Hotel Catalonia del Mar - Adults Only — Hotel in Son Servera

I have just returned from a 7 night holiday at this hotel. From the moment we walked through the doors we were disappointed. The overall feel and look of the hotel, is tired, outdated and grubby. |The toilets were dirty and the water dispenser was empty, not a great start. |I requested a quiet room with twin beds but instead we got a noisy room with a double bed on the first floor (107) sporadic water running noise whenever the room above flushed the toilets. I was worried facing the road and being so close to a bar from our balcony. On the first night we were kept awake until 01:30am by people screaming and clapping. The following day we had asked to move rooms (front facing) but were told to pay 60 euro supplement per night otherwise come back after a second night, which we did. |Unfortunately our balcony backed onto the bin shed where they tip empty glass bottles morning and night, there was a lot of road noise from vechiles and people shouting each morning. |We moved rooms to 054, the 5th floor in the separate building. This was significantly smaller in size but had a pool view instead of a road. |We were not offered any help, apology or follow up after the room swap. |Nearly slipt on the wet floor a couple of times getting into the lift. |Asked twice for extra pillows. |The rooms are nice, the air con is good, the showers are great however for a 4 star hotel we expected at least a bottle of water in our fridge and maybe some other complementary products like hand cream in the bathroom. |Breakfast was very average, there were lots of options at dinner, however it’s all very ‘soft’ and samey. They took away the water dispenser from breakfast during dinner time and had strict rules in place that you could not take any drinks into the dining room (even from the hotel bar) meaning you were forced to purchase drinks every single night and there were no teas or coffee provided. The restaurant staff were hit and miss, some more friendlier than others. Most of the time they would shout across to eachother and have loud conversations while guests were trying to enjoying their dinner. |The cleaning staff would also talk loudly in the corridors. |We ate outside every night as they played noisey 80s music inside amongst the sounds of staff dropping cutlery, glasses etc |The ‘spa’ consisted of a steam room and indoor pool which I enjoyed however the main outdoor pool isn’t very big, the whirl pools hardly work well and when they do, it’s noisy, the sun loungers aren’t nice, and they even charge 1 euro for ice at the pool bar! Very stingey. |Always some kind of maintenance work going on throughout the day. |The lift was out of order on more than one occasion meaning we had to walk up 5 flights of stairs. On our final full day there was a power outage for around 6 hours meaning we had no air con, no lift access, and no running water so we couldn’t wash our hands or flush the toilet. During this time no concessions, apologies or free water provided. |We passed many other 4 star hotels in the area that seemed significantly better in terms of cleanliness, atmosphere and facilities. |Upon check out I was shocked having handed over my room keys not to receive a simple ‘thank you’ or ‘goodbye’ or ‘we hope you enjoyed your stay with us’. |I’m deeply disappointed with our experience and having spoken to other guests who have previously stayed at Catalonia hotels, also said this was the worse one....

Not a 4 star hotel. Looked similar to the photos but they are misleading as hotel is more dated than it appears online. Generally clean but could definitely have been much cleaner, there was mould along the balcony doors, wardrobe doors broken, and the toilets were not thoroughly cleaned. The pool was ok and the pool bar was good with friendly staff however quite a few of the sunbeds were broken.

Our stay was enjoyable on the whole just because of the great location, close to beaches, the harbour and lots of bars, shops and restaurants. However many other hotels have just as good a location in same area.

Breakfast was nice overall with a good range. However the fruit was tinned and not fresh, and I had to spit it out as it was well past its best tasting rancid and fermented. We went into the hotel buffet for dinner on night 2, however I thought it looked unappealing and dubious so we left straight away and we ate out at restaurants instead despite having paid for half board. On our last night, my partner wanted to try the buffet. I was careful about what I ate and avoided the foods that looked as though they had been reheated over and over, and did not eat any meat. However I woke up in the night later on with severe food poisoning.

This was on our last night at the hotel, and our transfer was collecting us at 5am. I was far too unwell to travel and my partner questioned reception if we could stay another night to which they said no, as they were fully booked in every room. I then checked this and there was 6 rooms available to book on booking.com which I showed to reception. Magically there was then a room available. They said our exact room would not be available as it was booked and we would have to move to another but if we spoke to the manager in the morning he might be able to keep our room. I explained I needed a guaranteed room and asked to book the available one in case, as I was so unwell. They explained it was smaller but more expensive than our room- I didn’t care at this point. The manager came to our room in the morning and said we could stay in our original room. This was appreciated however received 0 apology for the food poisoning, no offer of refunding the difference of the 2 rooms, and no goodwill.

I would have usually complained at the time however I was too ill to have the energy and just wanted to get home and have already raised a case with easyJet holidays. Overall it has cost us over £400 extra in the extra night, changed flights, taxi to airport as we missed the package transfer, and overstay at the airport parking in UK. When our holiday was only £590 all in to start with this has been a really difficult expense, hopefully travel insurance will help but I am doubtful. Our room key also stopped working 3 times during our stay and had to be reset, we saw others checking out handing back 4 room keys as the same had...

Arrived very cheery receptionist, room was all ready for us after arriving at about 12.00pm. Room 225, big room on the back of the hotel, room for four people with two single beds put together to make one and then two sofa beds, the beds could do with new mattresses as you can feel the springs but I have slept on worse. View over a adjacent cafe and gardens, gets the sun in the evening so quite cool which is nice and very quiet as it's on the back. Bathroom could do with some tlc and beware of the toilet if you are one 2 feet tall as you will struggle to sit on it straight! Bidet has loose tap but only our youngest used it and she thought it was a low sink!

Food, half board.

Breakfast as other people have said it's good, cooked food, cereals, selection of cold meat, cooked to order omelette, fresh fruit and breads. Fruit juice out of a machine which wasn't the best but in my experience common for this type of hotel. They really do need to make sure the plates are clean though as everyday without fail I had to wipe them before I could put food on them.

Evening meal.

Fair selection of hot and cold food, some of the salad selection is a bit weird and wonderful not really to my taste and I didn't see many eating it. Always something cooked to order, normally some kind of fish, hake, tuna and meat, chicken, pork. Good selection of desserts, fruit and ice cream, didn't pluck up the courage to try the fried milk though! Waiters were fine if very young cleaned away dirty plates very quickly, Albert is especially good with the young children.

Position of hotel.

The hotel is opposite the Marina in cala bona, it's in a really nice position. Cala bona is a nice little town that joins up to cala millor and the Thomas cook rep will tell you when there are fish on the floor you are in millor. Cala bona livens up in the evenings when there is a small fair with bouncy castle, merry go around and stalls selling gifts, there is also plenty of restaurants. One tip avoid the ladies who plat hair, they are very pushy and not cheap so bargaining is needed and be prepared to walk away.

Swimming pool.

Clean and tidy if a little smaller than any photos let on. Usual towels on Sun beds fun and games but by the time we got there at 10am there was normally still beds left. On one morning at about 10am a hotel worker came along and poured what I presume was chlorine into it, it made everyone get out very fast, in all seriousness shouldn't they happen at night when no one is using it?

Bar.

The children's entertainer was good, she really looked after the kids, very energetic. The bar was ridiculously hot, they very often closed all the doors as they had the aircon on, it made it no better as the aircon was ineffective. Drink prices were ok but avoid the cocktails, overpriced and they seemed...