We travelled as a family of 4, 2 adults and 2 children ages 7 and 4. We stayed the last week of the August UK school holidays. We chose this hotel as we are fans of the Melia chain. Whilst looking we found the hotel available as part of Jet2 holidays and this worked out the cheapest way for us to book. In summary we had a fantastic stay, and the hotel was everything you would expect of a 4-star hotel, just so good. For us though, the kids club staff (who also doubled up as part of the evening entertainment team some nights) were just so much fun, they were great with the kids but also just gave the hotel a generally good friendly vibe- top marks to them all. Now some other points in detail:- Pros - We were the first transfer drop off from the airport and it was a relatively short transfer time of approximately 40 minutes. - Hotel never felt overly busy despite it being August. There were busy spells during peak dining times but only short queues. At some points we had the pool to ourselves. Plenty of sun loungers and parasols available at all times. -the energy and enthusiasm of the Kids Club staff we found to be excellent. Although the activities are mainly in Spanish the staff tried hard to include our children by translating game instructions into English. There is a good programme of events for children - slime making, T-Shirt design, pool inflatables, mini disco etc. parents are able to stay with the children for a session or sign them in and out for the hour and a half. Should the management read this then perhaps they could include English clues in the pirate treasure hunt as this would also have helped to improve their experience at little cost. - the pool and evening entertainment team. My husband and I enjoyed the daily programme of exercises which had a great vibe. As a family we enjoyed the evening shows especially the Grand Circus which was Greatest Showman based and Mamma Mia. Con - Unfortunate first impressions. After an early start and a long day of travel to be greeted by a long queue at check in and only 2 staffed points was a disappointment. We waited for about 30 minutes and we were lucky enough to have joined the queue when it was fairly small. I feel this could have been easily resolved by a third member of staff ‘working the queue’, this person could explain the activity timetable and map of the resort which seemed to be adding to the length of time needed to check in. After our wait we were told that our room was not even ready and to wait for a call from check in or return at the check in time of 4pm. With children flailing we wearily returned to check in at 3:00 having had no call to be told we could check in so perhaps our call had been missed. I’m just glad we didn’t wait until 4pm! - if you are on half board it is worth noting that breakfast finishes at 10:30am and the evening meal isn’t until 8pm. There is an ice cream parlour open and a couple of other restaurants should you wish to pay for lunch. Full and half
- Guest User
We thought of the Villaitana as our favourite hotel ever when we visited it exactly 8 years ago, with our two children who were 7 and 3 years old at the time. With that memory in mind we have revisited together again now and are sad to see why it has dropped a star. Queues at mealtimes: The time windows for meals are too tight and there are also long queues for breakfast, lunch and dinner. The process of seating seems to be inefficient and slow i.e. an individual member of restaurant staff has to greet each guest group, tick them off on a printed list and personally take them to an empty table. Meanwhile there are empty tables waiting unused or not laid. Perhaps there is some understaffing, but by contrast at other hotels one member of staff is dedicated to checking off guests electronically using the room key or wristband, and there is another member in each zone of the restaurant to show guests to tables, which saves on a lot of staff walking trips. The food: The comprehensive salad bar was always a delight but what happened to the olives? Are olives too expensive for the Villaitana to afford now? The general quailty of the food is still good including freshly squeezed orange juice at breakfast, the meat and fish grills, breads, cheeses and embutido but the range is poor in areas compared with the competition. For example some of the international themed dishes are quite poor and it's a poor showing of rice for a region that specialises in amazing arroces. The resort: Although the expansive layout of the resort is still as impressive as it was, it is not being maintained to the standard it was. Although well extended the white paint on the wooden floor, frame and canopy of the original wooden outdoor dining area is peeling everywhere. The stone pathways have loose broken stones and there are black water stains down the walls eveywhere there are drainage spouts on the external walls. A lot of investment seems to have gone into building football pitches between the golf course and resort but because we don't use those facilities we couldn't comment on them. Pool - not enough sun loungers/broken umbrellas: There were never enough sun loungers but even despite a new pool with play area being added the situation is even worse than before. There are far too few umbrellas for the number of sun loungers but there are also hardly any trees around the new pool which would not only provide more shade but also make the new area more inviting. Some umbrellas are poor quality and in some cases broken. We reported that we had a broken umbrella and were told that the maintenance team would fix it but the broken umbrella is still there with sharp, broken tubes just left lying around on the ground. Clearly no one cares much about the sun lounging equipment which we believe is a critical part of everyone's holiday experience. Entertainment: Apart from what looks like quite an active and engaged kids club team, the evening entertainment seems average compa
- Guest User
