Artena Hotel — Hotel in Grad Pula

We only had to stay here for one night, which is probably for the best.

The rooms and beds look pretty nice, spacious and on the first look clean. We found a supposedly wet and dirty towel for the feet in the bathroom, the ashtray and bins were not fully emptied, but moved on from those issues pretty quickly, due to other soon discovered issues.

Upon our arrival an hour before the supposed check in, the staff at the reception was really nice and corteous and told us the room is ready for us to be moved in. Since it was 36 degrees outside, we were glad we could go into our air conditioned rooms and get some rest before heading out to explore the city.

Unfortunately, the room was not air conditioned. We had a double room with two separate ACs, but neither of them was working. Both of them were pushing out air (one less than the other), but no matter what we did the air was never cold. When we reported this to the cleaning lady who knocked to tell us shortly after our arrival that she took a baby crib which we didnt need from our room, she said that she will report on this immediately. We waited around in the room in exhausting heat for 10-15 minutes before deciding to head down to the reception to solve our little problem.

Upon arriving to the reception, it was clear that the cleaning lady chatting with the staff forgot to tell them of our “tiny” issue, since only after we approached did she start mentioning the non-functional ACs.

They said that they will send someone to repair it. They should apparently come in an hour and by then we HAVE TO BE OUT from the rooms until 19:00. And so we were evicted from our rooms from 15:30 to 19:00, with this being our only day staying in the hotel. With no other options, we ventured out into the steaming hot city during the highest temperatures, strolling down the streets drenched with sweat.

When we returned back around 22:00, the staff at the reception said that ONE of the ACs should be working now (which would be fine i guess, since the double rooms dont even have any doors). And that maybe the repair crew made some mess, which they would send someone to be cleaned up in the morning (like we care since we leave in the morning).

Well, i suppose one of the ACs is “working now”. We had to set it to 5 degrees to even feel some sort of cooling happening, certainly not to 5 degrees. In our previous hotel, the room was cold in a matter of 5 minutes by setting the temp to 25° celsius. I have been sitting here writing this review for half an hour now, and spent another half an hour in here before that, and now after an hour of the AC being set to 5 degrees i can feel the room finally cooling down a bit.

I read some nice stuff about the breakfast (sarcasm), so I am really excited to explore that part tomorrow before our departure. I don’t think we will get any compensation for our troubles, as we were not offered any.

Apart from all of these troubles, I was glad for the earlier check-in, nice parking, friendly if somewhat unhelpful staff and location being both quiet but close to all you want to see in Pula. I just wish we were not evicted for most of the day and instead offered two separate rooms with working ACs (apparently they were full), or offered some sort of compensation.

Whether its worth to spend 200+€ for a night in a double room apartment (APT3) in here, I am not sure, you will have to make up your mind for it.

UPDATE: We asked for a compensation and after some email exchanges were unfortunately denied compensation since “the issue was resolved “promptly” at the same day (the only day). I suppose evicting an elderly person along with a dog into 36+ degrees Celsius is considered fine with the leading hotel management. At least the staff at the reception seemed to be sorry, since Mateo specifically (the receptionist) was the only person who gave us any humane treatment...

We only had to stay here for one night, which is probably for the best.|The rooms and beds look pretty nice, spacious and on the first look clean. We found a supposedly wet and dirty towel for the feet in the bathroom, the ashtray and bins were not fully emptied, but moved on from those issues pretty quickly, due to other soon discovered issues.|Upon our arrival an hour before the supposed check in, the staff at the reception was really nice and corteous and told us the room is ready for us to be moved in. Since it was 36 degrees outside, we were glad we could go into our air conditioned rooms and get some rest before heading out to explore the city.|Unfortunately, the room was not air conditioned. We had a double room with two separate ACs, but neither of them was working. Both of them were pushing out air (one less than the other), but no matter what we did the air was never cold. When we reported this to the cleaning lady who knocked to tell us shortly after our arrival that she took a baby crib which we didnt need from our room, she said that she will report on this immediately. We waited around in the room in exhausting heat for 10-15 minutes before deciding to head down to the reception to solve our little problem.|Upon arriving to the reception, it was clear that the cleaning lady chatting with the staff forgot to tell them of our “tiny” issue, since only after we approached did she start mentioning the non-functional ACs.|They said that they will send someone to repair it. They should apparently come in an hour and by then we HAVE TO BE OUT from the rooms until 19:00. And so we were evicted from our rooms from 15:30 to 19:00, with this being our only day staying in the hotel. With no other options, we ventured out into the steaming hot city during the highest temperatures, strolling down the streets drenched with sweat.|When we returned back around 22:00, the staff at the reception said that ONE of the ACs should be working now (which would be fine i guess, since the double rooms dont even have any doors). And that maybe the repair crew made some mess, which they would send someone to be cleaned up in the morning (like we care since we leave in the morning).|Well, i suppose one of the ACs is “working now”. We had to set it to 5 degrees to even feel some sort of cooling happening, certainly not to 5 degrees. In our previous hotel, the room was cold in a matter of 5 minutes by setting the temp to 25° celsius. I have been sitting here writing this review for half an hour now, and spent another half an hour in here before that, and now after an hour of the AC being set to 5 degrees i can feel the room finally cooling down a bit.|I read some nice stuff about the breakfast (sarcasm), so I am really excited to explore that part tomorrow before our departure. I don’t think we will get any compensation for our troubles, as we were not offered any.|Apart from all of these troubles, I was glad for the earlier check-in, nice parking, friendly if somewhat unhelpful staff and location being both quiet but close to all you want to see in Pula. I just wish we were not evicted for most of the day and instead offered two separate rooms with working ACs (apparently they were full), or offered some sort of compensation.|Whether its worth to spend 200+€ for a night in a double room apartment (APT3) in here, I am not sure, you will have to make up your mind for it.|UPDATE: We asked for a compensation and after some email exchanges were unfortunately denied compensation since “the issue was resolved “promptly” at the same day (the only day). I suppose evicting an elderly person along with a dog into 36+ degrees Celsius is considered fine with the leading hotel management. At least the staff at the reception seemed to be sorry, since Mateo specifically (the receptionist) was the only person who gave us any humane treatment...

We stayed Mon - Fri in early October. |Our flight was an early one, so we hoped to drop off our luggage and explore the town. To our surprise, our room was ready and we were checked in by 10am! |The staff were friendly and helpful and explained that during our stay our room would not be serviced, but if we needed any consumables or fresh towels to ask - which we did over our stay and things were replenished. |Our room was clean and we enjoyed the space on the balcony, not for the view as this is not the purpose, but rather to enjoy coffee and a book in the sunshine.|Furniture in the room was perfectly usable, a little tired at times, but Artena is a 3 star hotel. Beds were comfy, room large, shower powerful and we were relaxed and happy.|Breakfast was enjoyable with plenty of hot and cold options, which were replenished through out service. |The location is great. Pula is on a hill and the hotel is a downhill 10 min walk away from the famous arena, supermarket and bakery 6 min walk - there is a fridge in the room. |Things to anticipate; black tea is not common in Pula - if this is important take some with you! |We had a few mosquito bites - the pharmacy along the road from the hotel is very helpful.|Whether at the hotel, supermarket, bakery, restaurants, museums etc everyone spoke good English. We stayed in October, end of season so fewer crowds, weather 18-21c, traffic calm.|We had a great stay and if you are looking for a 3 star hotel, with friendly staff, a clean room, a good location and an enjoyable breakfast, book...