"Stayed for a 7-night stay at Villa del Conde, 27/10/25 through 3/11/25.
We have stayed at Villa del Conde several times in the early days of its opening and have not visited for some years. This latest visit was disappointing when we look back at the sheer quality and prestige the once definitely 5-star hotel once had. Today it is a pastiche of what a 5-star hotel should be. While the buildings remain beautiful, the bedrooms are in desperate need of a 2025 facelift, the grounds and gardens remain exquisite, but the pool areas are looking tired. I will set out the major issues below but certainly; it comes to something when the hotel now has two 5-star offerings. ‘Unique’ guests with their orange towels get a higher level of service, cushions on their sun beds and allocated extras. How an earth does this work when everyone else paying for a 5-star hotel is treated as a lesser consumer?
Check in
• Slow and information must be entered via an iPad provided, why?
• No glass of fizz on arrival, now an impersonal voucher to use at the bar later
• Lack of information on anything, facilities, opening times, entertainment, other than huge touchscreen screens you discover later. Even found out that there is a shuttle service somewhere, but no information provided at check in or in the room
Bedrooms
• Need decorating, look tired and unappealing, especially the bathroom, black markings on light-coloured walls above shower
• Not enough modern day plug sockets, only one beside the bed. Others limited and low on floor
• No water
• No milk
• Useless small fridge with nothing in it
• No coffee machine
• No robes or slippers
• Very poor-quality towels
• The shortest lead on a kettle imaginable, so you must put it on the floor to reach a plug
• Tea bags not topped up, now delivered by ordering via an absurd app, delivered 24 hours later, and no coffee option at all
• Evening turn down service long gone
Breakfast dining
• Busy and chaotic in main dining area, the second smaller dining area across piazza is better, but is dark, tired and hot
• Availability of gluten free products confused. Sometimes on display, whole big packets of biscuits that one person is not going to open and eat wholly in one sitting, you can’t take food out, so why are they there? Some days nothing, and asking staff is hit and miss
• When second dining room was closed later in week the main dining area was even busier with huge queues of people waiting to be checked through
Dinner dining
• Getting seated and in a relaxed area is often impossible. The staff in grey uniforms use iPads to scan cards and then ordering drinks is a nightmare, all must be done with these iPads, it takes staff time and when busy you sit and wait, then wait ages for your drinks
• Lack of hosting and waiting staff, one evening so busy they couldn’t find us wine glasses, we had our wine in the water glasses
• Lack of description as to what food on display is and what it contains, labelling almost non existent and if there is any it is basic
• Staff indifference and for some guest avoidance the policy
• Whatever drink you buy in the restaurant you cannot carry 3 metres outside to enjoy in the piazza to watch entertainment. On two occasions we were met by three staff at the exit and made to sit like naughty children back down behind the Perspex screen to finish our wine. On the second occasion I asked for the restaurant manager and Alejandro arrived and immediately got into a confrontation with us over this issue, telling us the restaurant wine glasses were property of the restaurant and could not go outside, we requested plastic glasses, but this was refused too. a childish and ludicrous policy
The Bar
• No longer are there any poolside staff getting drinks, only on one day did two staff arrive and offer to get drinks. On all other days to get a drink involved walking to the bar to wait incessantly for the one person behind the bar to be able to serve you as it is always so busy
• If you want some ice for the poolside or your room, you will be charged 5 euros for a tiny, miniscule bucket
• Don’t think of trying to get a drink in the bar when the piazza entertainment is on, no chance, so busy with getting drinks out to orders from the piazza, they don’t even bother serving folks waiting at the bar itself
• Getting a drink on the piazza in the evening is equally as difficult, only staff in grey uniforms with the iPads can assist and on most nights they are few and far between. Gone are the days of being served directly by waiters carrying bottles to you to mix a drink
Poolside
• Sunbeds tired and wholly uncomfortable, hard and no cushions provided
• Many parasols broken and unable to open, elderly people struggling to raise them and no assistance anywhere
• Unable to buy a bottle of wine or cava and take to the pool, in the past a bottle in an ice bucket was allowed. Now you must sit in the bar. Very odd for a 5-Star hotel
Main reception area bar always now closed, gone is the piano playing. And the discotheque listed on amenities is always dark and closed too.
Villa del Conde has everything going for it and could be so much better. Us holidaymakers can put up with a lot but the overriding impression is that we were overall a hindrance, and 5-Star service is about ensuring your clientele are treated to the highest quality experience. Some staff who will remain nameless were exceptional and seemed exasperated by the endless rules and pressure from being under resourced. Sadly, this is no longer 5-star, and we will not be returning given the price we paid.
The review was shared with the hotel and subsequent responses addressed nothing, other than we should have raised concerns at the time! And apparently robes and slippers are available. This being the *only* grievance covered, weirdly. The response was apologetic and not in any way detailed, or professionally argued. They honestly couldn't give a damn."
