VOI Alimini Resort — Hotel in Otranto

We stayed for 2 weeks here in July 2023. This is a place that has a lot of positives and our kids loved it, but the management needs to understand that there is a clear disconnect between price and quality here that will not produce repeat customers, and they are in serious need of investing in the dated facilities. ||Let’s start with the negatives as these are what led to a 3 star review:||1. Check-in: we were asked to pay the full price when we arrived, and had to produce an email and credit card statement proving we had in fact paid thousands of euros as a down payment months earlier. Reading other reviews, I am happy I did not give in and wait for a refund.||2. Rooms: extremely low quality for the price, clearly not renovated for several decades. On the ground floor, we asked to change rooms on the first day because there was an overpowering stench of mold in our room (which initially received the response “I don’t smell anything, what are you talking about?”.) We were lucky, as the couple next door complained about the same thing and were denied. Secondly, there are no but screens on the windows, which is what I would even expect in a cheap roadside motel. Since we were there during a heat wave, it was either (noisy and dilapidated) AC all night, or getting bitten by mosquitoes. We were not the only ones to mention this. The showers worked poorly and overall the rooms weren't as much better as camping bungalows, which is unacceptable in this price range ||3. The performers are the day camp counselors and work their butts off from sunrise to the wee hours of the morning and we found them to be great, just don’t expect to be blown away by the shows.||4. Services: it seemed to us that the cleaners are understaffed, as they never once replenish your room fridge (so we went to a supermarket and stocked the room with water as the temperature rose to around 40c), and they only changed our bedsheets after more than one week when we specifically asked for this (yuck)!|| 5. Schedule: the pool closes at 7pm and the restaurant at 9:30pm. A bit early compared to other Italian villages we’ve been to.||6. Restaurant and allergens: the allergenes listed are often wrongly stated, which is absolutely unacceptable. This is a result of miscommunication between the kitchen and the providers, but it doesn't change the fact that someone could die as a result ||Positives;|| 1. The food: we don’t understand the complaining here, the food was great, and the staff works like crazy all day to process a massive crowd effectively. Good free beer and wine as well!| 2. Miniclub: as mentioned above, the camp counselors are working round the clock and seem to have unbelievably positive attitudes. The mini club has a ton of age appropriate activities and our kids ended up loving it. They also pay special attention to keeping teens happy in a healthy way, and I was impressed with how well they managed them, none of the usual shenanigans one would normally expect.| 3. Beach: very close by foot and with a nice beach bar that makes pizza. Some have complained that the pictures are false since the beach washed away 2 years ago. The beach is indeed very thin, but still nice.||Overall, management needs to decide whether to stay in this price range and increase the room quality to meet the standard of competitors in the same range, in places like Sardinia where the quality is on another level, or keep the cheap attitude and half the prices. The overall experience was good, but absolutely not to standard with the price range this...

We stayed for 2 weeks here in July 2023. This is a place that has a lot of positives and our kids loved it, but the management needs to understand that there is a clear disconnect between price and quality here that will not produce repeat customers, and they are in serious need of investing in the dated facilities. ||Let’s start with the negatives as these are what led to a 3 star review:||1. Check-in: we were asked to pay the full price when we arrived, and had to produce an email and credit card statement proving we had in fact paid thousands of euros as a down payment months earlier. Reading other reviews, I am happy I did not give in and wait for a refund.||2. Rooms: extremely low quality for the price, clearly not renovated for several decades. On the ground floor, we asked to change rooms on the first day because there was an overpowering stench of mold in our room (which initially received the response “I don’t smell anything, what are you talking about?”.) We were lucky, as the couple next door complained about the same thing and were denied. Secondly, there are no but screens on the windows, which is what I would even expect in a cheap roadside motel. Since we were there during a heat wave, it was either (noisy and dilapidated) AC all night, or getting bitten by mosquitoes. We were not the only ones to mention this. The showers worked poorly and overall the rooms weren't as much better as camping bungalows, which is unacceptable in this price range ||3. The performers are the day camp counselors and work their butts off from sunrise to the wee hours of the morning and we found them to be great, just don’t expect to be blown away by the shows.||4. Services: it seemed to us that the cleaners are understaffed, as they never once replenish your room fridge (so we went to a supermarket and stocked the room with water as the temperature rose to around 40c), and they only changed our bedsheets after more than one week when we specifically asked for this (yuck)!|| 5. Schedule: the pool closes at 7pm and the restaurant at 9:30pm. A bit early compared to other Italian villages we’ve been to.||6. Restaurant and allergens: the allergenes listed are often wrongly stated, which is absolutely unacceptable. This is a result of miscommunication between the kitchen and the providers, but it doesn't change the fact that someone could die as a result ||Positives;|| 1. The food: we don’t understand the complaining here, the food was great, and the staff works like crazy all day to process a massive crowd effectively. Good free beer and wine as well!| 2. Miniclub: as mentioned above, the camp counselors are working round the clock and seem to have unbelievably positive attitudes. The mini club has a ton of age appropriate activities and our kids ended up loving it. They also pay special attention to keeping teens happy in a healthy way, and I was impressed with how well they managed them, none of the usual shenanigans one would normally expect.| 3. Beach: very close by foot and with a nice beach bar that makes pizza. Some have complained that the pictures are false since the beach washed away 2 years ago. The beach is indeed very thin, but still nice.||Overall, management needs to decide whether to stay in this price range and increase the room quality to meet the standard of competitors in the same range, in places like Sardinia where the quality is on another level, or keep the cheap attitude and half the prices. The overall experience was good, but absolutely not to standard with the price range this...

We spent a week at this hotel in mid September and had an amazing experience. The hotel and its surroundings are beautiful, there are a lot of trees and green grass. The grounds are extensive with many sports options available (though we did not try those). The access to the beaches is good (a short walk across the lawn). We spent most of the time at the relaxing beach where there was sand and shallow water quite far into the sea. The other beach (the one with the bar) had stones where the water began, so we did not go there with our toddler. It was a bit windy on some days, but the waves were not too high. ||The rooms are nice, thoroughly cleaned every day. The resort is well planned in that everything is close enough (room to beach, room to the dining hall etc). |The staff at the hotel was extremely friendly, though many do not speak much English. We heard good things about the animation team, but we did not use any of those activities (we went with a toddler). There is a children playground with slides where the kids club is located (the club and the activities they organise is for children 4 years and older, so again we did not try this as our kid is too small, but the playground is nice and partially shaded). The kids pools are ok (for a toddler you need some armbands as the water is too deep for them to get up on their own - but they can walk quite comfortably in the water otherwise). ||What we really enjoyed was the food - a good selection of fish and other meat, vegetables etc.. Especially the cold section with various combinations were great. There was also a large selection of pasta, which we did not try much - what we had was nice. The only thing we were disappointed about was the sweets section (at lunch as well as dinner) - most of the things were very sweet, with a lot of puddings and cakes. We missed simple chocolate options and ice-cream. Also the fruits did not vary much. |There is also a special room with food (at certain times also cooked food) for toddlers - the selection did not seem to vary, still it is a nice touch. ||There are other resorts nearby, but many seems to be guarded so it is not actually possible to walk through the grounds. There is however a nice walk through the wood near the hotel gates (close to where the bus stop is) - we went there with a stroller after lunch because it was nicely shaded. ||Overall we had a great time and if we are in the area again, we will definitely consider the...