Ondamar Hotel Apartamentos

From the 1st room we got had wet paint with no sign to say wet paint. Staff no helpful. 3 strangers were given keycard to our room, entered room while I was in shower, my mother, 81year old, in bedroom lying down didn't know what happened. When I went to reception to conplain all I got from staff was "ah well". Fleas everywhere, we were bitten alive. Staff shouting at us to get out of indoor pool, not explained why. It not a 4star as advertised, the very best I would say is a 2star. I work in the hospitality industry for over 30 years and have stayed in many hotels over the years, from budget hotels to luxury hotels and tjis is by far the worst.

Ok, so having booked this for our friends hen weekend with 25 of us staying in this hotel, (12 in another) we were then faced with they don't allow stag/hen parties. Absolutely not true (on this occasion), ther was three groups of girls, and four boys, all very well behaved and caused no issues to anyone. All the staff are super friendly and kind (except the young girl on the pool bar who was quite rude and uninterested) Our aprtment was ok, four of us in it, but the others with 2's had been refurbed Beds were super comfy, even the two pull outs was told by friends who slept on them. Being self catering we took most of our food and drinks artound the pool without the blink of an eye. (if you go behind the bar, through the mini golf theres some steps which lead to a shop, literally a minute away and a third of the pool bar prices) Try Fat Cats a short walk away, breakfasts are fab, and again staff super nice. Short walk away to the *****, where Kings Cross is the first, well accomodating for 37 girls for the afternoon. Tuk Tuks everywhere to take you to the ***** or old town, pricer than taxis, but a funny experience. Would I stay here again? For a self catering hotel, absolutely. Well done Ondamar.

No way 4 star. Apartment was dirty and nothing worked. Dirty mattress, bugs in blankets, cockroaches in bath, stained mattress, broken toaster and plug socked. Dishwasher falling out of wall. Steps up to all apartments so not accessible with pram. Indoor pool only allowed to use if have swim cap and most of the time is locked. Bar shut at 6. Restaurant and coffee shop shut due to lack of staff. Rude staff. Very noisy due to loud roads, recycling in middle of the night and can hear other guests.

On arrival we weren’t greeted with a warm welcome! We were just shouted at to give our passports and credit card! One of our apartments got flooded and we waited over an hour for a staff member to come help us! There was no apology given and were just told to pack our stuff and to move to another apartment! There was no bar or restaurant open during our entire stay which we weren’t informed of before our booking! Staff weren’t very friendly! Apartments weren’t cleaned, constanlty had to ask for fresh towels and toilet paper! The only good thing was the location, would not recommend at all!!

- the room we had booked and paid full price for , which we discovered smelled of damp , and after looking around was mouldy and dirty, we refused to stay in this room. We went to reception to change rooms the night we checked in. The member of staff on the night shift at the reception desk. Was rude and complained they “would get in trouble” if they changed rooms for us to present ourselves at 8am the next morning to the reception desk. This all happened at 3am in the morning. The new room we wore given was bigger, but we wore told after returning to reception the next day to think of this as a “free upgrade” even though the room we had originally paid for was in terrible condition. The locks on the door will not work, they had someone to fix it twice and continued to say it was our fault for putting the card key next to our phones even though we had not. We had drinks in our room 1 night out of ten days as there is no hotel bar available on site. The same night shift receptionist stormed into our room was extremely rude and threatened us saying it is “common sense not to make noise in a hotel in Portugal after 10 pm we are being warned”. Even thought other hotel guest have been doing the same and continued to do so even after the night clerk had entered the room and harassed us . Bear in mind these are older people and 2 kids. They did not say anyone had complained about the noise which leads us to believe he did this because he had got in trouble for changing our room the first night. I would not recommend this hotel for anyone who would like a stress free and pleasant holiday. No facilities for kids or adults alike.The rooms are terrible and the staff are just as bad. The drinks at the pool which are served to 7pm only are starting from 10 euro per pint. Over priced and barely 2 star hotel posing as a 4 star. destroyed our first Portugal experience and would never come back. If you choose to come here I hope you don’t have the same trouble we did.

I have mixed feelings about this hotel. Firstly we were on a holiday with 3 kids age from 14 to 8. We had a two bedroom apartment which was nice and very spacious . The pool area was nice and no major rush for sunbeds. The location is excellent- between New and old town, both within walking distance. There are supermarkets, bakery, bars and restaurants all around the hotel. However when we arrived the first week it was a bit chaotic they were 3 stags and one hen party even though it states clearly on website no hens or stags allowed. The main problem was throwing empty plastic glasses and empty cans all around pool area....no one was there to clean up or police it! We found it very noisy at night....especially from 5.30 in the morning when they were coming home from the new town. I just wouldn't recommend this hotel for families with young kids....would probably recommend for a hen or stag! We also felt disappointed that they advertise a free shuttle bus to the old town 3 times a day, this was not available! They also advertise bar and restaurant- which is closed. You just have snack bar by the pool which is very expensive. I hate saying it but we found the reception staff very unfriendly! All in all location is great, its clean but wouldn't recommend this hotel for families.

We stayed in this hotel for 8 nights and I have mixed reviews about it. The location is great, it is about a 15 minute walk to the ***** and a 20 minute walk to the Old Town. There are a number of nice restaurants and little shops beside it, as well as McDonalds and a huge supermarket about 5 minute walk away and a gorgeous Chinese Restaurant right beside it. The pool is nice and there are plenty of sun beds around it, however there are significantly less umbrellas then beds which left a lot of people struggling, particularly families with smaller children and people who are unable to sit in direct sunlight for long periods of time. The rooms are modern enough and spacious. Four of us were very comfortable in our room. There were a few structural issues such a bedside cabinets that were barely hanging onto the wall, a light switch that kept popping out and a lamp that was hanging off the wall when we first arrived. The television also did not work. There is a lot of traffic noise from The main road outside so light sleepers should probably avoid the bedrooms at the front of the hotel, as this, paired with the noise from other residents and people on the street affords very little sleep. The day time reception staff and pool bar staff, we found extremely rude but the night time reception staff were lovely and very helpful. The housekeeping staff are excellent. They kept the place spotless and made sure we were tipped up with toilet paper and towels. One day they even set up the pull our bed correctly for us, when they saw that we were using it on the ground as we didn’t realise you couldn’t actually stand it up. They were also very accommodating, twice they arrived while we were still in the apartment and said it was no problem at all, they would come back later It is a bit of a party hotel in that there are a lot of hen/stag dos and lots of Leaving Cert holiday groups and groups of younger o around that age. The stag and hen did were no trouble and actually provided great entertainment around the pool. The younger groups/Leaving Cert holiday goers however, created absolute chaos. They were partying and blaring music all night, running in and out of each others apartments and screaming all night, there was a group beside us blaring music, moving furniture and smashing things all night. We did complain at reception and they did try their best a number of times to stop it but it still continued for three nights. At one stage one of them was trying to get onto our room and was banging the door and pulling the handle. So I probably would not recommend this as a family friendly hotel. Check in is very late at 5pm and the storage area for cases is absolutely tiny. There were a number of large groups arriving the same day as us and when we were all trying to get our cases out at check in time, it was absolute carnage and cases were flying everywhere and people were climbing over each other trying to reach them. Overall, the location is good, the

The hotel in general has excellent facilities and large self catering rooms. There was also a plethora of sun beds available. We enjoyed our stay until the last night in which the ‘BIG MONSTER MAN’ (named by my child) came to our door. The man not only knocked loudly on the door at around 3am but also URINATED on it! When I opened the door I was then attacked by the urine all over my feet. I tried to chase the man but he ran off down the stairs while constantly saying “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, don’t do anything!” My child was in shock and didn’t want to leave the room the next day. Overall would stay again 👍🏻

Great stay for 3 nights rooms were big and clean and good value for money compared to other options in the area. Only real complaint was that the bar staff beside the pool were quite slow!