"Below I have detailed in depth, the terrible experience we had during our 24 hours in the Fergus Style Bahamas, Ibiza. For context, I have worked in travel since I left school.
Before we arrived, I emailed the hotel on 2 separate occasions to advise them of our arrival time at the hotel, I am also aware that they receive this information from Jet2 on the reservation. When we arrived at the hotel, at around 12:00 midday, reception was very busy, and there were only two receptionists assisting people and checking in guests who had just arrived like us. It took approximately 30 minutes for us to be acknowledged and seen by reception, and "checked in". When advising of my prior contact, and the fact I had a 4 month old baby, the receptionist told us the room was not ready and to come back later. She did not use her phone, and did not seem to explicitly check this on any system or with a colleague. We left our bags in an unlocked luggage room, which was full to the brim with luggage, and was like playing a game of Tetris. It was very inconvenient, having to squeeze in here, and make room to try and open the case to find supplies to be able to change and feed my baby after travelling since 4am that morning.
We went for lunch, and a walk to find bottled water for the baby, which again the hotel did not provide freely at the bar when asked, therefore we had to spend money at the supermarket to buy this, which should be a very minimum standard of facility at an all inclusive, "4*" hotel.
The food was very basic, and the dining room resembled a school canteen. Only 1 coffee machine, and fizzy drinks machine was working for the whole of the restaurant, so the queue was ridiculous just to get a drink. The food options were very basic, bland, and great if you like to eat the same thing daily. Again, this would have been acceptable if we had booked a 3* holiday.
At 14:00, we went back to reception to check if our room was ready. A coach of guests had just arrived at the hotel, and they still only had two receptionist assisting around 30 people that were waiting. When we finally got to the front, the same receptionist we spoke to earlier, said that she would check if the room was ready (she did not advise this earlier when asking). She phoned housekeeping to ask, who advised it would be 15 minutes further, told us to move away from the desk and reproach at 14:45, which we did and we were finally given the key.
Upon entering the room, we were left very disappointed. The room was extremely basic, and resembled a 2*+ standard of accommodation. The front door did not close properly without being slammed shut, maintenance were passing and showed us to just 'slam it' rather than fix the issue, which led to our door initially not even being closed, so anyone could have walked in. The bathroom was dated, and the bath was small and narrow, with the glass shower screen being fixed and unmovable making it impossible to bath a baby or a child. The tiles which were on the front face of the bath, had clearly been knocked out, to get to a leak I would assume. However instead of retiling the bath front, it looked like 2 replacement tiles were fixed with a large amount of group which was left sticking out, making this very obvious. I am not a tiler, however would presume that it would have been easier, quicker and neater to retile the bath front. The taps in the shower and sinks were full of limescale, that had not been treated in a very long time and had built up. The grout on the tiles between the bath and toilet, and also some areas in the shower was black, dirty and mouldy. The glass on the shower screen was dull and unpolished. There was no plug for the bath, or the sink, so again I was unable to bath my baby. The bathroom had ceiling tiles, which were stained and damp to touch and appeared to have a leak above, this was not condensation from us showering; as it was so disgusting we did not use the shower at all. There was no extractor fan in the bathroom, and it was internal so there was no window.
Moving onto the bedroom area, the actual room was long, but not wide. The beds were the worst beds I have ever slept in my life, and being able to travel both 5* luxury and budget scene holidays, I have experienced a lot of hotels and pull out beds in over occupied rooms, however the bed in this one was by far the worst EVER. The mattress was hard, with no texture. Due to us staying 1 night as explained later on, myself and my mother who has hip mobility issues, were aching, sore and slept with a spring in my shoulder blade all night. The pillows were flat and there were only 1 on each bed, with no spares in the wardrobe, so we couldn't even pad it out to make it marginally better. The base of the bed, looked like a camp bed, or something you would find in an army barracks.
For our room type, the facility list does not include a kettle. However again, the pictures of the room, on the room type specific photos, show a coffee machine and tea and coffee making facilities. From researching the other types available, I would now make the assumption that the 'Superior Double Room' photos have been incorrectly added to the 'Double Room' listing. Due to having no kettle, and a baby exclusively formula fed, I needed a kettle to make up her feeds. Upon realising that there was no kettle, I went to reception to ask for one. As my baby was very upset, and crying due to hunger, a guest allowed me to push in and speak to reception, as again, there were 30-40 people waiting and the queue extended to outside! The receptionist said they did not have any. I advised that I had checked the facility list, which contradicted the photographs, and requested a kettle. I know that the hotels keep a spare stock for situations like this, or spare ones if the ones in the Superior Rooms were to break. The receptionist said they were all allocated and they had none left. I advised that this was not good enough, and that it was essential I fed my baby! I was very upset, and panicking about how I was going to do this. The receptionist wafted me away with his hand, portraying that he wanted me to go away and walked off to help someone else. I asked at the bar, they said they had none, I asked housekeeping, who advised to ask reception, and as a final resort managed to find who I think was a head chef standing outside the restaurant. We google translated, and after about 5 minutes, he came back with a brand new kettle that had never been opened. Proving that there was indeed stock!
When we went back to the room, and finally settled my baby, the overwhelming smell of cannabis entered the room. Our front door was closed, as we checked. The balcony doors were still closed and locked, as we had not even been out there at this point. I understand Ibiza is a party destination, and walking down the street you expect to see and smell things like this (I have been to the island 6 times previously to this including San Antonio). However, in a 'family friendly' hotel, people smoking this on their balcony is unacceptable.
After all of this, and lack of help from our holiday provider, we paid to move hotels and stayed at the Grand Palladium Select Palace, just down the road. What a difference, an absolutely amazing place that was fantastic before refurbishment, and even better after. My advice, do not waste your money on this "4*" hotel, as you will certainly be disappointed."
