We have just returned home after a 14 day stay at the Melia Peninsula Varadero and have been trying to find a word to describe the hotel. That word is broken. We say that because everything at this hotel is just broken and in need of replacement. And not just the physical hotel, but every aspect. Please read on for an honest detailed review of our stay.
ROOMS
- First room 2565 was in poor condition
- Hair dryer caught on fire, shower leaked, safe didn't work, sliding door wouldn't lock, AC didn't work properly, stained sheets
- Tried to get the items fixed, but they couldn’t fix them so we were going to change rooms
- Saw 4 different rooms and none of them had locking sliding doors and our concerns were dismissed
- Called Air Transat at this point because the hotels process just wasn’t working
- Result – go check out a room with the customer service manager Javier that he guarantees is in working order OR be moved to another hotel
- Went to room 2513
- Safe didn’t work and sliding door didn’t lock
- Javier first tried to tell us that it did work however it didn’t lock
- Javier then told us that they only have locks on ground floors rooms as there is no crime in Cuba
- I know crime is LOW in Cuba, but it’s not the locals I am worried about, it’s the other guests!
- I don’t want to leave everything in my room with open doors, no matter how low the crime rate is
- NOTE: we met some other Canadians there who told us that they met someone who’s room was broken into and all of their electronics were stolen – police were called, and room was finger printed – so there is crime even in Cuba!
- The “mechanic” brought a lock that they would install on the sliding door for us
- We agreed to stay in room 2513 and see how things go
- COCKROACHES, COCKROACHES AND MORE COCKROACHES!!!
- The cockroaches began the second week and would be in the bathroom in the middle of the night crawling around the floor and the shower
- Went to the front desk twice and our Air Transat rep once to get the room sprayed, but it never happened
- Spoke with other guests in Block 25 – they had cockroaches as well
- Our maid assigned to our block was fast and efficient and very kind
- Did a great job everyday!
FOOD/DRINKS:
- Food was decent throughout the resort
- NO AIR CONDITIONING OR FANS in the main buffet and incredibly hot
- Lunch buffet near the beach was quieter and not as busy
- Grill station at main buffet – be cautious of the chicken as it is not always cooked thoroughly
- Inconsistencies in items being served, i.e. butter for toast only on some days, only some tables have salt, etc.
- No drink menu at the bar until the second week of our trip
- All drinks served in the same style of glass
- No slushy machines so if you like those types of drinks, you won’t get them here
- They don’t always have the same juice so you can’t always get the same drink
HOTEL/GROUNDS:
- Grounds are beautiful
- Groundskeepers do an amazing job of making the hotel grounds beautiful and lush
- All furniture throughout the resort is mismatched, chipped and broken and nowhere comfortable to hang out
- Chairs have pieces of metal that stick out of them and dig into you
- Lots of couches and chairs in lobby, however NO AC OR FANS in the lobby either so it’s too hot in the lobby to sit and relax as there is no air movement
- Pool of water outside lobby and main buffet is dried up on one side and other side is full of green slimy water that attracts mosquitos and stunk on some days
BEACH/POOL:
- Beach is beautiful with lots of chairs and palapas to choose from
- Sand is full of broken seashells so a bit rough to walk on, but I find this consistent in Varadero
- Vendors on the beach trying to sell you cigars, merchandise, hair braiding and sometimes drugs
- Pool always had plenty of chairs to choose from, some in the sun and some shady but most chairs are broken
- Pool swim up bar had great service
- Pool became very dirty our last few days there and was full of floating white stuff that almost looked like dead skin
- Puddles of sand throughout the pool and it appeared that maybe the filters were broken and not working
- Chunks of chlorine in the bottom of the pool
- Wooden bridge over the pool was broken, roped off and had some old rusty nails sticking out of it. When you passed under to get to the swim up bar it kind of smelt funky
GUESTS/STAFF/SERVICE:
- We booked Elegance Club through Air Transat which included a welcome gift, robes, slippers etc. We got none of this and when we finally got robes, they were damp and so stained that we would not wear them
- We never got our welcome gift until our last day
- Overall most of the other guests at this hotel were rude and ignorant (understandably not the hotels fault – just added to our bad experience)
- Guests would eat food right from the trays in the buffet without waiting until they got back to their table
- We witnessed one girl, about 10-12 years old, actually eating ice cream from the container. She would dip her spoon in, eat it and dip it right back in
- People would blatantly cut in line at the front desk, the buffet and the bars with no regard for other people already waiting
- We witnessed one woman sit in a pool chair, pick her ears and wipe it on her leg and then pick scabs on her leg, get into the pool and “wash” off her legs (this grossed us out and we refused to go back into the pool again until it was cleaned and chlorinated and this guest had left)
- We witnessed people using the pool shower as an actual shower and shampooing and conditioning themselves
- People would eat and leave plates and food all over the chairs and pool area
- I was approached by 2 local women on the beach while I was standing in the ocean – they tried to sell me hair braiding which I politely declined. Then they asked me if I could get them food from the buffet because they were hungry. I politely declined and told them that they don’t let us take food out of the buffet, which was very true
- I later witnessed this same woman go to a beach chair along the back row of the beach, pull her pants down, sit and take a pee on the beach chair
- We witnessed a drug deal go down between a hotel beach security guard and a vendor
- This same hotel beach security would then fall asleep in his chair at his post
- The hotel “lifeguard” would approach us at the beach and at the pool to buy cigars from him
- The person who maintained the pool as well as other hotel staff, would sit in a chair above the swim up bar and would drink and look down at all the guests in the pool all day
- They would then sometimes get into the pool to drink and hit on the women at the swim up bar
- Service at the lobby bar was slow and you often had to go to the bar to get a drink
- Service in the buffet and food areas was excellent
- Customer Service Manager Javier was rude and inefficient
- Front desk staff were ineffective
- We requested through our Air Transat rep to have a late check out on our last day for free as a result of the issues we had on our first days at the hotel. It was agreed that we would have a late check out and the hotel wanted to give us a bottle of rum to compensate us. We were advised to go to the front desk the next morning, our last day and they would reprogram our keys for late check out and that our rum would be delivered to us
- The next day, we went to the front desk and they knew nothing about our late check out
- We had to wait for our Air Transat rep yet again to sort out the issue
LAST WORDS:
- The Melia Peninsula is just broken and in desperate need of upgrading and repairs
- So many cockroaches in the room with lack of interest in correcting the problem
- Lack of interest in correcting any issues brought to the attention of staff
- Should not even be rated a 3 star but somehow is listed as a 4.5*
