Hotel La Boroña — Hotel in Gijón

When I read the reviews of this hotel on Tripadvisor I thought it was just the ticket for my fleeting visit to the town as I passed through. It has four stars; free parking; price reasonable; other reviews not too bad. Unfortunately we were very disappointed with our stay.||||The first challenge was finding our way to the hotel. The GPS took us around in tiny circles through little narrow streets and could not find its way. Not the hotel's fault, of course, but the address itself was virtually impossible to locate in the GPS - it took ages and quite a lot of guesswork. The road is AS-II - that is letter i + letter i. In the end I located it it using the postcode. There is in fact only one road which takes you to it so take great care when driving there.||||Location: I was somewhat stunned to find that this bright shiny new hotel is located in a derelict commercial area - the building next door was literally a demolition site and this was one of the views from the bedroom window. It is actually in the middle of nowhere really, and placed at the side of the equivalent of an urban motorway which was particularly noisy in the night - no let up of traffic here I am afraid.||||Parking however was free and there seemed to be plenty of it, both outside or underground.||||The bedroom was a typical utilitarian room which you would find in the average three star hotel - yes three star not four but perfectly clean. The bathroom was all decked out for wheelchair access; I had not asked for a disabled room so I have no idea whether this was just an accident or whether they are all like that. However the problem was that there was absolutely no flat surface in the bathroom to put anything on except the top of the lavatory cistern and the sides to the wash basin - not even a glass shelf over the basin - so nowhere to put your wash bag etc etc. The shower ran straight on to the floor and into a drain, efficiently enough but the whole floor tended to get splashed and where to put the shampoo down after you had put some on your head??? And then you have to find the shower gel - where is that now?||||So far so mediocre. The first real shock came when we decided it was our gin and tonic time and we needed some ice. So my partner went down to the reception to ask for some as there was no sign of any ice machines anywhere - something we would have expected from a hotel of this rating and which would have been provided de rigueur in the USA. Well this request proved to be a major incident! The receptionist could not understand at first what was wanted and obviously found this request somewhat annoying! The bar seemed unattended. Eventually she went off, midst the copious phone calls and other interruptions, and came back with a full bag of ice straight from the freezer to where it had been delivered from the wholesalers. As my partner walked away with the ice (which as it turned out to be the best ice we have ever had!), the receptionist commented "and I will put that on your bill for you". We were absolutely mortified by such a comment. We have stayed in many hotels worldwide but nowhere anywhere have we been charged for some ice for our drinks. We mithered over this all evening and it rather spoiled our visit. In the event no charge appeared on the bill - luckily for everyone as I was bracing myself for an international incident as I was not prepared to pay for it.||||Sleep quality - not good. We needed the windows open as the air conditioning was not so good and accordingly had to put up with the traffic noise. More to the point I had to watch my partner attempting to catch the mosquitos which were eating us to death.||||Food: the hotel menu was disappointing, limited and uninteresting, apart from being over-priced. We decided eat out and then realised why the menu was over-priced. Basically there is nowhere else to eat for literally miles! We decided to go to the restaurants listed in the GPS - the closest being about 2 km away as the crow flies but over 6 km by car. Good job we did not walk as it was closed, as was the next and the next and we ended up right down the other end of town, many miles away where parking was almost impossible.||||On the good side, however, breakfast was a brighter moment. Notwithstanding that the dining room was in a windowless basement, the lady managing the breakfast service was a bubbly jolly person who was welcoming and helpful. Breakfast itself was okay, much the norm but no eggs and bacon. The orange juice however was real - actually tasted like oranges.||||To sum up I think this is a very particular hotel, really a typical overnight commercial hotel for travelling salesmen and not for holiday makers, which is what we were on this occasion and most definitely not for visitors without a car - believe me you will need it! I do however feel that three stars would be more appropriate. And if you like a bucket of ice during your stay, this may be a...

Location is fine with good local transport links to the city, but it is not in the city centre. Everything else about the hotel is poor. It has four stars on its roof, but it is not like any 4* hotel that I've stayed in. There are no amenities to speak of that would warrant a 4* rating. The rooms were dingy, tired and the walls had been chipped. The shower head in the first room was not fixed to the wall firmly and water also leaked easily onto the bathroom floor. The most disappointing thing about the rooms were the beds. The first room we were placed in had two single beds pushed together to make a double - both beds sagged considerably and resulted in a terrible first night. The next morning we asked to move to a room with better beds and we were placed in a room with the same layout and twin beds that were just as bad with very visible sagging. The receptionist seemed surprised that we were dissatisfied, saying that the mattresses were "only 8 years old". We were then moved to a room with a double bed which was an improvement but the mattress was still uncomfortable and the stench of stale cigarettes meant that we had to decide between opening the window for some relief but letting in mosquitoes in the process, or having a bite-free but highly unpleasant environment. It was not enjoyable to spend any time in the rooms - the TVs were very small and broken so that they faced slightly downwards, the choice of channels was poor, the mini-bar was empty, there were no facial tissues and there was no bottled water. I could go on, but I don't want to be here all day!||||Before you book here just ask yourself, 'Is this really what I want from...

No hay derecho a pagar lo que hemos pagado por la Nochevieja y una cena tan pésima.

Pincheo escaso, crema de nécoras normal, pescado congelado, crudo y con un olor desagradable, además de acompañados de unas almejas gelatinosas (síntoma de congelado y mal cocinadas). Señalar que el plato venía bonito montado la decepción fue al probarlo y que venía frío, frío!!!! Carne normal, la salsa que anunciaban con ella inexistente (en algunos platos, otros si traían) y unos patatinos tan crudos que podrías vengarte con ellos tirándoselos a tu peor enemigo a la cabeza, ya que además de crudos venían muy, muy fríos, al igual que el pescado. También este plato venía montado bien.

Mentiras varias en la carta: ofrecen un pincho con pulpo y de pulpo nada de nada, ofrecen paletilla y se atreven a traerte un cuarto de paletilla, se lo dices al camarero el camarero NO SABE que es una paletilla. Por favor, no pongáis mentiras de este tipo, es un timo hacerlo.

Y la guinda del pastel, a parte de poste tipo tarta congelada de un supermercado, uvas mohosas (me pregunto si el personal tendrá título de manipulación de alimentos, pues cae de cajón que no puedes lavar las uvas y encerrarlas en una bolsa días/horas antes), y.... el momento de las uvas no pudimos verlo, porque no sabían/no funcionaba la pantalla; tuvimos que escucharlas malamente con los altavoces y a destiempo. Los camareros muy amables y no tuvieron culpa, al igual que resto de personal del hotel. Pedimos hablar con un responsable pero nadie apareció, se ve que es muy fácil organizar este pifia e irte a otro sitio a comer las uvas, no vaya ser que esa vergüenza de pescado siente mal a tu familia. Ya que nadie dio la cara en su momento, tenemos que expresar nuestra queja por estos medios.

Ante nuestras reiteradas quejas, vino una camarera muy amañada y amable y ofreció a los chicos de la mesa que habían quedado con hambre un entrecort que estaba rico!! GRACIAS!

La habitación bonita, limpia y desayuno variado y personal muy atento de que no te faltase de nada.

Por otra parte, está el desastre de una amiga que había avisado con mucho tiempo de antelación de la necesidad de hacer un cambio de menú (no pescado) y le traen: un supuesto plato de embutidos variados en los que se incluyen JAMÓN YORK (querido jefe de cocina, el jamón York no es un embutido, toma nota para próximas ocasiones) y una ensalada mixta más cutre que la que te haces un día en casa que no tienes ganas de cocinar. No señores, no podéis poner esto después de pagar más de 100 e.

La...