Casa Biota Boutique — Hotel in Murighiol

Very bad customer services, lack of management! Somebody recommended it, we noticed that it has good reviews (?) on the travel websites and we were confident that it will be a good choice. When we arrived we were very pleased about the property: nice traditional architecture, very good taste in decorations, nice and comfortable rooms, private parking, nice pool&terrace&garden. Despite of all these good things, the management is totally unprofessional, it has nothing to do with the hospitality business especially when you call it "boutique". The cleaning of the rooms was very superficial or none for the last 2 days; when we made a comment about this at the check-out, the facility manager purely denied as if we would have some interest to lie. If you have to manage 7 rooms it is so difficult to check if your team did their work properly? One morning we asked the facility manager if it is possible for an early breakfast (7 a.m.) to catch a 9 a.m. boat to Gura Portitei, the answer was yes (although the facial expression said something different) but the staff came at 7:20 (a car problem, nobody believed) and successfully we've got quick some cheese&ham. We did not upset, we just make a slightly comment later in the evening that it would have been better to have a no answer and we could buy something on the road, no problem. The manager wanted to remind us that in their policy the breakfast starts with 8 a.m., they wanted to please us but it happened with the car, bad luck! The ecological concept mentioned in their presentation you cannot find, there is no evidence of it, either in food or amenities; breakfast is decent (someone could say poor) but not in accordance with the prices and the advertising, the only reinterpretation of the traditional it maybe the “chocapic” cereals that you get at breakfast as an ecological concept.... There is a coffee machine in the lobby and only one coffee is included in the price for breakfast, we found this after a few days so, we had to remember how many we drunk extra in order to fill in the notebook with what we took from the bar. I think that a filter coffee at breakfast would be in both parties advantage, we want to pay what we consume not feel like thieves. Except for the price of the accommodation which we accepted from the moment we made the reservation, all the prices for food or boat services are overrated- 2, 3, 4 times more than in the other places, and there is no extra benefit either in taste or comfort, you did not get anything special. Fortunately, you can find other better options in the village. The lady manager is pushy and annoying, we just could not speak the same language with her, she was insisting all the time for the feedback but in the end we came to the conclusion that in fact she wanted compliments as any suggestion irritated her. She tried to convince us that we do a great deal paying the same “excellent” price of 65 RON/person/hour if instead of having a boat only for us (we were 6 persons) we share it with another 3 persons, the benefit will be that we will have a bigger boat! In addition to your feeling that this is in conflict with what your brain is telling, for anybody waiting to explore the Delta this is the most idiot advice. For the ones that do not know already, at 6 km far from the property, at Murighiol, you can find many options in renting a boat tour, usually they ask for 50 RON/person and you can stay how many hours you want and really use the knowledge of the locals in exploring the Delta. So, in our stay at Biota Boutique we felt that someone insulted our intelligence, as experienced travelers we had the worst customer service experience as we expected much more from this property and we are very sorry that this happened in Romania in such a unique place like Danube Delta. Maybe for the ones that never heard about Delta or for the ones that money comes from the sky, Biota Boutique could be a choice, it is the owner’s decision, but a tourist landmark as Danube Delta requires...

The Casa Biota Boutique (poor choice of a name;they skipped 'hotel' or 'guest house', so people may think they sell things here) was recommended to us by someone who had been a guest there-meaning he wasn't interested in prices, as someone else picked up the tab.And this is where the issues began, but first the good points. It is elegant, cozy, a nice terrace, a pool with deck chairs and towels, the bathrooms are high quality, the beds are quite comfy, the lounge is modern and inviting, the colour scheme is consistent all over, the architecture is respectful of the surroundings (Danube Delta), the outdoor barbeque is great. There is parking space in the courtyard, so cars are safe. The staff are helpful and energetic-they were hired among the locals, which is a great plus.Breakfast is included, but for 3 days in a row we had exactly the same food. So now with the issues. The rooms are rather cramped for the luxury hotel it claims to be, so the room prices are steep, in comparison with other places to stay in the area , or in general. I happened to overhear some guests complaining that nobody had cleaned their rooms for 2 consecutive days.They offer boat rides in the Delta at exorbitant prices, as we noticed in all the other Dunavat village places to stay. All you have to do is drive 5 km back to the marina in Murighiol, choose your boat, drive a hard bargain with the boatman and you split the price in half or even less! They also offer dinner on request at Casa Biota. A good thing, right? Not quite so, when you find out that the price for a fish soup is more than double from anywhere else around; the same goes for a main dish with fish-which we had the first night we got there. It was ok, but nothing to write home about or be worth a more than double price than anywhere else. They tried to justify the huge prices by explaining about the eco/bio/etc nature of their cuisine, but couldn't produce any evidence, except that the fish came from the Danube, a few metres away! We found this a mockery, considering the rural nature of the place and the proximity to the Danube-obviously it was all locally produced, consequently cheaper, right? Well, wrong... There were 14 tourists there one evening, but not even one chose to eat there-we met at another restaurant, 'Pestisorul', about 1 km. down the road, where the food was delicious and the prices were absolutely decent. We also ate well at the "Green Delta" in Murighiol. I was saying that the staff were helpful; it's true, but there is a fine line between helpful and pestering. They were interrupting us at all times with offers of food/drinks/etc, so that we felt they were trained to make us spend continuously;they were so tiring! Also, for a facility which aspires at catering for foreign tourists, the fact that nobody speaks English, or any other language, apart from very basic vocabulary, is a huge drawback. While we were there, there was a French couple who were grateful for our presence and thus possibility to understand everything better. The Danish friends who accompanied us would have been lost without us. One day we took a boat ride to Sf. Gheorghe together and if I hadn't been present both the Danes and the French wouldn't have known what to do or how to understand what was happening. Our boatman barely opened his mouth in Romanian, let alone any other tongues... I discussed all the above aspects with Cristi, the owner of the place, explaining to him that the fact that they learn the guests' names as soon as they arrive is no excuse for all the minuses...

Casa Biota is a small, quite new hotel in the Danube Delta, perfectly placed for boat excursions as the jetty is a three minute walk away. We were immediately impressed by the staff who were exceptionally attentive, friendly and helpful. The rooms are spotlessly clean, small but very comfortable and well equipped with stylish modern bathrooms featuring walk-in showers. A simple but delicious breakfast and exclusively fish based meal (cooked on the outdoor grill) in the evening are included and served on the terrace. There is a small outdoor pool (a perfect vantage point to watch the storks in their nests on neighbouring telegraph poles) surrounded by loungers, plenty of on-site parking and an honesty bar. |I would not hesitate to recommend this place, we absolutely loved our stay and the service.|One suggestion if I may: if you do go on a boat around the delta, opt for a small one. The large 10+ seaters with their huge speed engines seem counterproductive in such a fragile and unique ecosystem.|The wonderful team at Casa Biota will arrange...