Hotel Toliar

We stayed at the Hotel Toliar for a long weekend in August. The hotel itself exceeded my expectations, as the rooms were renovated, big, had lots of storage space and spacious balconies with nice views. I have been coming to the Strbske Pleso area since I was a baby so I knew the hotel is quite old and was pleasantly surprised by the modern rooms. The rooms were very clean when we arrived. The location is also fantastic, close to the train station, lots of restaurants, a mini market and many beautiful hiking trails. The breakfast was alright, nothing amazing but not too bad either. The pool is quite small and has a view of the parking garage and guests unfortunately have to pay to enter. What was truly awful was the complete ignorance of COVID-19 rules. Nobody wore face masks anywhere, including the very crowded breakfast area (they still do open buffets even though every hotel I have been to since the beginning of the pandemic has now switched to the staff giving you the food you ask for). Guests do not wear face masks in the hallways, in the tiny elevator, in the reception area or, as I said, in the buffet line. And, unfortunately, the staff does not wear masks either. The cleaning staff wore no masks, the reception staff wore no masks, the spa staff wore no masks (incl. the masseuse), the restaurant staff wore masks on their chins. As a result, 3 out of 4 adults in our group got sick a few days after we came back home (luckily just a cold). I also didn't like that even though our rooms were very clean when we arrived, all the cleaning staff did during our stay was provide clean towels and new toilet paper but did not clean anything in the rooms (not even make the beds or wipe the floors). I cannot comment on the restaurant, we never ate there except for the breakfast, due to the bad reviews. Instead, I can highly recommend the restaurant Furkotka across the street which has fantastic food and very friendly staff (although they also don't wear masks, it seems that the local staff hopes for another lockdown).