Cabogata Jardín Hotel

“Get the Junior Suite if you can”

We chose this over the more expensive sister hotel and it didn’t look the job for a two night stay. Retamar is very much a Spanish resort so the staff didn’t speak much if any English but Google translate got us through. The star of the show was the room, a Junior Suite with an excellent balcony fa… lisää

We chose this over the more expensive sister hotel and it didn’t look the job for a two night stay. Retamar is very much a Spanish resort so the staff didn’t speak much if any English but Google translate got us through. The star of the show was the room, a Junior Suite with an excellent balcony facing the beach. Nice air double room and the hotel kindly put an extra bed in the living room so our two large teenagers could sleep in relative comfort there. The pool was nice and there are games and water slides available for younger kids. For even younger kids a mini water park seemed very diverting. This isn’t a luxury hotel but four star is fair and we had a nice time there.

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“Relaxing”

I stayed at the hotel for a night, it was really relaxing and I still regret why I didn’t stay longer! The atmosphere of the hotel was very pleasant and you could escape from the noisy world for a while ! Room : spacious, clean and neat with stunning sea view. Breakfast: divers, fresh , delicious

“Staff Training Required to be 4 or 5 Star Resort”

Working in the Hospitality industry for a long time and staying in many places (including 4 & 5 star locations) there’s no way that I wouldn’t take the time to write a thorough review after this experience. Many guests rely on reviews to help make their decisions of where to stay, and management us… lisää

Working in the Hospitality industry for a long time and staying in many places (including 4 & 5 star locations) there’s no way that I wouldn’t take the time to write a thorough review after this experience. Many guests rely on reviews to help make their decisions of where to stay, and management uses the information to improve their establishments. I hope this is the case in this scenario! Coming here as a family with children, I can say that it was overall a 3 star experience and I would actually recommend this location, however, it was NOT five stars as the plaque at the entry states due to the following. Check in was slow, and reception seemed overwhelmed. Hotel called a few days prior to confirm information, which I thought would speed up the check in process. This was not the case, because at check in we were asked to provide the same information. We ensured that we already gave our information and a few clicks on the computer, she agreed. No card was required for incidentals and I was very surprised by that. English was not efficient enough to explain thoroughly, even though on the website it states English, German and French are also spoken. Very defensive staff for asking if they spoke the other languages. Hotel provided an English phamplet, however it was really poorly written with grammatical errors, and it didn’t read well. To be a 5 star, you do need to provide your hotels information in other languages but be sure to have it corrected before sending it to the copy machine. (This also included the German translation in the rooms, as it was also incorrect). Our room was prepared really nicely by the housekeeping staff. An extra bed was put in the room and prepared for our children. Air conditioning and lights were turned on before arrival which was greatly appreciated. Little goodies boxes were prepared for kids which was a really nice gesture. The selection of soaps, coffee, tea and complimentary water was really good. These points were 4 star status in my opinion. We noticed that our lock on the balcony sliding door was broken, and the door didn’t shut properly. Also our keycard reader was not locking the door correctly. So we immediately went and notified the front desk who directly notified maintenance. At the same time, we requested a water cooker for our room. Informed that someone would arrive shortly, one of us stayed in the room and the other took the kids to the pools. The water cooker was brought very quickly, but no one showed up for the door. So, I went to notify the desk again and they apologised and contacted maintenance again. The front desk handled the situation well, but it was inconvenient to wait such a long time. (Especially when family is at the pool). A training tip to maintenance staff is to never tell the guest that “The hotel is safe and secure so you don’t need to worry, but if you want it fixed then we will fix it.” This is what was said to me when he arrived. Have them read the clause that the hotel is not responsible for stolen items. Every guest should feel comfortable knowing that their room is secure. The reason people pay and come to these places is so they can relax from their busy lives! In the end, our balcony door was fixed (even though they should have replaced the whole lock instead of a quick fix) and the maintenance man explained that you need to swipe and wait for the reader to turn red before shutting the door. The hotel should invest in a better system as this was not ideal for a resort. This was below 4 star status. The hotel provides many activities during peak season, which is fun, however some information was not communicated clearly, nor did some start on time (magic show for example). Other major issues were the cleanliness of the pools/bathrooms, and how the lifeguards do not enforce any rules. The pools had a grimy slime around the rim of the pool, and along the slides. The pool bathrooms had no soap and do not get cleaned often enough. We witnessed a child peeing into one of the outdoor showers near the pool, and another guest letting their child pee into the large pool. Many do not shower before going in the water, and some went into the pool with their flip flops on! Not one lifeguard did a thing, so I notified management and they assured they would talk to their staff. I truly hope they take this to heart in training their lifeguards, because the staff who try to keep things clean work really hard but obviously not catching guests doing these atrocities does not help! In the end, I didn’t go in the water anymore, it just felt really dirty. This felt like a motel 6 moment. Overall, we enjoyed the breakfast and dinner buffet during our stay. We think they did a good job with the food selection and keeping up with the demand. You can tell the resort puts a lot of effort into this area. Dinner time is obviously when the hotel works to make money with drinks. We ordered a bottle of water each night, and a 5 star moment happened when the staff brought a bottle without us asking. Thank you! However, I didn’t appreciate being told that “it’s the soap they use to clean the dishes that leaves a film on the glasses” after showing the staff that I had a dirty glass. Just give the guest a new glass and consider improving the quality of cleaning your dishware. There is free parking nearby which I recommend. You can walk to the beach, there are many walkways and even to skate paths, along with nearby restaurants within walking distance. The pictures advertised for the hotel also include a couple of pictures from the neighboring hotel, so that’s misleading. The area of El Toyo and Almería is really beautiful and many things to see.

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“Awful food.”

Was booked in her via EasyJet due to a flight cancellation. Hotel is very clean & rooms spacious with a lovely pool area. We paid €30 for the evening buffet given the limited options around the hotel. The buffet selection was awful with one or two main dishes all of which were lukewarm and had t… lisää

Was booked in her via EasyJet due to a flight cancellation. Hotel is very clean & rooms spacious with a lovely pool area. We paid €30 for the evening buffet given the limited options around the hotel. The buffet selection was awful with one or two main dishes all of which were lukewarm and had to be heated in the microwave. No butter for rolls. It was truly the worst buffet I have ever been too and if I was staying here I would be looking to move hotel due to the poor food options.

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“Not 5* mixed review”

We didn’t really know what to expect as there were few and far between reviews and not many from English guests. Pros: Pools great as deep enough for diving which my kids love. Slides useful to have as an option Most of the staff are friendly. Pool doesn’t open till 10 and is fenced off. This… lisää

We didn’t really know what to expect as there were few and far between reviews and not many from English guests. Pros: Pools great as deep enough for diving which my kids love. Slides useful to have as an option Most of the staff are friendly. Pool doesn’t open till 10 and is fenced off. This avoids temptation for subbed wars and we had no issue getting 5 beds just before the pool opened. Which was a nice perk. Cons: I would agree with the rating of the hotel Drainage around pool easily breakable which is hazardous. Kids pool pillow was punctured so could not be used. (See attached photo) As a family of 5 the room was ok however the balcony was not cleaned, table and chairs dirty. Food was repetitive although some items only available once a week like beans at breakfast and chocolate fountain in evening. Striker bar snack food is ridiculous and again no variety. Other bar by the pool is not available for all inclusive guests. Cocktails are not great 4 cocktails to choose from 1 of which is no alcoholic and they are pre mixed. Area around pool rather slippy and slides sharpe in places. Lifeguards around the pool are either in the shade away from the pool or on their phones so I would always make sure you are with your children. Beach is a very short walk over different terrains in a zig zag pattern, beach is rocky/ shingles and are very sharp. The thing that really annoyed us were the kids wrist bands. They were paper bands which needed replacing every day as they either fell off because they were worn to nothing or they hadn’t stuck well when being put on. My son was told very abruptly by a member of staff i believe her name is Lydia that he needed to get his parents as she wanted our details. When we arrived at reception to ask what the issue was my husband spoke with her in Spanish and she immediately had a very defensive and immature attitude regarding having to replace the wristbands and made a remark about charging us for the replacement, she was accompanied by 2 other members of staff who also stood lapping up the drama she was creating. My husband made it clear we had raised this issue a few days before and were told they couldn’t offer our children a different wrist band due to them not being able to have alcohol (our wrist bands were plastic and a different colour) she then proceeded to stick a replacement band on top my sons skin missing the band completely and the band fell off that evening. When we went to reception the following day to ask for a replacement the receptionist who was on shift that morning. I didn’t catch her name she was wearing glasses was extremely accommodating and understanding and gave a replacement without issue although this was another paper band. Our kids made friends with 2 Spanish boys who had plastic bands and were not of adult ages. 2 other girls of younger ages to my kids were also wearing plastic bands! It’s frustrating that our kids were denied service because they didn’t have a band at times and spent their holiday fighting for replacements. All In all we had a nice holiday and made the most of it but we wouldn’t return to this hotel or this area as there isn’t a lot to do and the hotel was not what we expected.

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