Balneario Vichy Catalan — Hotel in Caldes de Malavella

We booked this hotel for an overnight stay. Free parking, large swimming pool and nice old building, reminding in a Castle. The staff had been very nice and the area looks generous and beautiful. This hotel is right beside the famous Vichy Catalan mineral water bottling plant. |We had a family room (No.2). 1 Bathroom, one real dorm and one prepared dorm with emergency beds. (Good for our Children). The beds had been comfortable. |Coffee available and a fridge with free water.|The shower was small and the flush was relatively low. The bathroom could receive kind of modernisation. Not bad, but could be better.|It was warm in the room and the ventilation system did not work or I did not get it how to make it run. It seems like it was no air condition, more a real ventilation system.|Our room was full of mosquitos (we did not open any window). We were hunting before sleeping at least 4 mosquitos and thought than that is was over. Next morning we had all over 4 people at least 10 bites to count. (I was wondering if the mosquitos did hide in the non ventilating ventilation channels in the rooms ceiling, safe to survive each hunting session). |We did inform the very nice hotel staff next day and they were apologising, maybe the former guest did the window open. |Generally I would recommend to travel always with a bottle of Raid or the mosquito switches through this region, as mosquitos and other bugs (very small flies) are usually around you.||The breakfast was OK, but nothing really special. The coffee was drinkable, fruits, cereals, ham and cheese, nice bread selection, but a high room and lots of people. It took time to replace empty parts on the buffet and the breakfast area was not comfortable, loud, Hugh and lots of people.||I would come back here if I get this hotel for a reasonable price. But this would be for longer stay, to enjoy the pool area and maybe the...

We loved our stay here. We decided to head to Costa Brava for the weekend at the last minute and this was one of the only hotels left in the area with one day notice. Fun but bizarre. ||Don't bring any expectation this is a spa hotel in any normal sense. What a lot of wasted potential. The building is historic and lovely, is in a great region, and it has a large new wonderful swimming pool - BUT the place will be amusingly disappointing. Picture a 19th century hospital run by cranky nuns who renovated a hotel in the early 1990's. And have no idea how to run a hotel. Vichy Catalan must be a family run company with some under-qualified relative running the place. Nobody here has EVER been trained in a hotel school. ||We tried the breakfast buffet which was frankly a lot of food but of such horrible quality we decided not to attempt the restaurant for meals. Following the advice of a Trip Advisor poster on this hotel, we tried the Restaurant Estacion about a five minute walk away and the food was awesome (and cheap!). The other spa, Hotel Balneario Prat a 10 minutes walk in the other direction had a wonderful terrace and a decent restaurant. ||Notwithstanding, it was a good deal for the price because of its location, architecture, and pool. The room was quite and comfortable, though it reminded my of a university dorm room and the town is quite lovely. We used the hotel as a base to explore the area for three days. ||||The management seems sadly clueless about running a hotel. Despite being on the same property as the Vichy Catalan water bottling plant, the hotel offers one sad tiny bottle of Vichy water in the room, for example. We were asked to give a deposit for using towels at the pool - we simply laughed at the request and said no. The spa hour thermal treatment area looks Soviet and was explained to us by an angry woman...

Everything was absolutely filthy. They deceived us about the room we had booked, and even gave us cleaning products to clean the room ourselves!!The place was infested with ants. In the bathroom, there were hairs and body hair left behind by the previous guests — completely unacceptable. The staff were extremely rude, especially the manager, Marta, who laughed at us, insulted us, and even threatened us when we said we would file a formal complaint. The food quality was comparable to that of a school canteen — extremely poor. An absolute disgrace — I truly wish we had never stayed there.

Your response contains false statements that I cannot accept. The room was dirty upon arrival, as clearly shown in photos whose date and time stamps confirm they were taken immediately after check-in. These images show long, blonde hairs in the bathroom, which cannot be mine as I have dark hair. The property was infested with ants, as shown in the photos I will publish, despite your denial. There is no trace or damage attributable to my dog, and mentioning her is an attempt to discredit me. What does a dog have to do with finding long human hairs from previous guests in the bathroom, ants coming in from outside and spreading throughout the room, dirty drawers inside, the elevator being out of service — in which we were trapped three times in just two days — the internet not working and not being fixed, or the sink being clogged and returning filth from former guests? I maintain that the manager, Marta, laughed at us, insulted us, and threatened us when we said we would file a complaint, an incident witnessed by others. The food was of very low quality, comparable to that of a school canteen. Your refusal to acknowledge undeniable evidence and your attempt to shift blame are beyond unacceptable — it is an...