Anantara Vilamoura Algarve Resort

Unfortunate this hotel is not the Anantara brand you find in Asia, this is a former Tivoli hotel under a different name. I am not a fan of Tivoli hotels and never stay with them again because of very bad experiences in the past and had the feeling I stayed at a Tivoli resort instead of Anantara. We wanted to experience the Thai hospitality in Europe and were curious to go to Anantara Vilamoura. Check in was extremely bad. Everything that could go wrong went wrong. - Nobody greeted us at the door - Had to take own luggage out of car - No proper training for reception for new system. The lady had to ask every step. Provide trainings before you implement it and do not bother paying customers. - Not greeted as Black members of GHA (no local amenity upon check-in nor check-out) - We arrived at 2.30 PM. Based on our Black membership of GHA we can check in at 9AM (upon availability). At 2.30 PM our room was not ready. I checked the website the night before and the day of arrival and saw that same type of rooms and next category were available the night before and the night we checked in, so do not understand that no room was available. Nobody could explain this although I asked several times. - Some basic information disappeared. Had to mention my date of birth (during check in it was my birthday). Lady did not mention anything. - At 3.05PM still no room available although normal check in time already passed - We would get a call when the room was ready, but we did not get a call, so went back to the reception at 3.30PM. - We got an upgrade to a beautiful golf course room according to the receptionist. One of the best views. She loved this room as it was very special. It was not! - We went to the room and noticed we did not get an upgrade to the golf course view (booked pool view), but a downgrade to the garden view. - Went to the reception and informed that we want the booked category or a real upgrade. As Black member you are entitled to get a double upgrade upon availability. Here they only give one upgrade! - The supervisor had to look in the system, she did not show up. We could get a pool view room (the one we booked). - The room was not ready, receptionist said at 3.45PM that the room was cleaned at that moment and that we had to wait a little while - At 5PM contacted reception again as we did not get any information. Asked how long it takes to clean a room (over 1 hour) and the receptionist said that this depends on the room?????? Come on you do not give your cleaning ladies more then one hour to clean a room of 40M2. - We were informed we had to wait 10-15 min max. After 30 minutes we were escorted to a new room with golf course view. - At 5.30 PM we finally had our room. Unbelievable Sent Customer Care of Anantara an email and asked to forward my complaint to the management of Minor hotels as we stayed in a lot of Anantara hotels and never experienced this. Management of Minor never replied, management of Anantara replied after 3 days. The manager was not at the hotel and will follow up (on what???.)? The hotel brought a bottle of Champagne the day after. We appreciated this. The breakfast buffet is standard, staff does not pay enough attention. One day we just arrived, our coffee was brought to the table, we went to the buffet and when we returned the table was cleaned for the next guests. The pool boys hardly speak English. When you order food you have to point at the menu card what you want (even a burger). We ordered a glass of Chardonnay and got the question red or white. Come on, this is basic knowledge for a 5 star hotel. The bar is ok but the chairs are in the entrance hall. It is not cosy. The second night the bartenders had problems with the computer so we had to sign a different bill. It was slightly cheaper than what we ordered and the bartender explained they have issues with the new system and said that a lower bill was given to us because of the problem to print our bill. The next day we were blamed that we walked away without signing the bill. We explained that we signed a different one and we had to tell which of the bartenders gave us the bill. Afterwards the bartender who blamed us came to us and said everything is solved and it was an internal issue they had. Also mentioned in other reviews. Turndown service is not constant. We left the room at 7.30PM, no note that someone already wanted to check the room. When we arrived back in the room at 11.15PM no turndown service was done. After the first night I noticed some blood of a mosquito on the bed linen. I placed the card to change the sheets, this was not done. The bed linen was not changed for the entire 4 days. They just turned the linen, so the second day the mosquito blood was on my leg, the third day it was on top of the linen and the fourth day on my leg again. Why do you have notes to place on the bed to change the bed linen if you do not do this? Housekeeping also left the cleaning materials in the room. The hotel has the possibility to be a hip / trendy hotel, but it needs to be upgraded to be a real Anantara hotel. The music boxes at the pool are poor, it becomes out dated. They need to change the bar area and they need to make more cosy seating areas for drinks. Check-out took over 20 min. I received an invoice and did not understand everything. The receptionist also did not understand it and asked a colleague. They blamed the system for not providing the correct information. As receptionist you cannot blame a system, you need to know how the system works. On the invoice a wrong name and address was mentions with my GHA number. This has an impact on privacy. I now know another person with the same name going to the same hotels (and the address). Asked to change the invoice. They could right away but would immediately send it to me after we left, after 4 hours still nothing in my inbox?????? We missed the Thai hospitality of Anantara. We do not like Tivoli and this is just a Tivoli hotel with a different name. We hoped we would find a new favourite destination for long weekends, but we will not return to this hotel. This year no more Anantara anywhere in the world for me. Although things can go wrong when it is solved it???s ok, but here too much went wrong. We did not enjoy our stay. For the price you pay you expect more. As the manager of the hotel replies to a lot of reviews with ???life is a journey???. Life is indeed a journey. If you want to have a great journey and want to the service you paid for do not stay here until it is a real Anantara hotel. We have not the intention to return. Disappointed in the Anantara brand (and

Just returned having spent over a week at the hotel and for the first time. Generally agree with other previous comments : Pro???s Room cleanliness and turn down Lovely location Friendly staff Good breakfast/service Shuttle Lobby bar/service Con???s Hap hazard on towels/sun bed attention at the adult pool; not 5star Evening buffet mediocre and repetitive...not 5 star in any way Lastly new computer system installed in the hotel system Took 25 minutes to check out with 4 staff tucked up trying to work it out....staff doing their best but no one really had a clue...and an irritation for us when you have a plane to catch...simply poor... not a memorable send off in what was otherwise an overall good stay

We???ve travelled as a couple and a family to the Anantara numerous times and also under the previous Tivoli brand. All other times have been fantastic but this visit was shocking. I???m not sure if it???s new management but the feel of the place has changed. This is now a business focused hotel with numerous conferences taking place across a half term break. Our booking was for one week and a room with an extra bed for our three year old. Upon check in all three passports were handed over and told yes it was for three people. Upon arriving at the room our daughter was so excited to see where she was sleeping but no extra bed had been placed. To get this rectified it took numerous phone calls and over two hours to fix. In addition only towels, glasses and amenities for two people. This was rectified but each day a different amount of towels would be left. Further to this Patricia at the reception desk is the most unhelpful person you???ll ever meet. She doesn???t under stand customer service and will look down at your like you are a child at a school. We had family staying at the Tivoli in the Marina, they had no issues and it seems this is the place to stay in future. I would add that the staff in both the Victoria Restaurant and EMO were as friendly as ever and made our daughter feel special everyday. Also the coffee at breakfast is the best ever.