BO hotel Palazzo — Hotel in Grad Poreč

The Bo Palazzo is a very special hotel, with a rich history and southwest facing location at the end of the marina jutting out into the harbor. It is lovely, impeccably clean, very stylish in a classic way, and very customer service oriented. It is within very easy walking distance of everywhere in the small old town and, although it is on the far west end of the peninsula that is old town Porec, it is not far (20-30 minutes) to walk through the Riva and marina area to reach the grocery stores, shopping mall, and shady park with walking paths and beaches (and the occasional WW2 concrete pillbox defense structure) on the far eastern side of town. The sunset views are lovely as are the views of the marina, riva, and sea.||Parking is offsite, at the large Valamar lot near the large community sports center about 10 minutes away. It is safe. Call about 10 minutes before you get to the lot and the hotel van will come to pick up and transport to the hotel. It’s about an 8 minute ride to the hotel. The hotel has a pool area but no beach, and there were no suncobrans (sun umbrellas) this year. The hotel breakfast is still a nice buffet but the offering has slimmed down noticeably in the past year. The bread is some of the freshest and most gluteny that we had anywhere in Croatia this year. The fresh cut fruit is particularly good as are the omelettes. The cereal selection is skimpy – mostly all nuts and muselix. Seating is both indoors and outdoors; watch out for scavenging seagulls outside.||The Suite in which we stayed was beautiful, with solid burnished wood panels, large picture windows on three sides, a large balcony facing the water, a bedroom with a sliding wooden door, a living room area, a large formal dining area with a very large table, an office area, and two full baths. The windows open, which is nice. The AC is individually controlled and works well. The window curtains do a good job blocking out light and sunlight. The lighting is very decorative and classy chandeliers, chandelier sconses, and lamps. There is a large empty hallway at entry that is wasted space in which some storage tables / chests of drawers would be very useful. There is a small frig hidden in a desk in the far corner of the dining / office room area; you need to take out the hotel’s products to make room for your own, The large master bathroom has good sink shelf space but we cannot use the shower ….it is a large jacuzzi tub with a shower head that is a hand held only (not mounted high enough to use as a showerhead) and there is no curtain or glass wall to contain the shower water in the tub, vs. on the floor, nor to shield the person taking the shower. The small bathroom off of the main door has a walk in shower which is a self contained unit. It has excellent water pressure and is easy to use, although it is dark. The pedestal sink in the second bathroom has no counter space. There is a built in storage closet with shelves and hanging area (need more hangers) with sliding wood doors. The safe is on one of these shelves but it is not set to use; you have to talk to the front desk reception people and one will have to come up to the room to open the safe so you can use it. ||Improvement suggestions: |1. Please add shade onto the balcony terrace with an awning that ideally is adjustable – can unroll to cover all of the balcony space – AND umbrellas (without a sun umbrella, you could really only go out there in early morning and late day). |2. Replace the jacuzzi tub in the en suite bathroom with a real walk in shower with a ceiling mounted showerhead and floor to ceiling glass doors. The tub is a nice idea but you cannot use it as a shower, so two people staying in the room lose the convenience and time saving benefit of the two full bathrooms and cannot get ready simultaneously.|3. Install an inroom safe that guests can use without having to call reception and ask a staff member to come up with the code to open it.|4. Add a counter of some sort in the smaller bathroom |5. Add counter / shelf space and luggage racks. Add...

The location was amazing. Very close to all the places we wanted to go! From check in to check out the service at the hotel was top notch, Maria @ the reception was great! They made us feel welcomed from the get go, we decided to stay few extra nights in the middle of their busy season and they made it possible without any hesitation! The rooms were nice and the bed was super comfortable! Bar staff was very pleasant as well, they are young and very chit-chatty but still manage to be customers service oriented when need it, for bar/pool area where great! Now, THE BEST part that really elevated our experience and will make us come back again and again, if they keep the same staff, is morning/lunch girls…minus the restaurant manager lady..didn’t even get her name, even though we stayed over a week, she was not personable at all, neither did she try to engage with guests,she wasn’t friendly or present most of the time..she would wonder around doing nothing for few minutes trough out the morning and that was that for the day, must be nice being her..you get paid doing nothing but taking credit for fabulous job restaurant staff does!

Two staff members that where absolutely AMAZING and such a hard working ppl are Fatima and Melanie! FATIMA,note to management DO NOT LOOSE THIS GIRL She can run your whole restaurant and teach all your new girls how to be professional customer service oriented employees!!!! Fatima is experienced server and a very hard worker,she does her job effortlessly without a hitch, with a smile on her face and still making time for each and every guest to make sure they are happy and content! I own a restaurant in Toronto and I know how stressful that job is, I am absolutely amazed at her abilities to keep her cool even when faced with very difficult customers.I have never seen someone that works as hard as she does and is genuinely pleasant and kind with every customer! I am an observer and I spent my mornings working outside on the patio, therefore I have seen how she engages with everyone and so quickly she turns the tables around,I would hire her without hesitation od she is willing to move to Toronto..lol Fatima if you are reading this,it’s an open invitation🙏🏻 She definitely made our stay memorable!

Melanie is second in the line of mirroring Fatima’s great work ethic and everything I said about Fatima above goes for Melanie. She us very smart, goal oriented hard working employee that brings another level of hospitality to the customers, with her witty sense of humour and her orientation to details she is a huge asset to this hotel!!! Melanie is ever to learn and is a very quick to pick up on great serving tools, employee like her is very hard to come by! I my opinion Fatima should be managing that restaurant with Melanie assisting...

We were picked up from car park drop off by hotel transfer and the driver was so warm and welcoming . This was also the case with a very helpful reception staff . We had booked a twin room but the holiday company hadn’t informed the hotel . Reception staff did find another room but advised the double was better with balcony so suggested we still took that which we did. The room was comfortable and clean . Lovely sea view if not for the flat roof and cruise ships moored outside the hotel most of our visit . We did miss balcony flowers though . |The cruise ships moored outside looked right into the pool and sun-bed area so you can feel a little looked on when ships moored there. |Breakfast was good , selection of fruit , meats, cheeses , cereals , breads , variety of milks, teas. Juice machine was a roulette as you never got what the button said and no orange juice. However there was a sign for orange juice saying 3 euros for it!. No toaster or bread for toast but you could order it from the staff easily . Sufficient selection to suit most needs for breakfast . |Small pool with some sun-beds but never had a problem getting one as not very busy. Got sun all day and some daybeds for shade. Spa was next to pool so you could use toilets shower gym collect towels for beds. There was a selection of water in the spa you could help yourself too all day including a bowl of fresh fruit. There was pool service for other drinks too . There weren’t any cocktails unfortunately . There is access to the sea for swimming around the promenade but be careful swimming near to hotel as regular boat taxis moor outside hotel too . |Very close to restaurants and bars. |There is building works on another building opposite but we weren’t troubled by it at all . Great location on the harbour in the old town . Lovely hotel and staff were wonderful we...