Bossa Park Hotel

We have just returned from our week’s holiday in Ibiza that we booked through Freedom Direct. The flights were fine although we had to put up with an hour and a half delay on the outgoing flight, being our first holiday abroad I thought it would be naive of us not to expect the odd hiccup. We arrive at the booked destination of Hotel Club Le Noria in Playa den Bossa roughly two hours late (The shuttle was also delayed) and handed in the necessary paperwork at reception. The clerk studied our paperwork, kept one portion and said all was in order, he then said "Sorry no rooms, please to follow my assistant", I thought I must have misheard him and so gathered up our suit cases to follow his assistant. She led us through a back alley that in turn led to a back street, I was becoming a little worried by this point, we then turned left onto a main road and was led into the foyer of a completely different hotel to the one I had booked with Freedom Direct. The assistant from the Hotel La Noria hastily swapped a few words in Spanish with the Clerk at this Hotel ( Bossa Park Hotel) and walked off without another word to us. This clerk was very helpful and spoke very good English, she could not provide me with a reason for the change of venue but said that we were to be staying at her hotel. She allowed us to stow our cases in under the stairs in reception ( in plain sight) and informed us that our room would not be ready until 2.00 pm. As this was a couple of hours away we asked if we could look around the resort and did so. We sat in the pool area and I felt very unsure about the way we were being treated and I spoke with the receptionist for some time saying that I felt it was incorrect to have booked and paid for one Hotel only to be moved to another without any real explanation. We collected our luggage and went back to the Hotel Club La Noria where I spoke at some length with the receptionist who did not seem to understand what I was asking, I asked for the Manager and was told that the “Management no available”. I asked if they could be contacted by phone and he huffed and puffed and walked off with a mobile phone. He did return and then within moments someone came out of an office directly adjacent to the reception desk asked for me by name and took me into her office. This lady explained that there were technical problems and that 11 rooms were without electricity or running water and it was currently impossible for us to stay at the Hotel Club La Noria. Although a little late, I took this to be a genuine reason and so headed back to the Bossa Park Hotel. I explained the reasons I had been given to the receptionist she herself said “it would have been nice if they had explained this to us in the first place” and saved me from traipsing back and forth between hotels. She then offered and I considered this very reasonable that we could stay in her Hotel for this evening and then be shown the rooms at Hotel Club La Noria, once the technical issues hade been resolved, the following day and if we wanted to move into those rooms then we could. So with this particular drama out of the way my wife and I went for a walk on the beach and this helped to diffuse the feeling of anxiety we had and we went back to the Bossa Park Hotel just after 2.00 pm to check into our room. The receptionist fitted both my wife and I with Yellow wrist straps in order for us to begin using the all-inclusive element of our stay. We tried out the snack bar at this time and the only thing on offer was cold "hot" dogs, one bite was enough. The room on first appearance (although nothing like photo's on the web-site) was very clean, simple and functional, the bathroom was clean and we were able to relax properly for a while, as we were still uncertain as to whether we would be staying we could not unpack properly but did change and went for our first meal in the Hotel restaurant. This was a buffet affair and the food was good and enjoyed our meal, we left feeling happy and enjoyed the early evening sat by the pool relaxing in the way we expected to on holiday. During this time we had noticed Hotel staff milling around who had not really approached us but were generally looking after toddlers, this was in itself fine, but as more and more guests arrived the staff were falling over themselves to look after these new guests who were ALL Italian. Everything was geared towards the Italian Holiday-makers; even the entertainment (all for toddlers) was broadcast very loudly across the pool area in Italian. So after a fairly eventful day we went to bed and said that we would see what tomorrow would bring. Breakfast menu, a very obvious Italian menu which we experimented with and enjoyed up to a point, we both had noticed a strange odour in the restaurant that I can only liken to damp laundry coupled with disinfectant, stronger in some areas so I wondered if it might be coming from the air conditioning unit. We then had a conversation with the receptionist again and decided rather than put up with further disruption to our stay that we would stay in the room provided and use the rest of the resort as had previously been described. We had a good look around and it was the same in every branch of the Hotel, all of the entertainment programs were in Italian and I have checked thoroughly on the original web-site listing and no mention of this establishment being more or less exclusively for Italian holiday makers is made. We decided that there wasn’t much we could do about this and tried to make the best of our stay making and finding our own entertainment. As the day wore on we spent a reasonably pleasant time by the pool, and then asked for a glass of wine and vodka & coke at the pool bar, these came in plastic coke cups and I thought this was a bit odd, I asked the management and was told that all drinks from all bars are only served in plastic coke cups to ALL-INCLUSIVE customers. Being treated this way was putting a real dampener on our ability to enjoy the Hotel and our holiday properly and seeing other guests being served appropriately with glasses for their drinks really began to annoy. Yellow wrist bands should have been enough instead of making every meal and visit to the pool area feel like some cheap picnic. So on our second night we decided to go back to our room and sit on the balcony, this looked out onto a busy main street instead of inwards towards the pool area, another clear indication of lack of consideration for the all-inclusive customer. This also faced the VERY near flight path to Ibiza Airport, so the idea of relaxing here was the only thing put to rest. After the third day of experimenting with what food was on offer my wife and I both became very ill, and had virtually nothing to eat for a whole of day. From the following day we only drank a cup of tea at breakfast and ate out at local restaurants for fear of a repeat of stomach problems. Our room was well maintained and bathroom towels were changed daily, the landing lights were broken on our stretch of hallway (rooms 219 -222) and when we returned at night it was impossible to see the keyhole. This was never fixed. The pool barman was a very nice Asian man called Lee, who tried his utmost to be helpful (Although he had to keep checking with management if he was allowed to serve us with orange juice, or tea, or pretty much whatever drink we asked for) and his grasp of Spanish was virtually nil, his grasp of English was a little better, and he had no idea about Italian so lord knows how he got by, he did give us one moment of real laughter as we asked for two Sangria’s and he said “one minute” and disappeared, he came back five minutes later with two Chicken Sandwiches. Once he realised his mistakes we all had a very good laugh and this of course became a running joke every time we visited the pool. We made the best of our time during our week and there were other aspects to resort that were good and bad (Staff more than happy to look after the Italian guests with only one member of a 10 strong entertainment team even bothering to say "Bon Journo"to us. We enjoyed the beach, old Ibiza town with it's wonderful sights and history it was just a shame we were so let down by the Hotel. And finally the transfer shuttles, although the first was delayed this was nothing in comparison to the run around we got for the return trip, I telephoned on Thursday to confirm our pick up and was told that the lists were not ready and to call back the following day, this I did and was told again although they had the morning list for Saturdays departure they could not confirm the evening schedule, they offered to fax me notification so I gave them the fax number for our original hotel as I did not want to confuse things any further. I collected the FAX which began “As you have not contacted us to confirm……….” I could not believe what I was reading so I immediately rang them and explained that I had already phoned twice in two days and that they were at fault, how else would they have known to FAX the Hotel in the first place, this they agreed and things were Ironed out. So there we sat outside the Hotel Club La Noria at 11:25 pm ready for our 11:40 pm pick up, time went by and as we waited 11:40 came and went so we moved our bags into the street and I checked with the Hotel reception if we could order a cab if the need arose, we didn’t need to worry though as in the next few minutes a massive Coach stopped 150 metres down the road and just sat at the junction as it could not turn the corner into the road our Hotel was on. Not certain if it was ours we trekked the 150 metres and sure enough the driver asked for me by name.... And so we were picked up. My real worry is that he just stood by the Coach looking down the street, and there is no way he could see us at that distance, if we had been an older couple or had sat dutifully in the Hotel reception waiting instead of dragging our luggage down a poorly lit pot-holed road we would have never have been picked up. None of this was very satisfactory as we learnt that a Taxi fare from the airport was around eight euros we could have saved the £35 we paid in advance and thank the stars I didn’t pre-book a cab on-line to the tune of £80, ten times more expensive is just greedy. We felt let down, mostly by the fact that the Hotel we booked we were unable to stay at, and for the sheer lack of information in regards to the nature of the establishment being aimed solely at the Italian Holiday maker which made for a noisy but lonely environment for anyone from any where else. These are all statements of fact along with the statement of fact that this was our first Holiday abroad in 27 years of marriage and although it could have been VERY disappointing the weather was terrific and we had a nice time despite the problems we endured. One final point, the Hotel complex backs onto a huge building site, upon which we only ever saw one person working so I expect that will be a feature for some time. Immediately opposite this is a derelict Hotel complex that once upon time mustg have been nice but is now just a collection of broken windows, smashed in doors, family's of wild cats and in general a real eyesore.