Maxi Park Hotel & Spa — Hotel in Velingrad

Don't let the website with its good English fool you, besides the receptionist and the odd server, no one else speaks English (quite incomprehensible for a '5-star hotel' for tourists). Even when we clearly indicated we do not speak Bulgarian besides the basic greetings, the servers continue to speak to us in Bulgarian, and one even rolled her eyes at us when we couldn't answer her question trying to order food at their restaurant.

We tried both of the restaurants, would recommend to steer clear of the Hunters restaurant; besides zero English speaking servers, it took them 20 minutes after ordering to let us know they are out of the dish I ordered, so ended up my husband was almost finished with his meal before I got my replacement. Service was slow and super casual, we just walked in and sat ourselves down as no one was at the door, then after 5 minutes one menu was given to us to share even though there's only two other tables, and we had to wave the servers down several times for ordering and even just to get some water. Food was average at best, most dishes were too salty and the veal was well overcooked. Also the background music was the local radio station, it felt like we were eating at a local bistro/pub instead of at a 5 star hotel restaurant. The restaurant upstairs is buffet style for breakfast and dinner and pretty much just standard 3-star quality food.

Spa centre fared better with more smiles in the service, but also beware, this is definitely a VERY kids friendly hotel so expect a lot of kids running around the pools accompanied by screams and splashes (not exactly my idea of a relaxed atmosphere). The saunas and steam baths are quite nice though, with a lovely relaxing chamber. Hotel walls are also thin so we can clearly hear screaming kids at 11pm in the evening, 2 door down. The deluxe room itself is decent in size and relatively clean, but nothing special to add.

Oh yes, there is just one elevator that is slow and small to service the whole building.

All in all, a pretty disappointing experience in a so called 5-star hotel, I give this place at best 3-star for quality...

I don't recommend it. Unfortunately we are very disappointed. I just don't know where to start. This hotel is very far from five stars and a luxury vacation. We went there with a reservation for a premium studio, which said it had a panoramic view and a 48 square meter room. It is charged more expensively than the standard studio. However, it turned out that there is no difference between the standard and premium rooms. And the square footage of the room is far from 48. The rooms are old and shabby, they are dirty, there was a lot of dust on the bed. The toilets are not well cleaned. The shower stall would not close and the bathroom floor was constantly wet and slippery. One day one of our children fell very badly because the floor was not dry. The heating in the room and bathroom was not working and it was quite cold, when we complained they couldn't fix it and brought us a fan. It's not nice at all to be so cold, especially when you come back from the Spa and the pools. The towels are yellowed and worn and the ones in the spa smell awful. It's cold in the hallways, in the elevator, and downstairs in the spa, and it's not nice when you're wet. The pools have lukewarm water, it is warmer only in the jacuzzi, which does not correspond to the degrees they say. The windows and sunbeds are stained and worn. In the steam room, the water did not drain and overflowed all over the floor. Outdoor pools are peeling and yellowing. The food at the block table is monotonous and always cold. The same desserts were served three days in a row both morning and evening. It is also quite cold in the restaurant and you must necessarily wear outerwear. The baby crib in the room had holes in it, and there were smeared bugs and mosquito marks on the walls. We never saw the animator in the children's corner during our four-day stay. It was also quite cold there and you have to stand with an outer garment. It also had a rather peculiar smell of old and unventilated. We are very disappointed. We would not holiday there again. Definitely not...

Just coming back from a 4- days stay…Excellent location of the property, spacious superior studios, comfortable beds, very welcoming common areas. Poor management of services, though! It is completely unacceptable to use this 5* accommodation property as a free children vocation centre, thus ignoring all other fully paying customers. The number of children is exceeding the capacity of SPA areas and fully occupying in and outdoor pools and pool areas, playing unattended by adults and/ or parents in pools and water hydromassage units, thus making them completely out of use! The staff is indifferent to complaints by full paying guests. There is obviously shortage of staff, breakfast and dinner services are far below any 5* requirements! There is no control of food taken out of restaurant which leads to the fact that both breakfast and dinner time obviously is 1 to 1 1/2 hours shorter than advised, whilst one can observe clients eating breakfast take aways by the pool or anywhere around! Dinner is a disaster as quantity, timing and service! Clients comment and complain to reception and restaurant staff with no effect! Food is never enough for the full paying and the number of free children.. No COVID protection of any kind- No social distance in restaurants and public areas, no disinfection of tables, chairs or public areas, lack of control of guests using pools and SPA facilities! This morning alone, we were forced to sit at a table which was not cleaned and staff only took away the used dishes and leave the table with food remains from previously seated customers and an ash tray with cigarette butts! Very disappointing and far below our...