Gran Playa Hotel – Sa Coma – Majorca

Normally I don’t agree with bad reviews, I think that people are just being fussy & expect too much from a 3* but the Gran Playa hotel in Sa Coma on Majorca really is quite terrible!

The hotel was quite clean (excluding our towels) & during my stay there was only one nice member of staff, which is why I give the hotel such a low rating. We were greated by a very unwelcoming lady and we ignored this at first & went to our room. My mum is scared of heights though & we were on the fourth floor - we understand it can be difficult to be moved as it was busy. We went to the desk, my mum was really stressed & quite frightened and the same woman was there. She began to deal with the situation, but then after a short while moved on to other clients while ignoring us.

Eventually we were told we could be moved to a room on the first floor on the Tuesday (arrived on the sunday) which was understandable, but why the woman was so rude about it I don’t understand. Also we saw that she was giving some other all-inclusive clients a blue wristband, which we were only then informed about. Wristbands require a deposit which is ridiculous because we had already paid to go all inclusive. We were told to retrieve the deposit by 12pm on the last day (we wern’t leaving until 6pm) & we would not be allowed to use the all-inclusive facilities! This has never been the case in any all-inclusive hotel I have been in before.

We paid the deposit as we had no other choice & went for dinner as it was 1pm. There was pork, fish, soup, some ‘off’ looking salad, chips & pasta. At the next meal there was a choice of pork, fish, soup, some ‘off’ looking salad, chips & pasta (spot the pattern for the forthcoming week!) Sometimes, desserts would change, well - the colour of the topping did! The bar was alright, although water had to be requested, you could not just get your own. I didn’t want to go to the bar as the man was very rude & unpleasent  – he made out it was a big effort to get me some water!

After lunch on the first day we went to the room & got changed. The bathroom was nice & clean although the towels had some stains on them. Hmmmm. We went to sit by the pool & managed to get two sun loungers (which was difficult) & a broken parasol which blew over every time there was a slight breeze. Around the pool the guttering was broken & dirty but the pool itself was OK.

Evening. Well there wasn’t any mini-disco this particular evening & no hope of any further entertainment (even though it was advertised on the board) so we went out to the Brittania. It was nice in there, expensive, but well we had nothing else really to do. In fact, there was no adult entertainment until the Thursday & even for the kids the disco was over within about 10 minutes because the CD player seamed to break down & then the ‘entertainers’ gave up. No enthusiasm at all.

In the evenings, when we got back, there was a nice man on reception. He was very pleasent & this is the one member of staff who I could not say a bad word against. There was also one nice lady on reception but sadly she was not there all the time. We made numerous complaints whilst there but they were ignored & we were told there was “nothing that could be done” the majority of the time.

On the final day we gave the wristbands in - this wasn’t so much of an issue in the end as we didn’t want to eat there anyway. Whilst there, we also put a ‘deposit’ on a safe – 18 euros – which we were clearly told we would receive back. We retrieved 3 euros & were told that 15 euros was for rent! How much of a profit do they need, where does it go? Not on the cleaning of towels, not on food, certainly not on the two nights there was entertainment for adults, not on fixing the hotel (the neon sign used at night had broken bulbs, the guttering on the swimming pool was terrible, the parasols & sunloungers were mostly broken, & there weren’t enough chairs outside in the evenings, even if there was entertainment on).

There was also a perfectly good room for entertainment which was not used. The one night of bingo (which surprise, surprise we had to pay for) there was no microphone used to call the numbers & other guests had to call the numbers in order for everyone to be able to hear. We had to pay for the pool table, & also for table tennis.

On the last day when we saw the hotel manager (for once) he denied our claims, told us there had been beef on the menu (lie) told us that we were told the 15 euros for the safe was for rent (lie) told us there had been entertainment on all week (lie) & when I pointed out that he hadn’t been there all week, he simply remained silent.

We had to use the luggage room because obviously we had to check out by 12. I asked the woman on reception (the same one as when we first arrived) whether or not we had to pay for this facility too & she replied “well we could charge for it if we wanted to as we are not obliged to provide it” (which they are) but I thought this was rude. True, there was some sarcasm in my enquiry, but it was also genuine as they had charged us for everything else.

Also, it states on the webiste that there is a satelite TV in the rooms (lie) & a telephone (true, but you cant use it) and it also states there is a lounge and bar, but the pool bar is the only one in use!