooms (I'm sure travel companies offer significant discounts for early bookings), received more positive reviews and had a fairly high rating. For every three or four positive reviews, there was one negative one describing the same issues – the room category, the terrible condition of the air conditioning and bathroom fixtures, and the unfriendly reception staff. I was in constant contact with my tour operator during this time, and after four nights of a ruined vacation, we were finally given a room in our category, the so-called "family" room, with two single beds. It was larger, with a balcony and a stunning sea view! There wouldn't have been room for a cot in a "family" room at an Adults Only hotel. When we changed rooms, there was some embarrassment: hair was found on the bed linen in the new room (photo)! So, out of seven nights booked and paid for on time, we only received three nights of accommodation as per our package."

"The hotel overall is good, but it is definitely not a 5-star hotel just due to the fact that they lack amenities most hotels (especially 5-star hotels) have. No gym, no spa, no pool, etc. We (3 people) have stayed in a Family Room with Sea-View which was pretty good. Is it smallish? Yes, but nonetheless there was enough space to open two big suitcases and store all our belongings. The room had a safe which you can use for free and all your usual necessities. Both beds were the same size, which for one person is perfect, but for two, not really. Bathroom was great and everything worked fine. The only thing that was missing is the proper ventilation in the bathroom. After a ten minute shower, mirrors were foggy and no air is entering nor leaving the room as long as the door is closed, which is a downside. Air conditioning works perfectly and cools the room very quickly, but is too loud to be turned on during the night. The minibar is overpriced so I haven’t used it but the selection is okay. The balcony is great and views are really really beautiful, but if I am being super pedantic about things - the balcony door doesn’t have a handle outside, which doesn’t allow you to close the door and is a downside since the warm air easily enters the room, plus the AC doesn’t work if the balcony door is open 🤨 The restaurant and bar are severely overpriced in my opinion. The burger in the restaurant cost 24 euros, which was extremely unfair since the meat was quite dry… After that we didn’t visit the restaurant anymore so can’t say anything else about their food. The bar has a poor selection of different types of alcohol and their barmen do not know if they have specific drinks or not. Additionally the service is not nice. Waiters are not polite in a manner in which a “5-star hotel waiters” should be. After asking for a menu and choosing our drinks the waiter came over and, quoting, said “what do you want?” which to me seemed very unprofessional, although maybe I am just too pedantic 🤧 I can recommend trying their grilled pineapple mojito, if you do happen to visit the place. The staff at the reception and cleaning staff are very welcoming. We have had several questions at the reception and they were all answered in a very helpful way. Cleaning service is impeccable and you even get one bottle of water per person every day after they clean your room, which, may I say in such a secluded place is a must, since finding a market to buy water is quite tiring in such heat 😄 Towels are changed everyday, while bed lining was changed every three days, which was fine to me. We have also had an issue with the water draining in the shower and it was quickly fixed by the staff after we’ve mentioned it at the reception. The best thing about the hotel is its beach. Although it’s not private, the sun-beds and umbrellas are not freely available to public, but are free for hotel guests. The sun-beds are very comfortable and umbrellas provide good shade. Beach staff is welcoming and can even reserve you the sun-beds if you ask them in the morning, which saved us a lot of hassle of trying to get good spots. The beach is sandy only up to a certain point, from which it is pebbles of various size which do hurt your feet quite a bit especially when they get all hot during the day, so I would recommend buying some footwear which you can easily wear to prevent any discomfort. You can also get some water activity inventory (surf boards, water jets, etc.). Breakfasts are quite simple and lack variety, but they do serve a lot of fresh fruit and your typical breakfast foods such as eggs, sausages, vegetables, etc. Coffee is okay and they do have alternative milk options, but pastries are not the best ones and desserts are a bit primitive. Surroundings if the hotel are alright but it is quite deserted here in terms of the location since you really have to walk up the mountain if you wanna get to a new restaurant, a market or even to the main street. Overall, my experience here was good, although there are a couple of cons to it. I’d say 8/10 is a pretty fair rating for my stay here."