Alfaresort Thermal Chiflika — Hotel in Troian

The hotel is clean and things generally work. However, there were quite a few disappointing things about this hotel, especially considering the pretty high price point for Bulgaria.

The main issue I had was with the heated pool: the heated part only makes up a third of the pool you see on the pictures, which feels very deceptive, and as the water is constantly mixed with the water from the cold pool, it’s not warm enough to stay in for a long period of time. Moreover, because it’s so small, it’s always crowded with people. And finally, it is completely filled with chlorine, so even if there is some mineral water in it, you cannot feel it. My expectation of going to a ‘thermal resort’ was that the heated mineral springs would be the cornerstone of my experience. In reality, they just provide a tiny, overcrowded, and chlorine filled pool.

Apart from this, rather than just complaining, let me write an action-oriented list for the management of the hotel: Heat the saunas properly. The sauna never reached more than 60 degrees no matter how much hot water we put on the stones, which any person who goes to saunas regularly will know is pretty cold for a sauna. It definitely doesn’t give you the experience you’re expecting. Do not allow non-essential construction work to take place in the middle of the spa area during the day while people are using it. While I was using the spa area, a wall was being painted and there were fumes in all the rooms. I happened to have a massage at that time, and although the massage itself was nice, inhaling toxic fumes during my 35 minute massage was not pleasant. Do not allow children to run around across the dining room where people are eating. Even if this is a family hotel, having children run around in a hall with glasses, plates, and knives is not responsible. Install hooks and coat racks at the front door of the rooms. We had to put our coats and shoes on the carpet, which was pretty annoying and felt like an extremely basic oversight of the management, indicating that they haven’t taken the time to research the guest’s experience. Install some shelving in the bathrooms. There was not a single shelf in our bathroom, which made it very impractical to do what you need to do. Install proper shower cabins in the bathrooms. It is still very common in Bulgarian apartments and budget hotels to have a shower without any cabin or curtain, but for a hotel at this price point, I would expect the bathroom to allow me to use it without getting soaked feet when I need to use the toilet after someone has showered. Install blackout curtains in the bedrooms. This is standard practice for decent hotels. It is very frustrating being woken up early in the morning when you’re on a holiday.

In general, I just didn’t feel that the comfort of the guests was really understood or prioritized. This is quite s big issue when the main thing you want to do at a ‘thermal resort’ is to relax and feel...

After 5 hours of driving around botev peak we decided to book this hotel due the good online reviews which were given for this place. Total disaster. At arriving pool full of people smoking cigarettes and drinking alcohol inside the pool. Children peeing in the water, decided to take a shower directly after check-in without even touching the water with a finger check if it is as warm and mineral as the reviews claim. Shower cap going from cold to warm and the water kept becoming stronger and weaker. Dinner, if I can even call it that, was scarce and cold when we arrived an hour and a half after the said time of the start of dinner. I do not recommend this hotel to anybody, not even to people who are in chiflik for only one night. The price of 135lv is totally unjustified and ridiculous especially if booking through booking.com (170lv), where it is 35lv more than price listed on hotel website. Do not be fooled by the pictures and reviews. Save your money and go 30mins down the road to apriltsi or troyan where you'll get better value for your money.

Also no air-conditioning, melting away during the night. Curtains didn't close properly so due to the connected balconies it is extremely easy for neighbors to see through...

When we arrived the pool was full of people drinking,smoking(not to mention the fact that the pool is so small for the hotel’s capacity). Spider webs and spiders at every single window, dust, dead bugs. The shower kept going from cold to warm and back to cold, the photos advertising the balcony are in fact not real( only if you stay in a room next to the reception), the balcony was so small you couldn’t fit 2 people there. You can tell that the food is all frozen and thrown in the oven, everynight when we went to eat dinner the food was cold, so was the breakfast food(not to mention that the ham and cheese slices were hotter than the “warm chesse sandwiches” or the omelette). And no one from the staff,except the girl at the reception, no one speaks english, I had to write everything in google translate to make them understand a thing and it seems they even struggle to understand their...