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“This is the worst hotel I have stayed in. I have been...”

written by on 16/06/2010

This is the worst hotel I have stayed in. I have been visiting Majorca, Menorca and Benidorm roughly 3 times per year for the past 10 years, so I have stayed in quite a few hotels. I wouldn't go back to the Gran Playa!

I went on holiday with my 12 year old son and we arrived at the hotel at 7.30pm. We were checked in quickly and given the keys to our room. However, the receptionist then walked us up the road where she pointed us in the direction of some apartments on the next street. I told her that we had booked a hotel room in the hotel not an apartment and she told us this was not possible until the next day. As I obviously wasn't getting anywhere with her, I decided to accept the apartment and sort it out the next day. However, although the apartment was OK the toilet didn't work. It was also a bit creepy because the block looked very run down and was surrounded by bushes. There was a bar/caf but it was closed and surrounded by rubbish. The pool looked nice but we would have had a bit of walk to get drinks if we stayed there all day, which is not good on All Inclusive. I really didn't want to have to walk back there in the dark each night, so we went straight back to reception to request the original hotel room that we had booked. Again, we were told to come back the next day so we had no choice but to stay in the apartment for the night.

We went for our evening meal and assumed that the poor choice was because we were late getting there. We were wrong! The food was disgusting throughout our holiday and we lived on chips, bread rolls, cheese and pasta. Everything was greasy or unrecognisable. We are not fussy eaters and usually stay on All Inclusive, so we know what would normally be served and did not expect anything fantastic. However, we did expect to be able to put together a full meal at each sitting. The only nice food at the Gran Playa was the Nestle icecream that was always available in individual pots.

After the meal, I was ready for a few glasses of wine to make me feel better. The wine wasn't actually bad, the problem was getting the bar staff to serve us. Usually, whatever time of day or night, there was only one person serving. This meant a wait of around 15 - 20 minutes. Also, the staff were miserable and not very polite. One actually told my son to 'go away' when he asked for 2 drinks and was only given one. Although, big burly men covered in tattoos were being served 6 drinks at a time without any problem.

The entertainment was the worst I have seen in a hotel. To be fair, the Scouse girl and boy who were the entertainers tried their best and worked long hours but they were far from professional. They held a kiddie disco each evening followed by bingo. Then the main 'act' would be something like karaoke or kids dressing up and miming to Disney songs. We looked forward to a parrot show one night, but it was cancelled at the last minute without any reason being given.

Eventually, on our second evening we were moved to the room we had booked. This was OK. It wasn't spotless and we didn't get clean bedding or towels during our stay but it was better than the first apartment. I don't know why it was so difficult to get it. They only let us move after I caused a bit of a scene in reception and refused to go back to the apartment with the broken toilet. The manager was really abrupt and had no idea of customer service. He actually walked away from me while I was speaking to him and if it wasn't for a receptionist who spoke very good English, I don't know what would have happened.

The pool area was OK, nothing special but acceptable. There weren't enough sunbeds for the amount of guests but there were plenty of chairs and tables.

All I can say is, think twice before booking a stay at the Gran Playa. I won't go there again.