Barceló Ponent Beach

“Honest review - Family break”

If you want a down to earth, very honest review of this hotel I urge you to read on. This comes from someone that has had the pleasure of stopping in multiple Barceló hotels and other major chains around the world. I am not a moaner at all by any stretch, but the cost of a holiday to this hotel w… lisää

If you want a down to earth, very honest review of this hotel I urge you to read on. This comes from someone that has had the pleasure of stopping in multiple Barceló hotels and other major chains around the world. I am not a moaner at all by any stretch, but the cost of a holiday to this hotel with prices rising exponentially next year, I just expected and do expect a lot better and where people are highlighting issues I completely agree. Spend your hard earned money elsewhere as there is better value for money in places such as Turkey and the canaries. If you aren’t fussy and are happy to accept standards below par, pay premium prices for sub standard service, especially for the barcelo chain then that’s your decision. Positives: - Cala Ferrera and Cala D’Or are stunning, with some lovely shops and restaurants and the views of the bay from this hotel are stunning. The beach is perfect for toddlers due to a gentle gradient into the sea and its calm, clean, very warm and lots of rock pools around with some caves to view too (I am a geography teacher, in heaven). - We ate out on three occasions over a period of 10 nights couple of nights due to the food and would recommend the spice of India and restaurant to do (stunning burger). - We paid for a family sea view, very spacious, the best shower in a hotel I’ve had with a decent amount of storage (it could really be better to say they hold up to 4 people?!?!) and again, the view was stunning. I did nosy at some of the rooms when the maid was ‘cleaning’ (I will talk about this later) and they were poxy and they aren’t cheap either. Honestly Absolutley tiny. - The pool areas are clean, the sea view quiet pool is chill (It’s not adult only, there are children, I travelled with a 15 month old). I thought the main family pool was excellent also in terms of cleanliness, access to the bar and a small snack bar with the usual (Chips, hot dogs, nachos ect). I thought the toddler pool was lovely and had lots of fun with my little one. - The entertainment around the family pool is a bit naff but people enjoyed themselves and it’s whatever you want it to be. My wife really enjoyed aqua aerobics which was one element which was very good with cycling underwater whereas I like to chill. I will discuss my issues with this later. - I thought the bar staff were very good, polite, kind, well mannered and professional. I also believe the staff in the dining area who bus tables and welcome you to eat are lovely and deserve a pay rise. They were some of the nicest people and were stunning with my little boy and went the extra mile to socialise with him and be kind. - Drinks are very good, I think some of the premium brands on all inclusive were great (Jim beam, Malibu), soft drinks, coffees and the Amstel on draught was very good. The wine was hit and miss, I love a good wine. Some cocktails were excellent and some were poor as said by previous reviewers (Pre made? Come on). Now to the issues: ( maids and dining experience read below) - The air con in this hotel is dreadful, in the room we couldn’t get it below 27 degrees, checked multiple times on the baby thermometer. We visited during intense humidity and heat mid July and I was lathered even in the room. The air con in the dining area is non existent, it was not a nice experience and I was wet through, soaked through tops ect and I’m not a sweaty person. You could see people were just uncomfortable and not having a nice time, wolfing food down to get out into the next non air conditioned room.in the dining area it must have been 30+ degrees minimum even in a good day. - All inclusive? Charging 2 euro per change for a beach towel is not all inclusive and a rip off (I’m not being tight, I don’t care to be honest it’s just not inclusive end of). I also think the all inclusive plus element is a rip off. I didn’t use the plus as there’s no added benefit other than a decked area for sunbeds that get sun for about 3 hours per day with 10 sun beds, all crammed and access to a private area for sun loungers on the beach. Sorry, all inclusive should just be access to this as a whole instead of ripping people off for what is quite an added fee to go all inc plus. You might get the odd extra cocktail which aren’t fan favourites and access to jack Daniels and amaretto….. I spoke to a few people staying at the hotel who wished they hadn’t paid the extra money. - The lifts in this hotel are a joke, coming with a pram or if you travel with someone disabled then you will struggle. - Reception staff - They are the face of the hotel, the first person you meet and any contact I had with a member was pretty miserable. Seriously, sell it and look like you actually care. I asked for a bed sheet change and a safe reset as I may have pressed the wrong number (I’m one of those) and the huff and eye rolls I got really annoyed me. - Maids - I am sorry to say this but they are substandard. They all need a good telling because I’ve read numerous reviews stating this and it isn’t improving. They’re inadequate. Forgetting to change towels, not mopping floors, not wiping down the toilet or around the sink area (These are basics in my book). They won’t move a single thing in the room to get a cloth round, rubbish. I requested a bed change due to my one year old having a tiny accident and they remade the bed but the opposite way round so you couldn’t see the accident. Again, the same with some split medicine which was as clear as day, they made the bed trying to hide it. I also had red rings of mould (You know what I mean) left on surfaces around the sink where they had not moved things to have a wipe around. The cleaning of the rooms is inadequate and not good enough in Spain, in a 4* hotel part of the Barcelo chain. I’ve had better in more economically challenged countries where it can be more basic. - Dining - I’ve mentioned the air con, the food is bang average. It is limited, Not great for children and the same every night. Absolutley no imagination for a switch up. Yes, the ques are horrific for food, it’s genuinely like a cattle shed and not the best experience at all. It doesn’t help it’s bordering 30+ degrees in there with everyone sweating buckets. - Poolside entertainment - Floor 4 has a family pool. As I said it’s abit naff and you can make of it what you want. You do have no choice over watching this so beware. The microphone and music volume are excruciating and I don’t see the need to have a blasting speaker next to a toddler pooI. Also I think the sangria making show was the worst thing I have ever witnessed, garbage and I think for a family friendly pool with young children it definitely wasn’t PG. Some of the music played around this pool is definitely not suitable, with lots of swearing and lyrics about things children do not need to hear. I don’t think young children need to see someone dry jumping/tweeking and lap dancing at the side of a pool with no clothes on being goaded into dancing more ‘sexy’. The pool party was actually lovely besides the little to no clothing worn by the animation team (When I say little, maybe past the point of bare minimum). I just think a decision needs to be made on whether what is being done is appropriate for certain age groups. If I was in an adult only or a hotel on spring break then that would definitely be the vibe. All in all, we had a good stay. I would give 3.5 stars if I could. I got some down time, spent time with loved ones and ate well and drank exceptionally well. The area is incredible and the access to the beach is superb. I think this is half the issue, the price point is premium and clearly the hotel think that the location/view alone is enough to be let off for their downfalls elsewhere. The prices for 2027 are significantly higher than what we paid, for what it costs I’ll take my well earned money elsewhere.

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“Average Hotel With improvements needed”

So ee paid for a Deluxe Sea View room. I wish I would've listed to fellow reviews on here. Absolutely NOT worth it. Room is not deluxe. Save your money (more on this) Anyway we check in on the first day. Aircon is shambolic. We were top floor and it was a very hot day. We went down to reception at… lisää

So ee paid for a Deluxe Sea View room. I wish I would've listed to fellow reviews on here. Absolutely NOT worth it. Room is not deluxe. Save your money (more on this) Anyway we check in on the first day. Aircon is shambolic. We were top floor and it was a very hot day. We went down to reception at 3am asking for new room. He couldn't do anything as hes not a manager. Went back in the morning and we got 'downgraded' to a standard sea view room but they threw in all inclusive as a sweetener. The sea view room was better than the deluxe sea view room (Id recommend this option, just dont pay for deluxe). Air con in this room was adequate Ill say nothing more on it. As other reviews have said, I think the hotels system needs renewing. Room had signs of ageing, bit of mold here or there and a bit rusty around certain areas. Pool - were not pool people however I woke up at 7am one day and the beds around the pool were already very busy so be prepared to get up early. Beach - we went to the beach everyday €17 for 2 beds and a umbrella. Great beach and a very short walk (sub 1 minute if you get a bed on the right hand side) to the bar. I went down at 8am and loads of beds left. You can probably get there at 10am and get an okay bed. P.s if you are going to do multiple days you can reserve the beds maybe you get a discount? Ask, i only found out on last day Bar - draught beer is Amstel. Its alright doesn't taste like Amstel here I think its probably watered down but its alright. You can get amstel in a bottle included in AI if your that bothered. The other bottles are AI+ which i didnt have. Cocktails - let down for me. For the price youre paying for the hotel it should be fresh. The strawberry daqirui was in a jug it was just flavoured juice. They should be freshly made. Final bar review - if youre just drinking beers/wine you'll be fine, cocktails and you'll probably be disappointed. AI food bar level 4. So the daytime all inclusive food is in a small room to the left of the level 4 bar. Its the bare minimum and to be honest a slight disappointment. Little mini burgers very bland, little hotdogs. Fries. Kids will enjoy it no doubt, but again for the price you pay its just the bare minimum. To be fair the restauraunt which opens for lunch is good. We ate here a few days and it good. Id swerve the low quality food bar and go to the restaurant. Staff - the ones we dealt with were very nice. Manager no messing when we complained about the room got us sorted quickly and threw in the AI for free. All in all would I return? No. This hotels problems come from how they market and price themselves. They promote themselves as premium, when id say theyre basic at premium prices. If you can get it at a good price in out of season (so its not too hot for the aircon) you'll probably have a good stay. For me there are just too many improvements needed. Also the lifts are a weird design. They all run on their own system, so this means everyone calls all three lifts which means youre constantly stopping at each floor with nobody getting in.

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“Beautiful location, average hotel”

We have just finished our holiday here and I want to give a really honest review. - The location Honestly beautiful. The beach, the views it's incredible. Straight out onto a road where there are lots of shops and bars. - Air conditioning This was honestly rubbish. It was so hot whilst we were … lisää

We have just finished our holiday here and I want to give a really honest review. - The location Honestly beautiful. The beach, the views it's incredible. Straight out onto a road where there are lots of shops and bars. - Air conditioning This was honestly rubbish. It was so hot whilst we were there, and we couldn't catch a break. We had a room thermometer for our baby, and we couldn't get our room below 27'C. This was the same throughout the hotel. The buffet restaurant was so hot, one evening my husband had to go change after eating as his t-shirt was wet from sweat. The only good air-conditioned space was the bar where the evening entertainment is. - The pools There's two pools. The one on the ground floor - this is a small pool but that's okay as it's right next to the beach! Just a few steps down to the beach and the sea which is stunning. You have to pay for sunbeds on the beach unless you are all inclusive plus, but we just used the pool sunbeds and wondered down. The other pool is on floor 4 - this is the lively pool. Lots of entertainment which is good at times, such as the fitness and the pool party. Some bits are loud and unnecessary - I do think the speakers were a little too loud at times and when they did performances with the microphone it was uncomfortably loud and we were at the very back of the pool area! There is a little toddler pool there which my little one loved. I honestly hated the sangria performance, it was all using the microphone and so so loud, you had no option to but to watch and listen to it. My baby was snoring before it started, as soon as they started with the microphone he was wide awake. As that is the pool area for babies and toddlers with the toddler section, I wish they were a little more mindful of the volume as there's clearly little ones there. And they always put the speakers right next to the toddler pool which was stupidly loud to be next to. When they started the pool party, we enjoyed it but we had to move into the main pool with my baby as it was hurting my ears in the toddler pool so I can't imagine how it was on his little ears. - The rooms This is where I get more negative. We had a family room which apparently slept 4. It was room 290. You entered to a very long corridor which had the wardrobes (limited space) and the sink with separate doors to the toilet and shower. Then, it went into the main bed space. We had a spacious double bed and then there were two chairs in the room which were pull out. If they were pulled out into beds, we simply wouldn't be able to get around our room. We had a cot set up for our baby and the cot took up most of the floor space - I genuinely don't know where the pull out beds were meant to pull out! - Room cleanliness This was poor. One our second day, our baby got pee on our bed. We told reception and asked for clean bedding. This was apparently changed for us whilst we were at the pool. The bed had been made which made us think it was, but we noticed the pee still on the bedding - it had just been switched around. And there was pee still on the bottom sheet when I went to get in bed. The shower was never really cleaned as there was always sand at the bottom... We didn't even go to the beach for days and there was still sand despite that I kept washing it out! The sink was on a floating cabinet which my toddler kept going under. When he did, he'd come out covered in water and rust from the pipes under there. I kept stopping him but he's like lightening. The staff cleaning staff were lovely, but they didn't seem to do a very good job of cleaning other than what was obvious such as towels and rubbish. - The lifts We were on floor 2, which luckily is where the buffet is. Pools were floor 0 and 4 and reception was floor 3. As we had a pram, I was having to get the lift every time. There's 3 lifts, each very small. My longest wait was 10 minutes for a lift. I sometimes had to battle for them as people would try and push in front of me to get in them when I was there with the pram. People were pushing the buttons for all 3 lifts as theY functioned separately - this means the lifts were going to empty floors and taking forever. Honestly, it became a bug bear of mine pretty quickly as I didn't really have an option to climb the stairs on my own with a baby, the pram and everything we had with us. - Food We only ate at the buffet restaurant which was very average. I am not a picky eater, but I struggled with the food. There was never a theme with the hot food, I could never make up a nice meal. I found a lot of the food average in taste and cooking as well. Paella but the rice wasn't cooked properly (hard) a couple of times, the fish was always tasty but full of bones, the meat skewers were sometimes undercooked. And picky eaters were limited to pasta, chips and sometimes pizza. There were never burgers, chicken nuggets, hot dogs etc - if you wanted this you had to eat at the pool which I found odd because surely kids and picky eaters want this stuff whilst other members of their party have a nice meal? We found it extremely repetitive and average so we kept eating out for tea. - Drinks Lovely drinks, all cocktails were fresh but made in batches. So, for example, they'd have a fresh batch of sex on the beach in a jug and just pour it into a glass for you. The best drinks were at the evening bar where the entertainment was. There are frozen drinks at the pool bar on floor 4, but I found these were more ice than flavour. - Staff Absolutely lovely. Can't fault them, the buffet staff were the sweetest and most helpful, especially with our little one. He made friends with some of the staff in there! -- Overall, we had a lovely holiday but for the cost it could have been better. The location is absolutely stunning, I honestly couldn't believe it when I stepped onto the balcony to see the sea so close. But the hotel doesn't meet the standards of what I think it should for the cost. Again, this isn't a fault on the staff as they were amazing. I just think the hotel could be better for what you pay

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