Maistra Select Villas Rubin Resort — Hotel in Grad Rovinj

We went at the end of the season, the very last week the hotel was open, and it showed. Couldn't find the cocktail bar (probably already closed for the season?) the pool bar wasn't open the last few days, the service wasn't great (the pizza restaurant only offering a few items on the menu and then giving us a calzone which was a) still raw inside and b) was stuffed with pretty much cheese and nothing else). The pool table was fun, but it worked using coins from a machine, and when the machine ate our money and didn't give any coins nobody in the entire hotel could help us apparently, and neither did they offer to replace the money it took. The pool table was pretty much the only entertainment in the neighborhood. A few exceptions aside, the staff was rather unfriendly, especially at dinner. Seems they were tired of the tourists and basically wanted the season to be over already... The breakfast buffet was great though, can't complain about that. The evening buffet wasn't quite my thing. The whole end-of-season malaise was noticeable there as well, as the vegetables were almost the same every night and one time we got french fries that had clearly been leftovers which they refried. All by all, I can't recommend this hotel, but it did show a lot of promise on their website. Possibly things are better if you go during the high season, like June or August. End of September is really not recommended. The rooms themselves were fine though. Slightly damp but clean. The pool was beautiful, it's close to Rovinj (though not in walking distance) And there are some good restaurants and a very fun and affordable...

The resort let us down in many ways. 1- On our arrival, around 10pm they gave us a map to find our room. We spend 30 minutes walking around trying to read the signs, because every block of room has a name . It was dark, the names weren’t visible very limited illumination, we had our child with us , it was a nightmare. I think they should have taken us to the place . When we finally found the room it was terrible small of cigarette, so I asked to be put in another no smoking room, they asked us to come back to the reception to do so. And again we spend 20 minutes looking for this room. 2- The room was dirty, a terrible smell coming from the bathroom, but the room didn’t smell cigarettes. Big mould stains in the wall, everything very old. About the dirty I thought the reason was because the room wasn’t really prepared to us but they would clean it in the morning, they didn’t; 3- The towels provided were so old and had holes in it ; 4- the sheets had stains; 5- Every resort tha I’ve been to provide pool towels, they don’t, we had to buy in their shop. 6- the restaurant service is ridiculous, they say that it is from 7pm-9pm, but if you arrive 8:30pm no one will serve you drinks , they are already preparing to close , at 9 sharp there is no food to be served, I found it very tense, specially because when you are on holiday you don’t want to be rushing things , and they made us feel uncomfortable.

In my opinion they are far to be the resort that you go to relax and forget about everything.

The positives things are: the pool area, the staff that are very kind, the bar food was delicious and the sports...

A really nice holiday in a good location, however the thing that drops my rating to 2 stars is the insane ways they try to take your money and by doing so ruin the holiday experience. Straight to the point, the restaurant (included as half board) doesn't provide any water, even though tap water is drinkable there - despite really needing a drink the staff would not serve me any tap water unless I paid for it. On the second night we had learned our lesson, so we bought a bottle of water from the hotel shop as it was cheaper, taking that to dinner, however to our surprise they confiscated it from us saying we must buy their restaurant water. No where have I not been allowed to take a bottle of water to dinner with me before. This is the number one reason for my 2 star rating. Out of principle I didn't want to spend any money at the hotel after this point.

But to not focus too much on one point...

Some positives: nice little room/bungalow with a garden and sun beds, plenty of sun beds around the pool, nice 25 minute country path walk into town.

Some negatives: limited vegetarian options in restaurant (on one night EVERYTHING had Tuna in it, from the pasta to the pizza), our shower head was broken, on one day they forcefully removed all the umbrellas from around the pool as an event was on, leaving children and burnt people alike in the blaring sun without reason or exception.

The things wrong with this place are so easy to fix, it's not a case of money, just silly rules. For that reason alone I would not recommend this place unless you get it...