Effect Algara Beach Resort **** — Hotel in Balchik

Effect Algara Beach is a Four Star hotel.

Coincidentally, that is also the TOTAL number of Bananas you'll find at the breakfast buffet. Four.

The Good:

Fantastic location. Safe, quiet. You're literally falling asleep to the sound of waves: the beach is that close. Has a huge garden ideal for walks and playing around with kids. Great entertainment for families with kids.

Fantastic bar staff. Super friendly and helpful. We spent way more time at the beach bar that we should have - it was that nice to be there.

Very nice rooms and interior design. Money was spent here and spent well.

The Bad:

The rest of the hotel staff is not friendly and, worst of all, not helpful.

There's a single water dispenser per BUILDING for all apartments there. With this setup, only one of two things can happen; One, there's no water available. Two, there are no plastic cups available. Why would you not simply supply a bottle of water to each room every day, like most other hotels? Just mind-boggling.

Housekeeping. The cleaning staff is sloppy, slow, and just not covering the basics. Over the course of a week, we had days where they didn't show up; days where they didn't replenish toilet paper or shower gel bottles; days where the never bothered to clean up. Since the hotel is basically at the beach, there is a lot of sand and it's everywhere. Vacuuming would be an easy fix - it's just not done here.

You'll need a cash deposit for the beach towels the hotel provides. Weird, but ok. Still, a number of guests were informed that they had stained the towels and would have to pay for them. Utter nonsense. Clean your own towels. Stop looking for a quick buck.

This is an establishment targeting families with kids. A large number of the guests are pregnant or nursing. Yet, even with the ALL INCLUSIVE package, you can't get non-alcoholic beer. In summer. At the beach. Well, you can - but it'll cost you extra, and the mark-up is simply greedy. No logical explanation was provided. The F&B manager was going to come back to me on this - but of course that never happened.

This hotel offers a premium dining experience. We never got a chance to experience it, because you have to jump through so many hoops to book it, it just gets annoying after a few attempts. I got tired of trying.

Speaking of which: the Food. Visually, everything is nicely arranged. Taste-wise, get ready for a non-healthy dose of sugar. The food selection is boring. Some meals are tasteless. Others are good. It's a trial and error process, but at a 4-star hotel, that should never be the case.

The Ugly:

Say hello to ants. I've nothing against keeping pets, but ants? Really? The hotel manager acted truly surprised to hear that they have what is essentially an ant infestation, but of course offered absolutely no solution, didn't offer to help, nor will they do anything about it. Fingers crossed you get a room that's ant-free. Unless you're into ants or something.

Coming back from the beach, my wife found a piece of underwear nicely folded right next to her pillow. The problem is, it wasn't hers. So the cleaning staff was very proud to have found it, folded it, and left it on the bed to surprise us - BUT WHY DIDN'T YOU DEEP-CLEAN THE ROOM AFTER THE PREVIOUS GUESTS HAD CHECKED OUT? You mean to tell me that no one bothered to look under the bed? Four star nonsense.

Feedback management. I spent way too much time arguing with the hotel staff, the hotel manager, with no progress and nothing changing for the better. With the ants situation, for example, the offered explanation was: There's a tree next to your balcony so the ants climb up into the room. First, what are you talking about? But more to the point, if you were aware of the issue - why haven't you done anything to solve it? Again, just boggles the mind.

To sum this up: With so many options in the area, it's next to impossible to imagine ever coming back to Effect Algara Beach Hotel.

Which has exactly two knock-on effects.

One, we'll be sure to avoid any of the other hotels in the chain.

Two, you should...

It was a bittersweet experience. We were a family with 1,5 yo kid. Let's start with the arrival: (+) We arrived at 13:30, on 26 June-Monday , and even though the check in started at 15, they gave us a room at 13:45, and gave us a little presentation about the hotel, programs, etc. They also had a person who helped us with our luggage. (-) At that time, the hotel wasn't too crowded; it had just cleared out after the weekend. When we told them that we were given a different room than the one we booked on booking (it was supposed to have a sea view, but to see the sea, you had to step out onto the balcony and stand there – not as comfortable as going to the beach to see it), they still insisted that we received what we had reserved. The room we got it's not visible on their site or any other booking site. The balcony was 50cm wide, and 4m long - it was useless (see pics). After the first day, and after many asking, begging, after 7 attempts to solve it with booking.com, they changed the room with the one we choose and paid for. (+) Parking was included. (+) They provided a free baby crib. (+) The room was clean and quiet. (+ & - ) The air conditioning turns on automatically when you close the balcony door (a plus because it doesn't waste energy, but a minus because if you don't want the AC on and you step out onto the balcony and close the door, the AC starts running with the child sleeping in the room). (- & +) The minibar (more a cool box) in the room contains two very cheap and difficult-to-drink beers, especially since they were warm. There was also a cola and a fruit juice with a straw, and bottled water. The minibar is basically a box with a fan and a light inside – it doesn't cool at all. I needed to use a gel ice pack that needs to be frozen; it was no use. (+ & -) +- The food is good and plentiful, but considering it's an all-inclusive deal, it's not as impressive as the price of the accommodation. The price difference between a stay with breakfast only and an all-inclusive deal, we could have eaten better and just as well at restaurants with good ratings on Google Maps or TripAdvisor. Btw, they also have baby food (in jars or pouches), baby formula, baby biscuits etc (it was a big ++ for us because our kid was very picky about food those days) (+) At the restaurant there were enough seats both indoors and outdoors, for smokers and non-smokers alike. (-) The children's pool was just a bigger bathtub with colder water than the sea, and the filtering system didn't seem to work properly whenever we were there, making it risky for the children's health. The most dangerous part was that they could easily get their feet caught on the edge and around the pool (see pics). (+) There was a lot of greenery and shade, so we could spend time outside anytime of the day. (+) On Thursday evening, there was a party with a barbecue, games for children, entertainers, etc. On the last evening (Thursday), they left a bottle of wine in the room for us.

In the end it was a pleasant stay. The food and drinks were ok, but not 4*, and the availability of the baby food when our kid was picky, was very welcomed. After they changed our room we...

Still under construction .. Noise, transport of building materials. Areas with scrap material. Lack of walkways.Milk and hot water for tea (or small children's food) just for breakfast. Otherwise nonexistent. Just cold water.Some dishes ended quickly and did not refill (for example, in the morning, some grilled specialties, state-to-tail or "hunted")Very poorly organized. There were no free tables unless we arrived in the first 30 minutes of each meal. There was no waiting system. We had to "hunt" people who finished eating.Outside most of the tables in the sun directly. Indoor cold air conditioning. (not very nice for family with 2 small children). Very few children's chairs. They had to be "hunted."Same thing with sunbeds on the beach. They were not enough for everyone unless we were "hunting" them at first in the morning and putting luggage on them.Mosquitoes, wasps and flies everywhere. Including flies on food. The pool full of dead insects. It does not seem to be a disinsection anywhere. In the sea some small insects that bite.Room air conditioning very noisy. At night we had to choose between too hot or noisy.No fan remote control. In the neighbour room with someone we know, lacking the TV remote. Missing TV cable, TV only through a hard-to-use application and slow loading.Wi-Fi is very poor, interrupts and returns permanently.Events / entertainment, day and night, are rather dull and boring.Pro: cleanliness, courtesy.Very low price, but the services are as low.Încă în construcție.. Zgomot, transport de materiale de construcție. Zone cu resturi de materiale. Lipsa alei de circulație. Lapte și apa calda pentru ceai (sau mâncare copii mici) doar la micul dejun. În rest inexistent. Doar apa rece. Anumite feluri de mâncare se terminau repede și nu se reumpleau (de exemplu clătite dimineața, anumite specialități la grătar, pe baza de stat la coada sau "vânat") Foarte prost organizat. Nu erau mese libere decât dacă ajungeam în primele 30 minute de când se servea orice masa. Nu era nici un sistem de așteptare. Trebuia sa "vanam" oamenii care termina de mâncat. Afara majoritatea meselor în soare direct. În interior aer condiționat foarte rece. (nu foarte plăcut pentru familie cu 2 copii mici). Foarte puține scaune de copii. La fel trebuiau "vânate". Acelasi lucru cu șezlongurile pe plaja. Nu erau libere pentru toată lumea decât dacă le "vanam" la prima ora dimineața și înșiram pe ele bagaje.Țânțari, viespi și musculițe peste tot. Inclusiv muște pe mâncare. Piscina plina de gâze moarte. Pare ca nu e dezinsecție totuși nicăieri. În mare niște insecte mici care piscau. In camera aerul condiționat foarte zgomotos. Noaptea aveam de ales între prea cald sau gălăgie. Lipsa telecomanda ventilator. În camera alăturată cu cineva cunoscut, lipsa telecomanda TV. Cablu TV lipsa, TV doar printr-o aplicație greu de utilizat și care se încarcă greu.Wi-Fi foarte slab, se întrerupe și revine permanent. Evenimente / entertainment ziua si seara cam slăbuțe și plictisitoare.Pro: curățenie, amabilitate. Preț foarte mic, dar serviciile...