Gavimar Cala Gran Costa Sur

"This hotel has many positives but also quite a few negatives. Just come back from a weeks stay so thought I’d review now whilst still fresh in my mind. We arrived during the middle of the day and received a nice welcome by the reception staff. The whole checking in process was simple and no complaints. We were given a wrist band to wear which also worked as a key for our room. This was great as we didn’t have to worry about keys or cards and getting locked out of our room. The room was very basic. It seemed to be clean though. However there was no fridge and no coffee/tea making facilities. We booked a room for 4 people. The room we had consisted on 2 single beds pushed together and a very uncomfortable bed settee. It also had exposed metal parts which caused a few knocks and scrapes. The bathroom was adequate enough. The shower was over the bath. However it looked like it had been installed by someone who had less DIY skills than I do (and that is saying something). The bracket the shower head was attached to was hanging off the wall and the shower curtain was hardly long enough to reach down to the bath. A massive positive of the hotel was the pools. We spent most of our time at the main pool. One end was shallow and the other over 2 meters deep. It was never too busy and had plenty of room. There was a ban on taking inflatables into the pool which was enforced by the lifeguards. This was brilliant as it allowed for much more room to swim in. Although the sight of fully grown adults complaining they couldn’t take their blow up dinosaur into the pool will live with me for a while. The all inclusive food and drink was very hit and miss. Some of the meals were lovely but many were cold, undercooked or just very samey to the previous day. In fact the food provided at the pool bar was better than in the restaurant and was topped up throughout the day. The drinks were disappointing. The restaurant had 2 self service stations and the pool bar had 1. The pool bar drinks were very watered down and luke warm. Not very nice. The drinks from the inside station at the restaurant were lovely. The outside station was ok but I was put off using this after pouring myself a drink that included about a dozen dead flies in the glass. Each cup or plate you wanted required a 1 euro deposit which you receive back when you are finished with it. This certainly cuts back on waste and cups left everywhere. The location of the hotel was phenomenal. It was right in the centre of Cala D’Or with many shops and bars in easy walking distance. It was also a few minutes walk away from the beach. The entertainment team were great. They weren’t in your face and didn’t harass you like other hotels I’ve been at. The evening entertainment was generally ok. One night was flamingo dancers which were good. Another night was a singer who was also good. We had bingo 2 nights and a parrot show. All good. Worst night was a magician who was just horrendous and clearly thought he was better than he was. The hotel had free WiFi which was simply rubbish. I ended up turning it off on my phone as it never worked. One final note about the rooms. There was nowhere to hang our towels or wet clothes. I draped my towel over the balcony but overnight it fell off onto the balcony below. I went to the reception to ask if this could be retrieved but this was not done. The staff were not interested and even though I asked on 6 separate occasions nothing was done about it. Overall the hotel was nice and even though it had its negatives, the positives certainly made up for it. I would go back there again."

"I was extremely disappointed with my stay at this hotel and unfortunately would not recommend it based on my experience. From the moment we arrived, I noticed a musty, damp smell throughout the hotel, but it was particularly bad around the bridge area where the green carpet/artificial grass is. It really needs some attention as the smell was very unpleasant. I was also shocked by the number of additional charges. You have to pay for things such as plates, cups, towels and even the safe. I specifically wanted to use a safe for my valuables, but it was €10 deposit plus €4 per day, which I think is excessive considering a safe is something I would expect to be included when staying at a hotel. The food was horrendous. We went down for lunch one day and there was a dead cockroach on the floor, which completely put me off eating. The outside dining area was extremely busy and there appeared to be only one waitress trying to clean all the tables. She was clearly struggling to keep up with the amount of work, while a man was shouting at her to clean the tables. I waited around 15 minutes before eventually having to ask her if she could clean ours. I actually felt sorry for her because she was trying her best and clearly needed more support. The pool areas were also disappointing. The water looked green and murky rather than clean and inviting. Another issue was the sun loungers. Once they were unlocked, guests had to get their own loungers out every day. They were stacked very high, and I genuinely think a shorter person, an older person or somebody with mobility difficulties could struggle to safely get one down. Some members of staff were lovely and friendly, and I do want to acknowledge them. Unfortunately, others came across as quite rude, which made the experience inconsistent. My biggest concern, however, is the decking in the outside dining area. Parts of it are lifting and uneven and, in my opinion, this is an accident waiting to happen. I witnessed a man trip on it and later saw him limping throughout the day. This really needs to be addressed urgently before somebody suffers a serious injury. I would be particularly concerned for older guests or anyone with mobility issues. Overall, this stay was nowhere near the standard I expected. Between the musty smell, additional charges, poor food, cleanliness concerns, murky pools, lack of staff and unsafe decking, I came away feeling extremely disappointed. There are some lovely staff members working here, but unfortunately there are far too many issues that need addressing before I could recommend this hotel to others."

"I recently stayed at this hotel with two friends, and we were not impressed at all. We stayed in the back half of the hotel where the main restaurant is located. The Room The room was very dated, which wasn’t a big problem to us prior to our holiday, however they were not very clean. There was a lot of dust above the beds and there was a clump of what looked like green snot wiped on the wall above my pillow… my white bedsheets also had grey, brown and red stains on and quite a few hairs in them, so I asked for these to be changed. The spare quilts in the wardrobe also had some suspicious stains on. The fourth ‘sofa bed’ was an old sofa with a bedsheet on it which would’ve been adequate for a small child, but not an adult. We booked the room for 4 adults but one of them sadly dropped out last minute, so we luckily didn’t have to use the sofa. The Wi-Fi was very slow in our room, and we had no fridge or kettle – the kettle was advertised when we booked the room, so this was a huge disappointment. There were also only two plug sockets in the whole room. We also kept finding ants in our room. We also had to pay to use the safe, which I have personally never come across before, but think access to one for free should just be standard in a hotel room. This cost me a €10 deposit, and then €4 per day so I paid €20 to use the safe for our stay. Luckily the bathroom was clean however the bathroom door didn’t even click shut like a normal door would, and the window did not lock. The shower was quite old and a bit rubbish, and the drain cover in the shower wasn’t attached. On our last day there, our water randomly cut off while we were getting ready, so we had to ask for this to be fixed which was very inconvenient. Food We were all inclusive and the food was terrible. Some of the buffet was cold, even though it was under a heat lamp and there were flies flying around the food. Overall, the buffet provided was of very poor quality and we found it hard to eat there. The best thing we ate was a burger from the lunch time snack bar which was fine. They had an outdoor snack bar too, but leaving salad and bread rolls out in 30 odd degree heat attracted flies so we didn’t want to risk it. We ended up eating out every night, which was a shame since we had gone all-inclusive to try and save some money in an area which was very expensive. They had a few water fountains around the hotel, one of which was outside so the water was hot, and one by reception which a lot of people were using. We came to the conclusion that this gave us bad tummy’s, because after we stopped using it we felt a lot better. In terms of alcohol, they had an OK selection of cocktails and also wines and sangria on tap. The Pool The hotel has 2 main pool areas, which both didn’t have nearly enough space for the number of guests that were there. Each day was a battle to get some sunbeds, and we embarrassingly had to stand at a parasol while the staff unlocked the sunbeds to guarantee a space. We also had to move the sunbeds ourselves each day. On the first day we had to squeeze into the last little space in the corner in the mud with no parasol since there was none left. We also found that some of the sunbeds were broken. We were also shocked that you and to pay for a towel to use by the pool! It was a €10 deposit and then €7 per day, so instead we bought a €5 towel from a shop round the corner. Positives I’m going to end this review with some positive aspects of our stay, because there was some despite the many negatives. Firstly, the hotel is in a great location in Cala d’Or, only a few minute’s walk from the main square. The hotel is across the road from the beach, with a convenient back gate and walk way from the hotel straight onto the beach. The staff were very friendly, and having our keycard attached to our wristband was very convenient. We had a lovely view of the beach from our balcony as we were on the edge of the hotel, but most rooms will not have this. Another thing I wanted to mention was that we didn’t hear a lot of outside noise from our room, which was nice, and the aircon worked well. Overall, we would absolutely not recommend this hotel to anyone. If you are looking for a relaxing stay in Cala d’Or, I would recommend looking elsewhere as this hotel did not live up to our expectations at all – or was I expecting too much of a 3 star hotel? Either way, we would not have wasted our money if we had known before what it would be like."