Grand-Marine Hotel & Spa

We stayed here for 8 days in August as a couple on a B&B basis. Overall we had a really enjoyable stay. Breakfast: on the whole a really good range. Good “European” breakfast (cheese, meat & salad), plus what is clearly leftovers from dinner. The buffet is currently served by staff which means that there can be a bit of a wait for food or drinks, plus quite a bit of wastage as you don’t control the portion sizes. Pool: staff by the pool are excellent, lifeguards & pool bar staff included. They couldn’t be more helpful or friendly. Housekeeping: the hotel is extremely clean. The housekeeping staff are friendly. We had an issue with glasses not being changed but by day 4 the problem seemed to be resolved. Internet: utterly terrible if you’re anywhere other than the pool. Most of the time the internet was only 1 bar on the wifi or didn’t even present. When it did the cover wasn’t good enough to actually do anything. We relied on our mobile hotspot for any browsing we needed to do. Staff: very friendly. Beach: it’s not really a beach. And it’s not exclusive. But the bar & restaurant are good. It seems to be hit & miss whether or not they accept card payment or cash only. COVID measures: staff are wearing masks however only goes as far are their top lip! General comments: English is quite limited. Which we expected but the staff try their best, as did we. One point that we found was that the TV in the room only shows 1 English channel (BBC World News) which we anticipated & took an Apple TV however the internet so poor it was essentially unusable. Additionally, there’s no basic tea or coffee making facilities in the room.

CONS: 1. The hotel tried to charge me not with the *********** price but with the price shown on their website. I have written a complaint to *********** but nobody has bothered to reply yet. When the hotel realised they would need to charge me with the price shown on ***********, they asked me to pay some extras, like food and bed for the kid despite our reservation clearly included two adults and one child. After a back and forth of emails and calls before the day of arrival, they confirmed the price was the one shown on ***********. However, after a couple of hours after checking in, they asked me to pay additional money for the kid's food. After an unpleasant quarrel, they backtracked but still insisted they were doing us a favour by not charging us with their price but with the one shown on ***********. After a couple of days of checking in, the price of our reservation was lowered but we were not returned the difference. I complained with *********** but not reply yet. 2. The hotel tries to save money on anything and everything. Food is generally tasty, but despite being offered as a buffet, food can't be touched because of Covid rules. It's not clear why there is such a rule. It's not a government rule and also people are all squeezed close to the buffet. My impression was that by being forced to ask waiters, guests eat less food. 3. There is a shuttle to the beach but the timetable is very limited, once an hour to the beach and once an hour from the beach. The trip takes five minutes. It's not understandable why trips can't be more frequent taking into account the driver sits there waiting and doing nothing for thirty minutes. 4. The Internet is very poor and works with sorts of vouchers. Again, I think the hotel doesn't want to invest more money on the Internet service. 5. The staff aren't very friendly with a few exceptions. 6. Two adults and one kid, full board, it's about 270 euros a day. It's much more expensive than 5 star (all inclusive) hotels in beautiful places like Antalya for instance. 7. The hotel asks extra charge for checking in earlier even if the room is ready. It's a bit absurd. The charge is half of the daily rate. Who would pay such money for checking in a couple of hours earlier? 8. Some medical procedures are included in the rate but it's difficult to book some of them because there are no available slots. 9. The beach isn't really great and the hotel is located far away from th city centre. PROS: 1. There is a lot of security personnel and the beach can be accessed only with a pass. 2. Food is tasty and there is a good variety of food. 3. The hotel is clean and the room are tidied up properly every day. 4. Kids can be left in the kids' room with a nanny. 5. There are nice swimming pools in the hotel. 6. The hotel is ideal for families.