Otium Family Stone

Not sure where to start with this hotel to be honest. It's a strange one. On arrival at 2:30am on a Sunday morning we were greeted with the instant option to upgrade our rooms.. having just missed our flights out by about 5 mins due to rail issues, and spending almost 2k trying to get the family out 4 hours later, I wasn't in the mood to be having that discussion. Thankfully, the reception staff quickly figured that out and put us in upgraded rooms FOC for 48 hours until we'd rested and considered our options. The hotel team quickly appreciated the scenario after a couple of days and kindly kept our nicer rooms for us for the entire duration. Thank you guys! That was appreciated. So, the bad points about Otium, well look, its an older hotel, it doesn't have the bells and whistles of the newer, more upmarket hotels. The staff know it and as a guest, you should too, but you aren't paying for the posh, swanky, all inclusive with the gold and chrome finishes. I'll be honest, and say the food was a bit hard going. We aren't fussy in particular, but the options were limited in comparison with others we have been to. My advice to Otium would be to up your pricing point a bit and give the catering team some more money to work with, especially at breakfast - no variety for 12 days is difficult. Now the good, The whole team were great to try and make our stay a pleasant one. Shout out to the entertainment team. They are a riot. They have a good go at getting the somewhat slow going holiday makers off their loungers and doing stuff. The pool activities were a laugh to watch, fun foam party, and the live music and shows we saw were good. Huge shout out to the staff at the Ice Cream and Snack area. Polite, helpful and friendly and couldn't ask for more. The pools are fab, clean and well maintained and the grounds themselves are pretty and tranquil. The beach area and bar is a great addition, but I would also suggest that Otium could clean their area of the beach a bit. Tourists who smoke tend to not give a hoot where they litter and a little dig in the sand should not unveil fag ends when a 5 year old is building a sandcastle. Especially not in that magnitude. I smoke and even I was disgusted, being a respectful one who keeps his habit as unoffensive to others as possible. Like I said, it's a strange one. Go there with an open mind, be prepared to eat out a couple of times during your stay to keep some variety and don't expect the earth and you'll actually find you have a good time. At least we did. It's a slow burner and we were in the end, sad to say goodbye to the place.

Upon arrival we instantly had our room upgraded to a “superior room” for 2 days. I wouldn’t say that the room was any better than a standard and wouldn’t have been very happy if had paid extra but it was fine and the shower was very good. After the two days was told we could stay in that room but “remember to do your tripadvisor review’ !!! Seemed like a bit of a con as speaking to other English families this was the same for them! Hotel is primarily for Russian holiday makers, however we still enjoyed it. Good hotel activities, great pool and beach area. We enjoyed the food however a few basic things missing like chips or toast making facilities at breakfast. Beware … don’t lose your key card! The reception charged us £10 for this - absolutely ridiculous in my opinion. Never had this in any other hotel and left me feeling very annoyed leaving the hotel. Air con was turned off in whole hotel half way through our stay too which was annoying as still very hot at night. Overall had a good holiday but probably wouldn’t go back to this hotel.