Playaballena Soul Collection By Senator

“Go the extra mile for their guests”

We came for 7 days all inclusive and I could not recommend this hotel enough its not like many Spanish hotels and caters more for spanish speaking guests but this also means its much more authentic, the resort is well manicured and laid out great with pools for all ages and beautiful beach on its … more

We came for 7 days all inclusive and I could not recommend this hotel enough its not like many Spanish hotels and caters more for spanish speaking guests but this also means its much more authentic, the resort is well manicured and laid out great with pools for all ages and beautiful beach on its door step the food is amazing with an lots of options including an a la carte restaurant availability and some beautiful restaurant surrounding the hotel the staff are extremely friendly and if you make the effort to speak Spanish are patient and accommodatiing they made all effort to make our holiday perfect we unfortunately had a hospital trip on the last day and the hotel and Jet 2 kept in constant contact checking up on my little girls and went the extra mile to help us and se had an extra day whilst waiting for flights AXA insurance arranged everything to help and made a bad situation so easy and the hotel again stepped on and helped us have a due over of our last night so we where comfortable and stress free 6 days of heaven and then disaster but right back to heaven as if to say your not going home stressed were sending you home relaxed and happy we will be back and can honesty say this place is grate for families and at a greate price you get vip all the way

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“English family, not really for us”

Jet2 Customers from UK especially take note!  We have just returned from a 7 night stay here, sold by Jet2 as 'All Inclusive' but it is actually Senator hotels fancy name for 'slightly better' than Full Board! Don't expect anything other than beer/wine/juices/water/coffee & plain crisps/cheese bal… more

Jet2 Customers from UK especially take note!  We have just returned from a 7 night stay here, sold by Jet2 as 'All Inclusive' but it is actually Senator hotels fancy name for 'slightly better' than Full Board! Don't expect anything other than beer/wine/juices/water/coffee & plain crisps/cheese ball crisp snacks... Cocktails/spirits/branded beers & ice creams or anything other than the crisps above cost extra so be careful! You also cannot have coffee with your lunch/dinner either as they turn the machines off in the buffet restaurant.  Also note food on your last day, we arrived early evening between 6 & 7pm so had missed lunch on that 1st day. On check-in we were told as we had arrived late that day, we would be allowed to have lunch on the last day as we weren't being collected til mid afternoon. HOWEVER! When we checked this the day before we were due to leave we were told no, we would have to pay €54 for the lunch (discounted as we couldn't extend our room), & that it would normally be €35pp. Other UK guests we discovered had paid this. We disputed this & stood our ground as we had been told lunch would be included & they then checked with managers & honoured this & gave us a food voucher for lunch on the last day. I believe you may have to be persistent else they will try & charge you for lunch on the last day.  MAJOR tip if you don't like meals too crowded, go to the buffet restaurant for opening times, especially lunch & dinner as the Spanish like to eat later it was easier to get in early, find a table & get food easily. After about 2pm & 8.30pm it is absolutely heaving, difficult to get to the food & with queues right out towards the garden doors... We found timings quite late for our liking, especially dinner. The pool is also much quieter between 2.30-3.30pm'ish when most Spanish have gone in to eat!  The pools are lovely & the slides are great for kids, they don't open it til 10am so always manage to get decent beds HOWEVER people still come down & put towels on beds then disappear for several hours! Their policy states "it is not allowed to reserve sunbeds in the swimming pool. Any personal items left unattended for one hour will be removed by our staff" NOW, this is a GREAT policy WHEN it works but the staff don't adhere to it other than to put a warning note on beds with a time on it. They then DON'T go back & remove the towels/belongings. I witnessed just 1 towel being removed. Other beds were left (sometimes big groups 5 or 6 beds) for several hours with just a note on. Then the people would come back & screw the note up! So great policy in theory. We even got a falsified note when we had only been gone for 45 mins for lunch. Got back to sunbeds at 2.15pm, note was timed at 2pm which would mean, if the beds had been unattended for an hour we had left at 1pm, but we hadn't, we went to lunch at 1.30pm when the buffet opened - work that one out!!?!  Pool bar! Oh my! As others have said it is woefully understaffed, big queues most of the time &, I know Spanish times run later, but seriously, the pool opens at 10am, the bar really SHOULD open at the same time... Waiting an hour to get a drink in the heat, especially if you've run out of bottled water in your room & lo & behold, massive queue at 11am as everyone's been waiting. Every other hotel we have stayed at the bar opens the same time as the pool.  The food was not great, good quality but just very 'samey' i.e burgers on 3 nights of a 7 night stay. Salads were very basic & even I, someone that can eat a lot of things, struggled to find something I liked with my salad! Always managed to find a nice sweet treat though 😉 One major complaint of the food is that we would arrive right at opening time but extra hot food would already be out on side in readiness & when you served it, it would already be cold especially the chips! My partner put his hand on hot plates to check several times & they weren't even switched on, even the ones for the pancakes, a stack of cold pancakes as hot plate not on!! Fortunately there is a microwave in middle of the restaurant which we had to use several times to reheat food!  Kids disco at 9.30pm was OK but same every night, entertainment at 10.15pm, waaaaaaay to late for us with a 7 yr old, we allow a bit later bedtime on holiday but do like to try to be not too late as believe kids really do need routine & a decent amount of sleep so we did not see the evening entertainments sadly.  We stayed a week & had our rooms cleaned very 'basically' & no change of towels. No instructions either to leave towels on floor or in bath if wanted changing. Every other hotel has instructions & will change them at some point during your stay regardless whether you leave on floor or not!  Overall the hotel & pool are very good, the grounds inside are lovely & extremely well kept. All staff we encountered were lovely & friendly & knowing a bit of basic Spanish helps! It is a lovely location right next to the beach but that is all there is really. There a few shops/bars & large supermarket up at the Centro Commerciale about 10 mins walk, & another smaller supermarket 5 mins walk across the road but that is all really.   We have experienced many 4* & 5* All Inclusive resorts around Egypt and Turkey mainly & this isn't really on a par unfortunately. It is more a Spaniards equivalent of a staycation holiday so, for that & all the above reasons, unfortunately we wouldn't be back.

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