Barcelo Palmeraie

We booked Barcelo with the pretense that we were going to be staying at a 5star luxury resort… this was far from reality. Don’t get me wrong the hotel in itself isn’t bad, but still not 5 star worthy. In a nutshell these are the issues we had. We stayed for 1 days and then checked out because it was not anywhere near up to the standard we expected.

• no one is at the entrance when you arrive, no concierge etc. Fine if the front reception is close by but it isn’t. We arrived with 3 suitcases and 2 prams. My husband went to reception and they said yes that’s normal just leave your stuff there. Not sure why we would leave our stuff unattended upon arrival at a place we’d never been with no one in sight. Also if this was the case there should be a sign, or are we supposed to guess?
• Prior to arrival, I tried contacting the hotel on 3 occasions and through social media. I had a generic response after the final attempt. When we got there I mentioned this and their response was ‘Mam it’s high season’ - surely as a hotel you should be operational in any season. Paying customers should have communication.
• The rooms were dated but not too bad - definitely not 5 star worthy. We had ants all over the floor and in the bathroom. At one point they were on our pillows. The shower drain was also blocked and therefore flooding. We felt like we couldn’t walk barefoot in the room as the floor wasn’t clean and couldn’t let our baby crawl.
• Food was pretty rubbish, breakfast was not good and the coffee was awful.
• Overall cleanliness was poor. The hotel toilets were dirty. The room wasn’t cleaned properly. We had our fridge replaced and it was filthy. Outside the breakfast one morning there was discarded food covered in ants. There was a forgotten swimming costume left in our room, makes you think if they cleaned before we checked in. There were random bits of food outside our room terrace.
• Service was pretty awful, no one ever answered the phone. My husband spent the two days we were there, going to and from reception. We kept asking for things and either were ignored or it would take 4/5 hours for anything to happen, for example ‘can you clean the ants’.
• Hotel says it caters for kids but there is no kids menu in any restaurant. All restaurants open at 12.30 so kids who eat earlier just have to eat in the room.
• The air con cut out a few times
• The pool was so busy and people were reserving beds early in the day. There was also music quite loud from midday so if you’re going for relaxing this isn’t for you.

In summary, not a 5 star hotel and not worth the money. Did not feel like a resort, more like a holiday village. Glad we made the decision to leave after our first 24h there.

From when we arrived the service and staff were great. They took us and our cases to our rooms on the car which was really helpful as we were further away. Upon arrival a mistake happened where they gave us the wrong room as we had booked for a double room and they gave us two single beds which were very small however when I went to reception they changed our room with no problems at all. We were on the ground floor and have suffered with quite a few little lizards which is as expected. We don’t like lizards or any animals like that therefore we called reception a few times! and they sent a member of staff round to get it every time which was great! Have had no issue getting sunbeds and the staff around the breeze bar are great! Ismail and ouusama have 10/10 customer service skills and really look after you whilst your there very attentive. Amjad is also a really great entertainer he really connects with you as the guests and is very enthusiastic in what he does. There is a waitress at the bar on the night who is absolutely great although I do not know her name but she has been amazing and definitely deserves a raise. Beds are comfy in our opinion rooms are clean. Only thing I would say is be careful when tipping the taxi men as they will ask for more. Food had no problems it was absolutely beautiful and the deserts were to die for. Not much choice in food but for what was there it was to a high quality. The only downside is that there is barely any entertainment on a night just a DJ and a disco which is disappointing. Air con was amazing in our room worked perfectly and every single member of staff was so polite and a real big credit to the hotel. Not many English channels on the TV which is not too much of an issue as we were outdoors mainly but on a night as there was no entertainment it was nice to relax but there wasn’t many English channels. I really like the fact that they play music by the pool as many hotels do not do that anymore. It’s great. A downside is that there is nowhere to get a drink for in the room, they do give you water but we don’t like water so it’d be nice if you could get a bottle somewhere. Sunbeds are comfy and look staff will do anything you ask. There aren’t any ice creams through out the day and they are after 4 if you want one. They also do not do pop on draft it is bottles (may be picky) but we prefer draft which was a negative. Wasn’t much choice of cocktails on the all inclusive. Other than that we were really happy with our stay and we would love to return at some point in the future. Staff

Absolutely stunning hotel, wonderful hotel, great staff who an incredibly helpful amf friendly. The pools (3) are amazing. I love this place. I booked via Jet 2 and I can't fault the seamless experience.