4R Salou Park Resort I

We left this hotel this morning and I don’t know where to start, it’s a mixed bag. We have travelled quite a lot and stayed in many 5 star, 4 star and 3 star hotels, so comparing them is quite easy. This hotel is NOT a 4 star hotel…far from it, in fact we stayed in a 3 star in Mallorca the year before and that hotel had way more going on and variety than this one. We stayed on the 8th floor which is the very top and getting the lifts was a lot of time wasted. Some times they would work other times they wouldn’t. Not ideal if you’re elderly or impaired. I would request a lower level when booking. The swimming pool - well we only visited the main one as the ones that belong to the sister site looked murky! The main pool however had black bits floating in it - the grouting was all black and mouldy beneath the water so we figured it was that, constantly full of hair floating around and both my partner and daughter got ear infections whilst we were there resulting in a few trips to the pharmacy. You can’t play with a ball in the pool (absolute madness, never been in a hotel where you can’t play catch in the pool) and also no inflatables allowed. My main concern about the swimming pool is there is no lifeguard! Again never been away where no lifeguard is present - especially a family holiday hotel! Please bare this in mind if bringing small children. Sun beds - one good thing about this hotel is they don’t open the doors for outside until 9am - we didn’t see many sunbed wars but if you want one around the main pool you do need to be there for 9am. They have got many sunbeds on the upper terrace also if they’ve all gone around the pool. Bar - can’t fault the bar in fact I think they’re the most hardworking of all the staff, at times they were miserable and would only serve you 2 drinks at a time but other than that the variety of drinks was vast and they were always cleaning the bar area. Entertainment - there was NONE!! This is where it all goes down hill - if your a family who want to sit by the pool drinking all day doing nothing then this hotel is perfect for you but if your a family like mine that enjoys getting involved in daily activities etc. then please book somewhere else, this hotel has nothing to offer. Aqua aerobics in the afternoon sometimes and that’s it! Oh and a come watch the staff make sangria! Really? No real competitions or silly pool games - just flat all day long with the same cd on repeat every single day and the night time entertainment- well we fortunately take a large amount of cash and thank god we did because we went out most of the nights as the entertainment just wasn’t great. Majority of the staff don’t speak English either so understanding what was going on was hard work. Food - I’m not going to give this a bad rating as I’m a fussy eater and struggle in all inclusive everywhere so I don’t think it’s fair, however minimal choice for a supposed 4 star hotel! Location - 10/10 it was the perfect location close to everything. Rooms - rooms were ok, did have an issue with our door where we got locked in and then after it had been ‘fixed’ had trouble getting in it everyday! But rooms had all you needed. Maids - maids were always smiling and cheery - probably the only staff that will acknowledge you. They changed the beds everyday and fresh towels. Don’t think they did a deep clean and I can’t be sure they cleaned the sheets most days but no complaints from us. Overall - the hotel has huge potential - but it really isn’t a quality hotel, the entertainment is the biggest issue here along with the cleanliness of the pool. The surroundings of all the hotel are lovely it just needs a big improvement and a big think about the entertainment programme they have. Top tips - when visiting salou I highly recommend the house of illusions - an absolutely fantastic night. Portuventura theme park was good - not as big as I expected though. Uncle Sam’s diner had the BEST English breakfast and staff were all fantastic - we went 3 times in our 10 day stay, highly recommend, also the guiness tavern - their food was also exceptional. Salou itself was lovely. Will we be back? No… we don’t visit the same place twice regardless of how good or bad it is as we want to visit as many places as we can but if asked would I recommend salou - definitely yes, would I recommend this hotel, probably not.

My partner and I have just left after spending a week in Salou Park Resort 1 and I am absolutely appalled by many things we endured during our stay. 1. Staff treatment: on the second night in our room (510) the air conditioning unit caused the roof to cave in and flood our room. This caused damage to our suitcase including all our belongings, as they were drenched in filthy water. We immediately alerted the receptionist about this issue as the roof was still leaking and has a massive water bubble that was ready to give way. The response we got was “your issue has been added to the list for the maintenance man to look at at some point today” when asked roughly what time he showed an extensive list of jobs and shrugged his shoulders. This was at 9;30 am. We headed to breakfast and when we came back to the room there was flakes of plaster and a towel left on the floor. We then returned to reception to ask what was happening and we were told the issue was “fixed”. There remained a huge water bubble in the roof ans a hole in the plastering. My partner had been on the phone to the easyJet rep who suggested that for our safety we requested a room change. The receptionist just shook his said and said no no no not possible. We refused to stay in that room and argued with the receptionist for over 3 hours. The receptionist said “I’ve made the final decision and you will not be moving rooms, this issue is done now”. Luckily I had other members of my family staying in a nearby hotel who had to come over to speak on our behalf as the receptions had refused to answer or reply to us. Within 30 seconds of my family member talking to the same receptionist who had ignored our requests he was happy to give my family member a room change ( he didn’t know it was for us) when asked what the room number was he said ahhh you again. Finally after 4 hours of back and forth (and a whole day of our holiday sacrificed) they magically found us an alternative room after being told all morning they were fully booked and a new room would absolutely not be an option, we finally got a different room. We had paid an extra €140 to have a sea view. Our new room (320) was not a sea view, but rather attached to the sun terrace offering 0 privacy. When asked if we will be compensated the girl just shook her head and said the best she could offer was use of the spa, which we refused. Another issue we witnessed with the reception staff is the complete lack of manners. When we check in we paid extra to have the safe. We were given the wrong key 3 times! And not once did they apologise. They just handed us another one to try and hoped for the best. An important note, when we switched rooms we requested the new key for the safe and were informed not to worry as the same key opens all the safes in every room which to me is extremely concerning. A third issue with our room was there was no phone. Again we informed the receptionist of this on the first night and were told we would get one sent up. The phone never arrived 2. The pool: the swimming pool is absolutely filthy. It is so cloudy that you can’t even see your feet when you’re in the water. I have seen this point being mentioned in previous reviews from weeks ago and yet the issue is still persistent. There was black dirt floating about the water as well as clumps of hair. Safe to say we used the pool once on the first day and never again. Additionally, there are no umbrellas around the pool, some people had small blue parasols which clip onto the bed bit these are limited. 3. General Cleanliness: the reason we booked this hotel over others were the reviews praising the hotel for being so clean. This was far from what I experienced during my stay. Other than the disgusting water that was left on the room floor from the air conditioning unit, the level of cleanliness throughout was in my opinion not up to standard. The rooms were cleaned every day and the cleaners were very friendly and attentive. However throughout the hotel I was disgusted by some of the things I seen. There was a pile of toenail clippings on and around chairs in reception, the doors and corridor walls were scratched, marked, dented and even burnt in some rooms, broken glass on the carpet on the hallways, numerous times at breakfast plates and cups were dirty, around the pool area was never moped or brushed and the floor was often slippery because of the sun cream and pool water. On our last night at around 9pm staff were painting the stairwell and just painting right over dirty marks and dents on the walls. No wet paint sign was ever put up and they chose possibly the busiest time to decide to paint a high traffic area of the hotel in peak holiday season 4. Noise: our new room was located right beside the emergency fire door, which was propped open permanently by a crisp packet. This couldn’t be closed as the handle to the fire door had broken off . This lead to a stairwell attached to the restaurant and every night at exactly 11:30pm we could hear the racket of what I presume was the dishwashers cleaning the cups and mugs to prepare for breakfast. This lasted around an hour every single night ( didn’t bother us too much as we were usually awake at that time but if anyone is with a young family this would definitely be loud enough to wake you out of your sleep. The walls are that thin that I could hear every time our neighbour rolled over on the squeaky beds! 5. Shower room: we had a late pick up (7pm) and asked when we checked out at 10am if there was a shower room available and places to leave our bags. The same receptionist who we had trouble with at the beginning of the week said yes and gave us the key to the luggage hold. We returned to the hotel at around 5:30 and asked about the shower room. It was only then he informed us that it is located in the spa in the other hotel however it closes at 6pm and we won’t have time to use it. This was never mentioned at check out earlier that morning when we first enquired. Again absolutely abysmal customer service skills from this man 6. Location: the only single positive I can find about this hotel is the location and the proximity to the beach and strip. I have never wanted to come home from a holiday before but this experience really did ruin our holiday. I’m usually very good at always looking for the positives and would not be overly fussy but this really was a horrible experience and I highly recommend avoiding it at all costs.

The hotel was lovely and very clean throughout, room was a good size and it was cleaned everyday. The location was great only a 5 minute walk to the main strip. Making it easy to get to all the restaurants and shops. We had breakfast included, unfortunately it wasn't the best the food was often cold and didn't have the best taste.