Hotel Ambasador — Hotel in Grad Opatija

Sadly the expectation were not met for us. Chose it as thought it is the best hotel in the area and we were very happy about the spa zone but the short holiday was rather spoiled than pleasant :(

Do not go there if you are three adults travelling together and booking one room. The third bed is completely unsuitable for an adult. We asked for larger room but there wasn’t any unless we upgrade €300 per night. They gave us different bed and we managed as we were not staying long but I cannot imagine 7-10 days holiday in a room like this. They sent us champagne, two pears, four grapes, one apple and one peach as apology. Room was very cramped and we couldn’t enjoy it. Furniture is badly designed, all your belongings need to stay on top of the night stands and desk/ dressing table as ZERO drawers provided. Only a wardrobe in the hallway. Didn’t like this set up at all.

Room cleaning- the morning cleaning extremely poor quality- shower not washed, taps not cleaned, balcony floor either. I believe its only purpose was to change towels and just throw duvet in half on the bed as nothing else was done in the room.

COMPLETELY RIDICULOUS Spa policy which gives me goosebumps and leaves very unpleasant feeling even now when we returned home. Adults only and no swimsuits zone. Fair enough. Many hotels have this spa policy which we have used before however NOWHERE ELSE in the world we travelled we have witnessed something like this. Spa receptionist would “inspect” the spa areas and ask guests who are NOT naked to leave! And she would be standing there with her finger pointing out and her voice raised. Are you serious?!? Every single time we went downstairs people had swimwear on, both men and women and no one was asked to leave. Couple of times we saw naked bodies- fair enough it’s a naked spa whoever wants walks naked. After my mum was asked to leave I said that’s all right we will use jacuzzi naked next time and so we did the next day. However everyone else had swimwear on and we were the only ones naked! They looked at us like we are nuts and when we said apparently no one is allowed to be here in any swimwear they laughed. One receptionist came to jacuzzi to ask us to lower our voice but she did not make a note that lady next to us had very visible swimwear. When I raised this in the reception how ridiculous they are the lady mentioned that her colleague is ONlY 17 and she didn’t want to get in a discussion with a Croatian as they never listen to them and refuse to leave or get naked. I was very anxious and upset- how is it possible that Croatian is allowed to stay in jacuzzi in swimwear but someone else is very firmly asked to leave or strip down?! How!!? Extremely poor and upsetting policy. Every other place we went with naked spa zone gives you a choice whether you would like to undress or want to stay in your bottoms or full swimwear… who wants to be naked is naked who doesn’t want to isn’t. It’s very simple! HORRIBLE! And they don’t tell you that when you check in, no information in the leaflet they gave you and there is a small 10cm sign on the glass spa door with swimsuit crossed. That’s it…

Food- sadly all meat, eggs, pancakes were only warm when at the buffet but when you sat down at your table and start to eat- cold!

Staff- 90% unfriendly, cold, not smiling. 10% chatty, nice and kind. Overall not pleasant. Example: Cleaning lady forgot to leave one set of towels and when she came to the room after we called reception she threw a real attitude at us speaking Croatian!!! She was practically fuming… check in lady also quite unpleasant. It feels that the staff would benefit from customer service training program.

Pools are both are dirty and needs deep cleaning! Outdoor pool worse condition all black mould between the tiles.

What we liked: fabulous cocktails, nice views, small but nice bathroom. Good location and food selection. Very good lunch menu tasty and...

We spent 5 days in this five-star hotel in Opatija, a Croatian Adriatic coast resort with over 150 years history of tourism. We had a nice deluxe room with a gorgeous sea view. The location was great, close to shopping, beaches, and Opatija’s jewel Lungomare, a beautiful 12 km promenade along the coastline, and Carmen Sylva, an enchanting 5 km forest trail. The service was decent, and the food was excellent, including a wonderful buffet style breakfast and dinner with delicious food choices, including healthy Croatian Mediterranean diet and many other choices. The hotel has a nice indoor and outdoor pool and access to the beach. Decent price for the value overall – we paid 2050 EURO, tax included for 2 person 5 days. Parking was extra 20 EURO/day. I gave it 5 stars for the reasons stated above, although it should get 4.5 stars due to the following issues: Concierge desk had poor knowledge about the needs of a 65+ guests who want to spend an active vacation. The person we talked to showed limited interest in our needs such as biking, hiking, etc. Our king size bed had two twin sized mattresses with a gap in between. Smell of cigarette smoke came from the next-door balcony to our balcony and our nonsmoking room. Smoking should not be allowed on the hotel balcony. The espresso machine in the room was impossible to figure out how to use. We could not use the spa hot tub and sauna as this was a nude unisex area which was unacceptable and a bit shocking for us and most guests. Gym was too small and had a poor ventilation. Free weights selection was poor and not adjusted for all users (e.g., females, older). The lightest dumbbell was 5 kilos! Tap water was not available with dinner. This is inconceivable for an “all inclusive” package. Most people order drinks anyway, and we would gladly pay an extra EURO to have this option available. On the other hand, there was a self-service option of unlimited prosecco with the breakfast buffet which was well received by some but...

First impressions count and so far we are not impressed. The place itself seems nice enough but I don’t think we were treated well on arrival at all. ||I’ll update my review later in the trip if I feel differently. ||We were early for checkin, by 2 hours. I appreciate that check in is at a set time (and we were warned of this on arrival at the airport). Regardless there was no welcome, no offer of even a drink of water. It seemed there was no effort made at all to check on the status of the rooms, just the usual ‘we are completely fully booked’ etc. ||We checked back a couple of times and again just fobbed off, no action taken at all to check and see. No one came to us at any point. Went back at 14:00 and immediately checked in. ||Now it seems obvious to me that these rooms would have been ready some point before 2 on the dot. I think for a family of 4 inc kids who have been travelling since 0200 with no sleep for 24 hours they could have at least checked or shown some desire to help. It is the attitude more than anything that is disappointing. Obviously if the rooms weren’t ready they weren’t ready but we know how these things work, they didn’t have masses of people checking in. If you go somewhere high quality whilst they can’t just magic your room ready but they will ensure your comfort offer refreshment etc and make sure that you are informed the moment your room is ready. That is not the experience we had. ||Perhaps they have something against tui travellers, I am sure this happens with everyone that comes via tui from Gatwick. You’d think they would work something out. ||Again just to say I am not complaining about the check in time, it’s the computer says no attitude that is the issue.||Anyways hopefully things will improve, will update on rest of details / write a proper review after trip...