Hotel Villa Cortes

Three of us (partner, myself and son) stayed in Room 128. I paid extra for room looking onto the garden which I did get, but the view was obstructed by huge palm trees, this and other things meant that this hotel was not really value for money. For a 5 star hotel, little things that would have made a difference to the stay, just wasn't there. I note that the public areas of the hotel were well kept, however the room could have been better. However, I have to say that the reception staff were nice and helpful. The chamber maids appeared to be cheerful and always acknowledged you. The good things: 1. Thick comfy mattresses which would not have been cheap. 2. Big rooms - good size. 3. Good breakfasts, especially loved the Churros. 4. Large bathroom situated well away from the room, so no stinky smell back into the room. Although bathrooms were large, there was hardly any space allotted for putting your toiletries on. 5. A wonderful pool/garden area with a lot of sofas and lounging space. 6. The hubby liked the hotel's outdoor (near beach) bar called Chiringuito Bar which has Happy Hour from 5 - 6:30pm nightly and you can charge the drinks to your room. The bad things: 1. I didn't bring my hairdryer (I have a BaBylis 3Q and although I wouldn't expect the hotel to provide one, I thought a 5* hotel would have a relatively decent hairdryer.) Not so. The hairdryer belonged to another era and the air that came out was so little that it was pointless to use. 2. Almost next to nothing Air Conditioning! We asked about this and Reception sent up their maintenance man and the poor man took out the filter to clean, but it made no difference. I think they need to replace the air conditioning. This was another reason I couldn't use the hairdryer because it was so hot and using the hairdryer would have made it worse, particularly after a shower and you'd get covered in sweat again. 3. The fabric shower curtains were visually clean, however stunk of sweat. I had to remove the inner shower curtain and I gave it to one of the maids and told her the room number, but it never got replaced. You would think that they would change the shower curtains regularly, but no it didn't appear to be so. 4. If you turn on the water for the shower too high, the pressure pushes the shower nozzle up so that the towels hanging nicely opposite gets all wet. The shower head shouldn't be able to rotate like that. 5. I can understand why another reviewer thought the hotel was shabby. It wasn't so much shabby as that it needed to be cleaned better i.e. there was a smell to the room carpet. 6. I had used up the box of tissues earlier in our stay and the chamber maid never noticed and so never replaced it. 7. The poolside reclining chair and bed cushions/matresses were dirty and stained. Although people placed towels over the cushions, they still got dirty and I just can't stand things that cannot be cleaned! The cushions/mattresses should have been made with cleanable materials. 7. I noticed that people left their towels on the poolside sun loungers to mark them, but I noted one day that these people (5 of them) left the chairs and their towels. They left about noontime and were still away at 3pm. None of the staff noticed and if the staff are supposed to remove the towels, I certainly didn't see that being done, so lots of poolside loungers were empty but with towels proprietarily marked. This was really unfair to other hotel users who may have wanted to use the loungers. The hotel should do more to prevent people from reserving a poolside seat all day, yet are absent.

This hotel is on the beachfront, and very convenience for seaside activities, beachfront roaming, etc. The hotel has a wonderful architectural ambiance and many furnishing details are first class. The best feature is the breakfast offering, varied and plentiful, and its to-order-grill, which is by far the best I have ever experienced. The hotel is suffering just now from the Thomas Cook crash, with understaffing at the front desk and the pool bar... but hotel cleanliness is first rate, so cleaning staffing seems to be prioritised. We have a junior suit that is just fine, but the bathroom is under par. The toilet overflushes, dribling water to the floor at every flush. The shower and tub water supplies are uneven, causing suddenly scalding temperaturer that ruin the showering experience. Most of the hotel’s dining and bar facilities are closed (and we are here in October, the start of the high season. We guess it is a Thomas Cook effect.