Grand Palladium White Island Resort and Spa

Arrived expecting a normal 5 star experience, well an average 4 star is what we discovered and only due to facilities. Check in was a long and arduous experience, with a change of employees twice during the process.. not professional or welcoming! The room was dirty, see photos attached! The bed was twins when requested king.. this took 2 days to rectify and 4 different people! The beds were ok.. beds are subjective- but a little hard for me. Pillows were sparse (one per person) apart from decorative ones with no cases that were in abundance. Big over bed lights.. so seems room was designed on aesthetics lots of throw pillows and big lights and weird bubble things.. rather than a hotel experience. The superior room was nothing more than a few feet bigger in size with a plastic leather look double sofa bed, when sofa bed out, no room to move or get to balcony, that was also basic looking with two beds ( for a room that slept 4) and looked over a car park. Storage in the room is limited, so the cases were out all the time and also a hindrance with the size of the room. Sheets were changed twice in 10 days, scratchy not the usual high thread count you find in 5 star. Our children (adults) had a separate room and they got to room and my son had to make his own bed as just handed sheets at the door when they requested them. As bed not made up on arrival. The a la crate restaurant is an utter joke, First you have to book, and it says 8am, we arrived at 7.35am and queued... to be offered 6.30pm or 10pm as rest already booked.. first visit we discovered that if you are a large party you get treated differently, you have to pre order by lunch.. which we understand- but then to have a separate menu? Second visit we also got a reduced menu then they Forgot a dessert, 15 minutes for a knife to eat main course so one person ate after everyone else. Service staff were surly and dismissive. We spoke to Eva the duty manager who on the outside appeared to care... well another fake promise as the third time round was even worse, no pre order received, despite my emailing it at 11am. A main course forgotten, an allergy ignored which was very clearly instructed. The maitre d just shrugged and rolled his eyes when the waiter explained to him. The buffet was very good selection and catered for most. However getting a table was difficult and quite often we cleared our own and re set The food is tepid as well, nothing was hot. We did ask Eva why and got no response. The room was recleaned however the urine on the toilet seat was still visible and still smelt pungent due to the age and heat. (Second toilet picture.. )At least the hair that was hanging over the wash basin was gone. Alas it was too difficult to wash the bath daily, with sand and dirty it???s easy to spot, so I cleaned it myself. The staff were very rude in the main.. The pool is lovely, but under a direct flight path, ( not told about) so every 5 minutes you have the roar of jet engines... no pool service was unexpected, every 5 star we stay in has this of a minimum..getting a towel was a game of ownership, you had to prove how many people in your party and who you were despite wearing an arm band.. almost like the man was washing each towel by hand, himself..ridiculous! We found beds everyday around 10am after breakfast. But not next to pool, these were gone at 8am.. Sports bar was an added bonus, food all night, good when you come in from town late and know you won???t want breakfast! No normal Bar service after 1am, however reasonably priced if you did want more than beer or wine. Entertainment was good, the live band was excellent, we did notice week two was a repeat, people must only normally stay one week. ( not surprised with the price) Gym was OK, the cardio equipment was dated and the bikes were very basic and difficult To adjust. Wasn???t very female friendly either with equipment very close to each other, so it felt as if you had no personal space. We came across 5 great team members, Daniel A on reception ( he promised to get our bed sorted and did!) David Costa and Joaquin on the reception bar and a lovely lady Esther at the pool bar. The rest were all obviously in seasonal jobs, not giving a hoot about hospitality! Will be interesting to see the response from the hotel as they completely ignored my request to see the GM, and I have emails with my issues that they didn???t try and resolve. So yes I did try and resolve on property, obviously as we booked through a package they don???t care as they will be paid whatever... They offered us entry ( no treatments) into the spa as a sorry, After the second debacle of dinner.., Another pool to try really wasn???t what we wanted.. especially with children in the party who couldn???t use the service and who would look after them whilst we went, not practical or tailored to a family. Unless we went alone.. I did decline this offer and got silence! We also gave them a third chance with dinner, more than reasonable in the circumstances. So all in all value for money...definitely not, could be an amazing experience with the right senior management and team. A bit of honesty about the flight path, and overall being less frugal on equipment, more staff hours as not enough to make it 5 star. Better cleanliness and improved training on housekeeping, more room audits and a re evaluation of the room types... as there is nothing superior about your rooms.. The area itself can only be described as a money pit.. you pay for everything, an average drink (G+T)is about 15??? club entry is around 90??? if a good DJ is on. Bottled water 10???... beach clubs are around 30??? a bed, plus drinks. The beach is long and relatively clean. The Main Street is not a place for children after dark, openly offered drugs and counterfeit goods on sale at most shops.

We had an amazing stay at the hotel! The staff were very friendly and warning across all of the hotel. My stay was made very special with help from Beatriz and the smile team. I contracted them prior to my arrival at the hotel where I explained I planned to propose to my partner during the stay. Beatriz made this so amazing and special for us, this included balloons, Photos, a personal singer, champagne, rose petals. It was perfect