The Sea Hotel by Grupotel — Hotel in Santa Margalida

So my review is based on our 14-day stay at this hotel, and I am going to cover the good but also, unfortunately, the not so good and the bad (the Ms. Carmen situation that was completely unacceptable as I will describe below)

The location is good as a home base for exploring the island. We had a car, which was important since we drove every day to another town, area, or place of interest. Also, it is right on the beach, so if you fancy a quick dip in the sea right after breakfast, you are set. The water is super clean and the beach is flawless in every way. The hotel offers a well-equipped gym that I used every morning, and it is open 24/7.

The staff were outstanding, friendly, attentive, and always ready to help. They speak multiple languages fluently, which makes communication effortless. Except for one person, but more on this below. Overall, the atmosphere is warm and filled with good vibes. The whole experience feels premium enough, the hotel is very well maintained, the food selection is very good, and the serving is pristine.

The not so good: The hotel markets itself as adults-only, and it is, but it is surrounded by two other hotels, located just meters away, that are not adults-only. As a result, the guests mingle on the beach and in the immediate surroundings, making the adults-only concept somewhat pointless.

The hotel doesn’t have a private beach, just 10 or 12 sunbeds located before the public beach, which you have to pay for, albeit a small amount (15 EUR per day), even with all-inclusive. They are not easily available as there are too few for all the guests. But you will find sunbeds on the public beach right outside the hotel without a problem, at 18.50 EUR per day. So it wasn’t a big deal, you should go check out the nice calas around the island anyway (D’Or, Romantica, etc.), which we did.

With half board (so breakfast and dinner), you have to pay for water at dinner, which is mind-blowing, as water is included with breakfast but not with dinner. It doesn’t make any sense. Also, apparently it is acceptable to serve alcohol with breakfast, but not to offer water with dinner. Weird.

One person stood out in a very bad way: Ms. Carmen, who was serving in the dining area. She was actively rude and made it extremely clear she despised us for no other reason we can think of, other than the fact that we were the only Romanians in the whole hotel. She was very charming towards all the other guests (mainly German), which makes it even worse, as it was clear we were singled out. She even threw a bit of a tantrum when I politely asked for a knife that was missing from the table. She got very upset and actually threw a napkin on the floor in rage and mumbled something irritated, while she thought she was out of our sight. We were nothing but respectful towards the whole team there with no exception, so this behavior is totally unacceptable. We travel and vacation a lot around the world, and this has never happened before. I mentioned this at reception when checking out, and I hope it was addressed and a follow-up would be in order.

The room was fine, clean and spacious, all the facilities worked as intended but the bed could have been a king size, not twin beds stuck together, as they would slide apart often and that was pretty uncomfortable.

The hand soap and shower gel ran out and for three days were not replenished, despite the cleaning/maintenance service being done daily. We had to use the shampoo instead. It is true that when I raised this with reception, within five minutes someone came to our room and replaced everything. Still, this should not happen.

Parking is going to be a problem, as the hotel doesn’t have private parking. We managed to find a space every day on an alley right by the hotel, but in general the whole parking situation is horrible around the island. That’s no one’s fault, it is just full of tourists, and it is what it is.

Nevertheless, probably we would return as we plan to visit Mallorca again.

Florin...

We stayed here for one week. It's a hotel in perfect location, nice amenities, friendly staff, but also some shortcomings I'll describe below. We also got to checkout late upon request at no additional charge.

The hotel is located directly at the beach, with direct beach access, and most rooms have at least a side view onto the beach, making it a truly beautiful location. A little street along the beach leads to all kinds of restaurants and you can spend a whole vacation here without ever leaving the beach. The reception staff is always friendly and helpful, the restaurant staff is usually friendly but visibly stressed, and you may get things kind of thrown at you (this was off season, mind you).

The hotel offers an outdoor swimming pool, as well as a little spa area with a sauna, turkish bath, and heated seats, that you can reserve exclusively for one hour at a time (COVID), and is well worth a visit.

The rooms (and the rest of the hotel) looks fairly modern and clean. Our main issue with the room was bed quality (very hard), the fact that it's two single beds that easily slip apart, and that the walls are super thin. Especially in an adult-only hotel you'd like a more couple-friendly interior (if you catch my drift). Also the water pipes are ridiculously loud — if anyone around or above you is using the bathroom or shower, you will know, and it's loud enough to wake you up.

The breakfast is OK, but nothing great. Even during off season there were wait times at the cooking station and trouble finding a spot to sit, I can't imagine this during main season. The staff area entrance/exit is right where the queue starts, making for frequent collisions. Dinner did not convince us, which is to say it was just bad. We had booked half board and after the first night ended up eating out every night. If you can afford it (since it definitely is more expensive), I would recommend doing so, as there are plenty of places with a nice beach view, or our personal favorite, La Pinta, which is right around the corner of the hotel.

The hotel has little huts right in front and right at the beach that you can book for a comparatively cheap price. My tip: do it, and do it in advance! They're well worth it. There's also a "solarium" (a terrace) on the first floor; if you're looking to relax and sunbath without going to the water, this free amenity is also well worth it with a great view. Be early enough to catch a spot with the longest sun exposure.

If you're ever looking to not just sit at the beach, I would recommend walking to Alcudia along the beach. It takes a few hours, but walking right along the edge of the water is fun, relaxing, and you'll get to see a bunch of other beaches. You can take a bus (or taxi) back to the hotel from there (or walk another 10km back). You need to leave the beach only twice to cross bridges, but both are quite close to the beach.

If you walk the other direction, you can walk along a completely empty coastline to the Necropolis Son Real. It's a nice little hike, but your feet may get wet as you cross a little river thing, so plan for that. This is a much shorter tour than...

Myself and my friend (both 20) came here for a week on holiday, and had the loveliest experience ever. |Firstly the restaurant/ bar was incredible. We are both vegetarians and were amazed by the variety of options, all the food was such good quality as well. The restaurant manager goes above and beyond for everybody staying at this hotel. The restaurant staff are all so attentive, friendly and welcoming, you can really see they make it their best efforts that everybody is happy and enjoying their meals/time. |Was amazed to also see the gluten free inclusivity. Every night was something different, whether this be a chocolate fountain, sushi, and freshly cooked food in-front of yourselves by the chefs who were always happy to meet your needs, and lots of yummy desserts! Hats off to the restaurant manager for all of his impressive ideas and how he will happily work amongst all the waiting staff and help them out! The drinks from the bar are also great, they have all the drinks you can think of and can make them by request, our favourite was a strawberry daiquiri but with vodka. |The hotel was in a perfect location, right on the beach with plenty of shops, bars and restaurants surrounding, however we were never disrupted by any nightlife in the evenings, If you wished to have a more peaceful evening. |The beach is very scenic, the hotel has a little private area out front on the beach which you can hire sun beds on, this was perfect to not be in amongst the crowd. |The cleaning staff did such a good job to always make sure our room was clean to a very high standard and presentable without fail every day. |The hotel itself is very modern, very clean, and absolutely no faults regarding the hotel. |The reception staff were always polite and said hello when entering the hotel, and happy to answer any questions we had, such as about bus times etc.|Alcudia is only a bus ride away, took us about 10 mins, the bus stop is just down the road. This was perfect for a day out or so. We also went out for a night out in Alcudia.|We also hired push bikes for the day where we rode to a nearby nature reserve, definitely worth a visit. |We booked side sea view, however were really lucky to end up with a corner balcony therefore a front sea view and side as the Balcony was huge. |Overall we had such a wonderful stay, no issues at all, don’t understand why this hotel isn’t 5 stars. Definitely...