Grand Hotel Minerva Resort & SPA — Hotel in Băile Herculane

(Please read the whole thing if you want to get the whole picture)

For a luxury hotel this was surely a letdown. Don't get me wrong, it's still a decent enough hotel, but also a strange amalgamation of high taste luxury and downright stupid decisions.

While the overall appearance and first impressions were very plesant, impressive looking reception area, friendly enough staff, spacious and very pretty rooms, after spending some time, annoyances started to pop up. From the no-window/non-functional fan bathroom combo, to the bulky metal front door with a giant hole underneath so you could hear people on the hallway and see the hallway light during the night, to the absolute WORST parking imaginable.

If the fact that when we first arrived we saw multiple people swearing and honking to one another over being stuck trying to get out of the minuscule parking area next to the hotel, OR the fact that we had to park far away down the road because there was no space available, then the fact that when we checked in they asked us to give them the plate number because "sometimes there can be -issues- when it comes to parking..." (i dread to think what that means) should have been warning enough. Now, in all fairness there IS another parking area, waaay down below the hotel, that (to no surprise really) sits mostly empty, because you have a long way to go if you decide to leave your car there and walk to the hotel.

Now, the following bit from what i understand was a one-off thing during the Easter Holidays when it so happens that we came here. Every night during dinner, there was a live music event at the restaurant where said dinner was being held, on the -1 floor. Remember the room door with the gap where you could hear everything on the hallway? Yeah, you could hear the music blasting all the way to the 5th floor where our room was. Unless you really like to dance on music so loud it turns your brain into jello, it was one of the worst dinners we have ever experienced. The food itself was decent, but the atmosphere made anything impossible to enjoy properly. As i am writing this review, i can hear the music started again... Bliss.

On the subject of food, it was an all-you-can-eat buffet, food selection and quality was quite good, varried, with enough to go for everyone.

You may have noticed that i did not talk about the "spa" element that is also available here, mostly because it wasn't really my thing, but from what i understand the facilities available here are quite comprehensive.

Tl;dr: Has its good points and quite a few bad ones, definitely not worth the asking price unless you plan to take advantage of absolutely everything on offer, and if you can overlook some annoyances about the room and the absurdly...

HOTEL: We were there in August for one week three persons(me, my wife and my 5 year old daughter). We booked in June and asked for a extra bed. The first room they gave us was little with just one 140 bed. After talking at the reception we got a room with extra bed in which you literally had no place to move or to store your luggage. I measured the room and it has 12 square meters plus 3 meters the hallway(not ok for a 4 star hotel). Bathroom also very small and the furniture old and falling apart. After two nights we got(for extra price obviously) a suite. This was nice with two rooms but as large s the bed and with air conditioning just in one. In the period of our stay we never had the room cleaned up and the towels were changed only if we meet the cleaning person and ask for a change. The garbage was taken out by my wife and she got a clean garbage bag. |RESTAURANT: The hotel is huge and was full and the restaurant was very small for the hotel capacity. In the two hours of service per meal it was very hard to find a place to eat. And the big problem was that if you didn’t get there in the first hour you had a little choice because they didn’t make refill(at all or just after the first hour we don’t know). But my wife asked for biscuits at 9:30 (breakfast was from 8 to 10) and they told here that they don’t refill. The food was not bad but not a 4 star restaurant!!!|SPA : The Spa area was nice and clean, personal young and nice. The treatment area also well equipped and the staff very friendly and helpful. |To summarize It is a very high priced hotel, which does not deserve 4 star for rooms (max 2 stars) and restaurant...

HOTEL: We were there in August for one week three persons(me, my wife and my 5 year old daughter). We booked in June and asked for a extra bed. The first room they gave us was little with just one 140 bed. After talking at the reception we got a room with extra bed in which you literally had no place to move or to store your luggage. I measured the room and it has 12 square meters plus 3 meters the hallway(not ok for a 4 star hotel). Bathroom also very small and the furniture old and falling apart. After two nights we got(for extra price obviously) a suite. This was nice with two rooms but as large s the bed and with air conditioning just in one. In the period of our stay we never had the room cleaned up and the towels were changed only if we meet the cleaning person and ask for a change. The garbage was taken out by my wife and she got a clean garbage bag. RESTAURANT: The hotel is huge and was full and the restaurant was very small for the hotel capacity. In the two hours of service per meal it was very hard to find a place to eat. And the big problem was that if you didn’t get there in the first hour you had a little choice because they didn’t make refill(at all or just after the first hour we don’t know). But my wife asked for biscuits at 9:30 (breakfast was from 8 to 10) and they told here that they don’t refill. The food was not bad but not a 4 star restaurant!!! SPA : The Spa area was nice and clean, personal young and nice. The treatment area also well equipped and the staff very friendly and helpful. To summarize It is a very high priced hotel, which does not deserve 4 star for rooms (max 2 stars) and restaurant...