Papi Hotels — Hotel in Malgrat de Mar

This was my first holiday away with my 4 year old godson, who is a fussy one, and luckily Hotel Papi provided everything he would need for his ever-changing tastes and desires.

-The Good- Instantly at arrival, the staff were welcoming and super friendly, and fluent in many languages. Hotel Papi had a refreshingly eclectic mix of clientele. The staff also reflected this as there seemed to be waiters, receptionists and pool staff from all over the world.

Food was available almost all day and flexible timings. From breakfast at 7:45am - 10:15am, then a short break before the extended lunch hours 12pm - 4pm, and then another dinner changeover at 5pm till close at 9. Plenty of options for healthy and naughty diets.

The rooms weren't particularly spacious, admittedly, but they were cleaned daily and the bathroom was pretty good. Powerful shower and constant hot water. Also every room has a balcony.

The layout of the place was smart and clean. The restaurant where you could have the inclusive meals was large and bright, and cleaned quickly by the efficient waiting staff. The pool area is pretty big compared to all the other hotels in the area, with a kids pool open at set times during the day. We only found trouble getting a sun lounger if we were late and went down after midday, but there were a lot of hidden areas you could find a seat, or plump for the grassy bit. The water was always freezing though. Great on a hot day, but took some getting used to

Next to the pool there was a separate room for kids with all sorts of arts and crafts and board games, which my godson enjoyed. Every day the entertainment staff put something on for the kids, which was great. And also for the adults (here it is mostly young families and older, retired folk. Dont come here for a party or to meet other young people. It's more of a chilled family vibe..)

Location is fantastic. It's in the centre of everything; shops, restaurants, bars/pubs, beach, kids parks/play areas... everything is within walking distance or on your doorstep. And everything here is reasonably priced, despite the weak Brexit pound sterling against the euro.

In terms of the service and making us feel comfortable as guests, the Hotel Papi staff were more than accommodating. Whenever we needed anything, they were happy to provide. Whether it was a spare key as we had left the original one on the bed, or a much needed late check out on the last day (an extra 20euro for the room for as long as you needed it).

-The Negative- While I would absolutely stay here again, and my godson's family have already booked next year here, there is a little room for improvement that I feel it is fair to note.

Unfortunately, noise travels in this hotel. Our room was situated opposite the Robin Hood pub, which meant noisy Brits and off-key karaoke till the wee hours of the morning. We struggled to sleep through this, even with the balcony door closed. Instead of complaining, we purchased some ear-plugs and that drowned out most of the noise. If you are as light a sleeper as me, do avoid this part of the hotel. I'm sure if we had asked to move, they would have accommodated without hesitation.

The bathroom had a little bit of a stale smell (windowless) and I had to jig the flush now and then to stop it from constantly flushing.

While the food was actually not bad, especially by all-inclusive standards, definitely opt for the half board as we did to sample the local cuisine. There weren't enough healthy breakfast options, although it was a good breakfast... just not ideal for a health conscious gym-goer like me. And if you got there later, the queues for food and coffee were a little long. And the food wasn't always piping hot. They also have a strange system where you have to pre-load a drinks card as there weren't any complimentary drinks available during lunch and dinner, including water (which was a bit odd)

And that's about it! Love this place, and I will go back... a home away from home. I actually miss it, and I was there only 2 days ago at the time...

This is not a bad place but I wouldn’t rate that as excellent three star option either.

Room we got was big enough but they should have been cleaner. The AC wasn’t working all day long, so during the day your room is quite warm. Also, the AC unit in our room was leaking and had black dirt/mold on it. We reported the issue but it wasn’t fixed (and if anybody was there to check that) the unit was not cleaned while examining it. It was still leaking next day but it was working so I didn’t care anymore.

The towels were changed daily but I have seen stains on the new ones at least twice. The room had comfortable beds and was big enough. It could have better lightning as it was quite dark. We got a room with side sea view and it was pretty quiet despite the street and bars outside. However, some of people we talked to complained that the rooms facing the pool were much louder in the evenings, so it differs.

Forget about WiFi in the room. It was more often not working than usable and the LTE coverage in the building was limited so even using regular mobile network was hard. Was unable to find the area where it worked well.

Also, be prepared that you may be awaken three times by false positive fire alarms. Quite annoying when you have a child that just fall asleep and was woken up after short time.

The pool was fine but these fancy photos with waterfall and jacuzzi are misleading and disappointing. The waterfall was running for maybe 5 minutes a couple times a day. I have seen bubbles in bottom jacuzzi maybe three times for similar time. There was another jacuzzi on the top of waterfall but when we got there it had cold water and barely any bubbles. What’s more important the surrounding of that pool was also dirty and had mold/dirt signs on the while elements around the pool.

The water in the pools were cold. Coming at 10am you will barely have pleasure to use the pool.

The children’s aquapark runs before 11-13 and 15-17. However this schedule was randomly executed and it happened that it was launched at 11:30. Quite disappointing when kids want to play.

The restaurant has very friendly stuff and is generally nice. However the breakfast menu was rather boring. There was a decent choice of products but it went all the same for a week. Missed some veggies and scrambled eggs but it was good to have some child-safe picks like crepes. On the other hand the dinners were much more attractive with great salad buffet each day. There were some regional dishes as well as safe picks for both adults and children.

The animation team was friendly and engaged trying to offer some activities for the guests. There were some fitness sessions for adults and some time for kids. They won with bouncy water slide and foam party but that was actually just one day that was strong and the other weren’t...

Lovely clean place, exceptionally friendly staff. Our very comfortable beds were changed every day along with the free stuff, tea, coffee, cups etc. The reception/ground floor area is very modern (including the dining area) however when you head upstairs to the rooms they haven't updated those areas (in September 2018). It's not an issue though it's still well kept although the corridors are quite dark with dated wooden paneling. I'm nitpicking here though. Our room itself was functional and matched the older decor of the upper floors except the bathroom which had been updated. As far as I can tell each room has a balcony with a table and a couple of chairs, but there's no sea view, we're close to the coast but not that close. It's a 5 minute walk.

The food was good but if you catch the breakfast at 9am and the dinner at 6pm you'll find it very busy. Best to avoid at those times.

I haven't given it 5 stars for the following 3 reasons, these are very minor reasons and didn't detract from the overall experience.

They have themed food nights. There are British nights, American nights, an Oriental night etc. I can get Yorkshire pudding, chicken nuggets and burgers at home. Travelling a thousand miles I would have preferred authentic Spanish dishes. I imagine those comfortable with simpler/more familiar dishes will be happy with this however. For this reason we went out at night a couple of times for something more locally themed.

If you want even a moderate lie in, forget it. For the owners I would highly recommend carpets in the corridors and soft closing doors. From 7am there's a lot of banging doors and footsteps clomping past the door. I'm a light sleeper and these woke me up.

Hidden charges. Whilst the all inclusive bar is available from 8pm this doesn't apply to the buffet restaurant so expect to pay there. Same applies for the safe in the room, and other amenities: TV, hairdryer and apparently there was a mini bar charge but I saw no evidence of one in the room. Just be ready for additional charges.

I don't want to end on a negative however as I would definitely stay here again and can recommend Hotel Papi.

#happyatthepapi (FYI I absolutely loathe hashtags but it was written on the...