Hesperia Playa Dorada

Absolutely amazing holiday, the hotel was 5 star ⭐️ location was perfect right beside the marina. So close to the beach 🏖️. Just perfect. The atmosphere in the hotel was lovely, very relaxed and all staff were so helpful, nothing was a problem. The rooms were perfect, really clean, everything you need inc our mini bar. Clean towels and rooms were checked everyday. We got an amazing deal on the hotel as we booked last minute, we had club access and we got to use the spa 🤍 it was amazing. Excellent value for us. Loved it and would recommend to anyone.

We really enjoyed staying at this hotel for a second time. It’s a great hotel with great staff and facilities. Not much to complain at really. It really is a great hotel. I do feel compelled to write a review based upon our experience at the end of the holiday which has changed our opinion on staying again here. Staff really go out of their way to make you feel very special from the minute you arrive. Last year the hotel was owned by another company and it seemed to be a little more tentative to your needs. The pre booked Balinese beds were a lot cheaper in price last year. These were amazing though and highly recommended despite the uplift in price. Last year, we were also able to keep one of our rooms for a very late check out at no extra cost to us despite the hotel being at nearly full capacity. There were half the number of guests this year judging by the amount of people so I am sure keeping the room was possible but I feel the new company policy is to now charge. We politely asked to keep our room for a late checkout again as per last year but we were informed that this is now €20 per extra hour beyond 12 noon. Slightly shocking.! We were offered a courtesy room to shower. We had a slot of 30 mins which felt incredibly rushed. The room is an old room which has no air conditioning at all and a shower that is incredibly poor. The shower room also had an incredibly bad odour from the drains to which my children could not stand in there very long. While I feel we had an another amazing family holiday at this hotel, you do get a sense that once you are ready to leave the staff simply do not care at all. Hard going from a great experience all week to feeling this way in the last few hours of your stay. We decided that due to the last few hours feeling like this we would not return which I think is a huge shame. I truly believe that an experience should be the same from door to door but sadly not. For the sake of a few hours feeling like this hotel we will not return and try the Barcelò just down the road which we have been recommended a few times and I understand the experience is door to door excellence.

Lovely hotel but missing a few things to be 5star. Hotel really is beautiful and clean, all staff in reception and inside bars are truly lovely. Room cleaned daily to great standard. Check in is a little slow but they do give you a lot of information and also a glass of cava which helps! 2 pool areas to choose from unless your preferred club then you have 4 pool areas if you are without kids or 3 if you are with kids. Preferred club also gets to access to snack lounge. Which honestly I find bizarre that there is no snack option if you are not preferred club. Every meal is a formal sit down meal which for me isn’t necessary and with kids a little frustrating. Never had any issue with sunbeds still many around last 9am which is so great to see Food in the main buffet restaurant a really good quality and good experience, not like the normal canteen feel of an all inclusive. There are 4 main points that let this hotel down l. The à la carte restaurants are where this hotel is not a 5star. The service is incredibly rushed and stressful, you are ushered in and the dining experience is over within 20 minutes. Waitresses running around and menu choices very small. They offer no children’s menus. The waiting staff do not listen to you as they are rushing around like headless chickens, therefore bring the wrong meals, you ask for condiments and have to ask another 3 times and then just find some yourselves. Portion sizes inconsistent with our son getting an adult portion and the adults having a portion half the size. The whole experience really is thoughtless. Activites around the hotel are very minimal. If there is something happening you just stumble across it. We were lucky to arrive at the kids pool to. An inflatable afternoon which our son loved but without accidentally stumbling over it it was not communicated anywhere in the hotel nor the app. Magic shows for kids not communicated anywhere, no music around the pools so atmosphere can be a bit dead. The outside bar staff and lifeguards, you can see most of the staff in these positions do not enjoy dealing with guests. The bar staff spend most their time on the mobile phones with headphones on talking, if you do ask for a drink they rarely make eye contact or even smile at you, they fail to acknowledge you unless you speak to them first. The lifeguards are awful. Getting towels everyday turns into an argument of some sort, not given enough towels, too many towels, the wrong colour towels, some check you off a sheet, some just ignore you, some have an afternoon siesta around the pool. More importantly they spend most the time shouting and screaming at kids in Spanish. I certainly believe if we are in Spain this should be communicated in Spanish, however with kids there needs to be another way to communicate Of course if kids aren’t behaving they are to keep them safe and sometimes this is needed. However in most occasions it could have been dealt with a lot differently. Final point is there are no bracelets so you MUST carry your room key with you EVERYWHERE which as a female in a swimming costume is hard with no pockets and frustrating that you must continue to go and find your key before you can get a drink or get in anywhere. I raised these issues with the hotel directly and they were really good at hearing me and also offered us a free meal in the à la carte restaurant which we didn’t need as we were all inclusive. Then offered us preferred club for the day which we didn’t need as we were already a part of this. We weren’t there long enough to see if the feedback was taken on board however I do believe they valued the feedback. If you are looking to book this hotel then I would suggest looking at the hotel next door the Barcelo as this is far superior. If you have already booked this hotel, the points above will not stop you from enjoying your holiday and I wouldnt worry, it is still a lovely place to holiday. Location is just perfect