Zornitza Sands Spa Hotel

We stayed for a week as a family of two adults and three children. Positives The highlight was the beautiful, uninterrupted sea view from our suite. All the staff were extremely kind, humble and efficient. We genuinely could not fault any of the people working at the hotel; everyone was friendly and welcoming towards guests. The food was reasonable for a four-star all-inclusive hotel, with plenty of meat and fish, fresh salads, fruit, soups and pastries. The bar drinks were average at best, but broadly in line with what we would expect from a four-star all-inclusive. Shortfalls Unfortunately, the gym was not working for the entire duration of our stay, despite being listed as one of the facilities when we made our reservation. The manager apologised and very kindly offered to drive us to a local gym outside the hotel. However, we were not comfortable leaving our children in an unfamiliar environment, nor did we want the hassle of arranging drop-off and pick-up times and having to work around a fixed schedule during our holiday. We raised the issue with Booking.com and requested a 10% refund as compensation. They asked us to provide screenshots showing that the gym had been advertised as a facility at the time of booking. Unfortunately, we did not have these. Realistically, who routinely takes screenshots of the entire list of hotel facilities when making a reservation? The matter was therefore abandoned by Booking.com. This left us feeling that our complaint was not believed, even though the hotel manager never disputed that the gym had previously been advertised. There is, in fact, a gym on site; it is simply currently unusable and has now been removed from the list of available facilities. Another facility advertised when we booked was a second à la carte restaurant. On arrival, we discovered that there was only one restaurant serving the all-inclusive buffet. The second restaurant had apparently been closed for some time. One of our children also unfortunately injured her head while jumping into the pool. A member of staff promptly arranged transportation to a local hospital, which was very helpful. This was an unfortunate accident, and we want to emphasise that the staff were extremely kind, empathetic and efficient in dealing with the situation. The wider area was another disappointment. It had been severely affected by flooding the previous year and, at the time of our visit, the local infrastructure had still not recovered. Almost all of the nearby hotels and shops were closed, and a considerable amount of debris from destroyed buildings and trees had not yet been cleared. Although this was completely outside the hotel's control, it was a real shock to discover the situation only after arriving. Even our taxi driver asked us whether we were sure our hotel was operating, as so many local businesses were closed. In places, the area looked as though it had been hit by a tsunami. Overall Despite these issues, we made the most of our holiday and created some precious family memories that we will cherish in the future. The staff deserve particular praise for their kindness and professionalism, especially when our child was injured. However, taking everything into consideration, we do not see ourselves returning to this area in the future.

Hotel cleanliness and services super thank you very much for your holiday

Lovely hotel in a spectacular location. We were looked after very well by the reception staff and housekeeping, couldn’t have asked for more. The room was spacious and comfortable. No kettle in the room but they had hot and cold water dispensers on each floor fed from large bottled water containers. The food was plentiful, cold stuff on ice, plenty of choice, only letdown was the temperature of the hot food, really needed to be hotter. We went at the end of season so most of the shops etc in the area were shut, there is a supermarket behind the hotel which was useful and a bus or water taxi to go to Nessebar, well worth a visit or two. No problems with stomach upsets, they supply hand sanitizer in the room too. The jeep safari was an awesome trip out, great fun and you learn so much about the area