Quinta Splendida Wellness & Botanical Garden

Tui booked us into this hotel when our flight was delayed for 2 days due to the weather. The staff on reception dealt with this sudden influx of people quickly, efficiently and politely. There were some lovely porters who took our luggage to our rooms. But during our short stay, which was extremely pleasant, the member of staff who stood out was Terese in the restaurant. She was so cheery, helpful and kind. I hope the management recognise what a gem she is to this establishment.

My wife and I booked this hotel considering it was a 4 star listed on Jet2’s website with a spa. This was a honeymoon trip and we figured booking the Spa Suite would feel delightful! Especially given the complimentary thermal suite access for the entire 7 night stay. We booked on Jet2 with bed and breakfast access as a full package. We arrived around 5pm on a Monday and got checked in to room 2023. I’ll start with the good, the spa rooms are spacious! When we arrived to our room they had sparkling wine and a fruit platter for us waiting to congratulate us on our honeymoon. We were happy to have a spacious bath as a lot of resort baths are small. It was plenty of space for two! We were also excited for the view of the sea! Being in the hill, you could literally see the sea from your bed! The breakfast was very nice for European standards. Specifically the fresh local fruit and vegetables from the botanical garden is very unique. Our first day and last two days of the trip had fresh full avocados from the garden that we could enjoy as much of as we wanted! Since we booked a spa room, we had access to an à la carte menu which includes omelets as well as fresh squeezed orange juice and also cappuccinos that are made with fresh beans! Very nice! I would say if you weren’t booking a spa room and didn’t have à la carte then the juice machine and coffee machine there is very poor. Now onto the bad. When we got to our room and were getting settled we heard a hissing sound. We thought it was the pipes of the water or something and thought nothing of it. Around 10:30pm we were going to bed and it was dark as I was brushing my teeth an insect scurried very fast near my feet. We turned on the light to find a coach roach had come from the separate bathroom area with an enclosed toilet. I decided to open the door to the toilet room and turn on the light and two more rushed from there! We called reception and they sent someone and by then the coach roaches had gotten up into the cracks of the wood of the sink and were hissing! We then realized that was the hissing we had heard earlier in the day! We were told this is totally normal and not a sign of issues as we are stating in a botanical garden so coachroaches are normal. This was the beginning of justification for problems but at the time we were ok with a room change so we could go to bed. They moved us to a room next door, room 2022, which was a bigger room but more outdated than our original room. The bathtub had its water cover missing so the pipe was exposed! The shower area had its cover missing from the rainfall shower. The sink area had water damage around the faucets and the mirror and had rusted. Additionally the TV no longer worked and was older and we were missing the fan in our room which helped cool down the room since there’s no A/C. None the less, we decided to stay here and called reception and asked them to provide the smart tv and fan in the morning for us. The next day, we got up, enjoyed the nice breakfast and went to the spa. We started in the sauna and then went to the tropical shower to rinse off. To our utter surprise and shock, a large cockroach runs past us and near my wife’s slippers! We quickly alerted the spa staff who came with a broom and crushed the roach. We were again told this is totally normal as part of staying in botanical garden. This caused us to feel way less relaxed in wanting to enjoy the dark spa area as who knows if a coach roach would show up while lounging in the relaxation room with the heated lounges or be in the steam room. After the spa, we went back to our room and contacted Jet2 about our issues since we now found coackroaches in our room and in the spa. The in resort rep for Jet2 on the island reached out and apologized and then asked if the hotel had been in touch with us yet since they notified them of the issue. We told them they had not and jet 2 apologized and said they would make sure to have them reach out shortly. Eventually the guest relations representative at Quinta Splendida called our room and told us that this is normal of a “Quinta” and we should expect insects at any sort of Quinta on the island. We explained this was not normal and we are on our honeymoon. We were frustrated by the lack of apology and that the solution to bugs seemed to be to just squash them and not spray or deal with them fully. We told the representative that this disrupted our night and asked what could be offered and she offered us dinner us then for either Friday or Sunday. We believe it was for the nicer 3 course place but it wasn’t fully explained on the phone so we pushed for something more than just a buffet dinner comped. Eventually she did call back and offer dinner on them + 2x 30 min massage vouchers for each of us which we accepted. As we continued to be in our room 2022, we started to notice ants. They were coming out of the outlets by the bed, the light switches and eventually we noticed them by the bath tub. We had a soft drink that we opened and within 20 min they swarmed the soft drink. We woke up on Christmas Day with ants covering my wife and all over her body! They had even gotten into the bed! We called at 5:30am and asked if they could spray for ants or find a solution. They said they would OR that they would change us rooms. But they would for sure tell the head housekeeper to look into it. We went to breakfast on Christmas Day and came back to our room cleaned. We saw ants squashed but no sign of spraying and there were still ants coming out of light switches and many in the bath. We call reception who told us that housekeeping came already and that it was solved. We told them it wasn’t solved, there’s still ants. We were then told “you are in a Quinta! That means there will be bugs.” We told them that at 5:30am they told us if they couldn’t solve it they would move us rooms. They said to wait until 3pm and then come to reception. We waited til 3pm and went to reception and they told us “you had ants because you had trash outside your door. You ate food in your room and that attracts ants.” We were shocked! Again blaming us for the issue! We told them we ate delivery the night before and bagged it and put it outside the room. Never in my life have I ever stayed in a hotel and not been able to eat in the room before ants show up! We had to really push the issue and finally, they moved us to the other side of the spa suites to room 2001. This room was much smaller but outside of water damage on the ceiling and damage near the entrance of the door, the room was clean. Overall this room was the best! No ants or cockroaches the rest of the trip. We were able to enjoy a sprite without ants, eat food with no ants. And enjoy the remaining honeymoon. Our only issue with this room was the door kept locking us out. On our last day it just wouldn’t work. It kept beeping 3 times and flashing red. We went to reception three times to get our key fixed. It still wouldn’t work. The maintenance guy came to help and I’m not kidding when I say this ordeal took from 9:20am to 10:19am which delayed us packing up and leaving after breakfast. He finally had to go through a different room, go through the balcony door to let us in. He then told us it was our fault and we had deadbolted the door! That’s impossible we went for breakfast! When you slam the door it unlocks the deadbolt plus I tested his theory by deadbolting and the door still unlocks with your key. I think the batteries were going dead on the door and it’s just a door issue. The main complaint is the lack of customer care or concern. The fact that all our notes were in our file and the spa reception kept apologizing to us for the room changes and even our last spa time she noticed the file said we had key problems and apologized spoke volumes! I don’t understand how the guest relations or the reception had no empathy or any sort of care for our issues! Unfortunately due to being told “staying in a Quinta means you will have bugs” we will not be staying here again.