VS Gandía Palace Hotel

“Great hotel”

I stayed here four nights as part of a dance conference. The location is great, about two or three blocks from a nice beach, and on the bus route that goes directly to the train and bus station in town(10 mins). I did not have any reason to go into the town. There is a lovely boardwalk and some... more

I stayed here four nights as part of a dance conference. The location is great, about two or three blocks from a nice beach, and on the bus route that goes directly to the train and bus station in town(10 mins). I did not have any reason to go into the town. There is a lovely boardwalk and some shops and restaurants along the beach. The hotel is clean and the chambermaids kept the room properly serviced with shampoo and bath gel, and lots of big towels. No other amenities, however, such as shower cap or conditioner. In fact, it would have been particularly helpful because I ran out and only wanted a small travel size bottle for my hair, and the only when I could find was about seven dollars and too big to carry. The pool was a good temperature, cold but refreshing because it was very hot in August/Sept. It appeared to be very clean, the only downside being the pool is in the courtyard so it only gets sun for a few hours a day. Maybe it was because of the conference, but they seemed to be very reluctant to give out ice and there are no ice machines! In such a hot place, I don’t understand this. I’m sure they want you to purchase drinks at the bar, but the bar had a limited menu, really just beer and although there were four different bars, they were often closed. There is a refrigerator in the room, but nowhere to get ice. Being a dance conference, it would have been nice if the ballrooms had a polished wood floor, because the marble floor would get steamy with people and heat, and humid with spilled drinks, which made it not very good for dancing, although it was also sometimes slippery as it didn’t appear to be swept much. The conference itself was great, and they did a good job accommodating almost 1000 people. The service at the front desk was good although I took some time to figure out how to call down for a wake up call on the room telephone. The air-conditioner in the room was good although you have to insert your room key to activate the lights/power/a/c, which means it is quite warm when you come back & I could not leave my phone to charge while out. I had a great view of the ocean from my balcony, which is large. I had a room with two twin beds, and the bed was comfortable. The room was large and the bathroom was nice as well, although the shower stall had just a partial wall rather than a curtain, and so the shower nozzle was pointed almost directly below at the wall and taps, which made it rather difficult to wash. The rooms seem to be fairly well insulated, so I did not hear any noise from the bar or pool area (from the 8th floor), although I did hear the people in the neighbouring room once. My only complaint about this hotel really is that I was expecting a package to be delivered and it did come on the day I was to arrive, but a few hours before I got there. Apparently they turned away the UPS driver and told him there was no such person registered. When I asked the front desk about this, because they had no problem with my name on checking, he said that they would not except the package because I hadn’t given instructions by calling them before hand to do so. I suppose that is fair for security purposes, but it would’ve been helpful if they had called me because it caused a week of problems trying to get the card back from UPS on a holiday weekend and having it resent to two hotels where I subsequently went meant I really didn’t have use of my credit card for my whole trip. I have to say, for an all-inclusive buffet, the food was really excellent! They had all types of meat and although it was on the well-done side, that is probably safe and suited me fine. They had many different types of fish I’ve never heard of, and everything was well done, including sauces, at least five different types of desserts, wine was included with my package although I didn’t have any, and service was good. They had great coffee machines although it seemed to me their hot milk for sweetened! The chocolate sauce for the churros was so good I actually complemented the chef. They always had a variety of fruits, cheeses, sliced meats, a different kind of potato, rice and the usual hamburgers, hotdogs, breads, and pastas, although I didn’t eat any.

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“Checking in was a Nightmare”

Completely comprised by the worst checking-in experience of our lives 5.0 Liked · The breakfast buffet was very good. Excellent coffee, good variety of options. Nice breakfast room, not over crowded. Disliked · Checking in at reception was the worst experience of many years of checking in at ma... more

Completely comprised by the worst checking-in experience of our lives 5.0 Liked · The breakfast buffet was very good. Excellent coffee, good variety of options. Nice breakfast room, not over crowded. Disliked · Checking in at reception was the worst experience of many years of checking in at many types of hotels, in many countries, for both business and pleasure. It was the most unwelcoming process, where my wife and I felt like potential criminals. We had paid in full, in advance, when making the booking, for the six nights. That's fine. We were asked for our credit card to be scanned for a pre-authorisation. Why? we asked. "Its for security for the room" we were told. My wife asked "is this in case we damage or trash the room". The receptionist smiled and nodded. Then came the "terms and conditions" which we were asked to sign. This was four A4 pages of small font script, in SPANISH. "Fine we said, Can we have the English version?" We don't speak Spanish and are from Ireland. We can't sign a four page document we can't read. Besides which we are fully paid in advance and you have additionally taken an authorisation of our card for any damage that we cause. What further assurances are required in a four page document. We explained very calmly and politely that we can't sign a document we can't understand. Another receptionist colleague offered to translate the "important bits" of the document for us verbally. We declined. A signature on a document is a legally binding acceptance of the document in its totality. Ignorance is no defence in law. They had another mini conference about this with what appeared to be a shift manager, ( who didn't acknowledge us or come over to where we were standing at reception) and then they advised us that they would translate the document using A.I. but after another 15 minutes of us waiting then announced that they couldn't translate it. They would allow us to complete check-in and if we came back to the reception desk the following day they should have a translation for us to sign. We didn't go back to the reception.

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