The good...
1. Airport transfer. This was organised by my partner who exchanged a few emails with Anita at the hotel about a week before our stay. €45 one way and transferred in a BMW 7 Series - no complaints at all. Gentleman waiting in arrivals hall with my partner's name on a piece of paper in the usual way. Most relaxing and quickest way to get to the hotel in our opinion. There was a noticeable crowd outside of the airport when we arrived and lots of coaches and cars etc - it was hassle free to be asked to wait in a quiet spot until our driver brought the car to where he had asked us to wait.
2. The breakfast buffet is varied and it would be hard not to find something you like. They also offer an eight item menu from which we ordered an omlette each plus a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice. These menus were not put out until about 9ish on the first morning of our stay so we went down for breakfast a little later the following day (about 9:15 am) - still no menus on the outside tables but we knew what we wanted and ordered. No problems at all. The omlette was excellent and the juice neither iced nor watered down - good tasty stuff!!
3. The massage that we had in the Spa was excellent. Well worth the money!
4. Overall a most modern and clean hotel of contempoary design with outstandingly friendly and respectful staff.
5. We ate lunch at the beach terrace and our evening meal in the main restaurant. The quality of both was good. I have reviewed our evening meal in the restaurant seperately.
6. The walk to the old city. Not that far really. However, we are in our thirties and reasonable fit. More importantly though it is a pleasant walk and not through, for example, and seedy areas. In fact, for us the hotel location is pretty much perfect.
7. The hotel beach. Clean, staffed, towells provided, beautiful setting, hotel guests only. Have I said enough?! Yes, it's great. The only thing I would say is be sure to take some flip flops/slaps as those pebbles on the beach really do massage the feet without them. Ok, so I am being polite. Without flip-flops/slaps the pebbles hurt your feet (well mine at least) after, say, four steps only!!!
8. The windows maximise the view by being floor to ceiling and wall to wall. Plus a middle window can be opened. The sea breeze and sound of the lazy waves lapping the beach... do you get the picture?!! It was so nice to hear and smell the view if that makes sense. In other words, evens those rooms without a balcony don't miss out!!
The not so good (in my opinion)...
1. In that same email to Anita about the airport transfer, my partner asked whether the hotel recommended any excursion companies. Unfortunately, Anita's responses were silent on this. It was as if this part of my partner's email did not exist. It was, well, simply put ignored! No great hardship however as we simply used Tripadvisor to determine that a short return boat ride to Cavtat from Dubrovnik would suit us and that we could do this ourselves very simply by walking down to the small port just outside the old city and buying a ticket - yes, it was that simple and what a lovely trip it was too! It was, how can I put it, well, peaceful compared to Dubrovnik (Dubrovnik can be really busy during the day). We might even return to Cavtat for a weekend chill-out in the future as we liked it so much!
2. I know it was the day before we were due to check in, but it was 7:30 am (Dubrovnik time) when my partner emailed Anita again and asked if she could organise a massage in the spa for us and an evening meal in the hotel restaurant. To this day, I have not heard from Anita and given my partner's previous exchange of email I find it hard to imagine that the email was not received, although, of course, that is always a possibility. However, to be honest, my partner expected and hoped to be surprised at check in with a polite: "we have booked you a massage at 3pm and an evening meal at 8pm - is that convenient?". No such luck however! It does surprise me that, if the email was received (it did not bounce back by the way) a business would permit staff not to take advantage of revenue generating opportunities like the one we offered Anita. As it happens we booked the massage ourselves directly with the spa staff following our arrival and there was ample free space in the hotel restaurant at 8pm, which, as mentioned above, I have reviewed seperately.
3. Still can't quite work out why the curtains in the room (516) do not cover the entire window horizontally - the result is that you must therefore decide when closing them where you would like the shaft or shafts of light to enter the room in the morning!! The turn down service always left the gap nearest the wall where the bed head was located. We moved it each night to the other side of the room. I should point out though that behind the curtains there is a net curtain which can fill the gap but does let much light through. I should also say that the windows do have a reflective film on the exterior preventing anyone on the cliffs on in a boat from seeing in!!! To me, this curtain situation seems sloppy. If the curtains didn't fit when they were first bought, well then, send them back!
4. Similarly, the duvet was a bit small! The beds (at least when we were there) were made up with a bottom sheet and a duvet. The duvet overhang was about 1 inch or 3 cm on each side of the bed. I guess you know where I am going with this?! Yes, stick a couple of persons in there and, quite frankly it's a duvet battle all night. Having said that the room was warm whilst we were there and I was happy to donate my share of the duvet to my partner!! Don't get me wrong, the size of a duvet is personal preference I guess, but just thought I would mention it!
5. I am a great believer in hotel management allowing staff to stay in the rooms from time to time in order to identify any issues. Had this happened in our room it would have quickly been noticed that a bulb had blown in the light on the TV wall and in one of the mirror wall lights in the bathroom. Plus the standard lamp in the corner of the room was not working. The bathroom lights all came on when the bathroom light switch was flicked and I therefore think that it would be very hard for a member of house cleaning to miss. Again, before the hotel comments: if I am on holiday I really do not wish to have to go to the trouble of contacting house keeping and asking for these issues to be resolved. These issues should not exist in the first place! I did however try to call housekeeping from the black phone next to the bed to ask for more coat hangers only to discover that the phone did not work. I reported this to the reception in person and whilst the coat hangers were in the room in a short space of time, the phone remained non-functioning! Oh, and the desk phone. Blimey, it is one serious piece of kit - you know, the kind that intimidates you, well me at least? Interestingly, enough, the desk phone does not have on it a button to auto dial housekeeping or a note of the number to dial like the bedside phone. In hindsight I should of memorised the housekeeping number from the bedside phone and tried to dial it using the desk phone! Not rocket science I know - my excuse is that I was in holiday mode!!
6. The bathroom sink made a great noise rather like a gurgle. You couldn't miss it! Well, your ears couldn't!! Having said that, house keeping clearly missed it!! These things happen in a hotel but do the cleaning staff not report such things when cleaning the sinks? Or, as I have mentioned above, had a member of staff spent a night in this room, this noise would have been noticed and attended to!
7. Wifi in the room is patchy. Certainly no wifi in the bathroom!
8. The bed, well, it was really soft. I won't say anything else about it though as beds are personal preference, but suffice to say that this is not a Sofitel Heavenly Bed!
9. Hotel management please clean the windows. We were one floor above rooms with large balconies from which it would have been really easy with telescopic equipment (or even a ladder!) to remove the general dirt and bird poo. The views from the rooms are a massive plus point, please allow the guests to enjoy them through clean glass and not a dirt filter!
10. There was a dead ant floating on top of the orange juice on the first morning that we went down for breakfast. I alerted a member of staff to this fact and was advised that she would sort it. These things happen and there is very little that can be done about so at least it was addressed quickly - however I returned to our table with a glass of bottled water each and I am not sure whether the ant was removed or the juice discarded and replaced. I hope the latter, but, having said that, the number one restaurant in the world - Nobu in Denmark - serves them live as part of a dish!!
11. Noise. Hmmm, you can't choose your fellow guests but I must say that noise travels in this hotel. It wasn't a major issue for us, but, how can I put it, well, we were frequently reminded that there were others in the hotel. Sound insultation could have been better when the hotel was last refurbished perhaps!! I also think that noise came through the locked doors that could be used to link rooms 516 and 517. Oh, and the air conditioning in room 516 is noisy - you certainly cannot forget that it is on! If it's a problem though, you could always open the window in room 516 at least!
In summary, I think the good points easily out weigh the not so good points.
I hope my fellow travellers out there find my review helpful and I hope the hotel management does too as really the not so good points could, in my opinion, be very easily rectified if the hotel management was inclined and willing to do so. And why wouldn't the hotel management wish to do so as they are doing so many other things right. However, it is all of the little things that can make a big difference!!