Your rating of this hotel:
5.0
from 10
Hotel ratings by criteria:
Rooms:
5.0
Service:
5.0
Cleanliness:
7.0
Food:
9.0
Amenities:
6.0
So, a little background. I'll start by visiting our travel agent, from whom we purchased a tour to Montenegro. We chose a hotel in calm and quiet Becichi, as we did not want to go to noisy and crowded Budva. After we decided on the hotel (the choice was made in favor of the Mediteran 4 * hotel), among other conditions, we discussed accommodation options. There were three room options: standard double room with sea view, standard double room with park/road view (with instant confirmation), double room with park/road view WITHOUT balcony with french bed. The difference in price between the three options was negligible (10 euros per night), so we naturally wanted to opt for a room with a sea view. However, the agent began to persistently dissuade us from this option, explaining that there are very few such rooms in the hotel and it is very likely that, despite an earlier booking (for 1.
5 months), when settling rooms with a sea view may not be available. Having listened to the arguments of the agent, and in order not to risk it, we decided to stay in a standard double room with a view of the park / road, especially since there are an absolute majority of such rooms in the hotel (more than 200), and the travel agency gave them instant confirmation, since it was the travel agency bought these numbers in bulk even before the start of the season. After reading reviews on the Internet about this hotel, we secretly hoped that maybe we would get into a room with at least a side sea view. If only we knew what awaits us! We didn’t even consider the third option, the room “without a balcony”, since saving 70 euros on the tour is not worth depriving yourself of the opportunity to sit on the balcony late in the evening with a glass of wine and admire the beautiful views of Montenegro.
Now about the journey itself.
Flight.
Except for the 40-minute delay in departure, the flight was completed flawlessly. Customs control in Montenegro passed quickly and literally the first to leave the small airport in Tivat.
Transfer airport-hotel.
Montenegro met us with excellent sunny weather, but the representatives of the meeting Prometheus travel agency were nowhere to be seen. We decided to walk around the bus stop in front of the airport to find a bus from this travel agency. As a result, they found as many as two buses from Prometheus`a, but again, there was no one next to them. We decided to wait for representatives of the travel agency. After a couple of minutes, they really appeared near the buses and were very surprised to learn that our plane had already landed. They claimed that there had not yet been an announcement that our flight had landed. After talking with us, they went to meet the rest of the tourists with a sign.
Since the lists and routes of movement around the hotels were compiled by the meeting party in advance, the whole process of distributing vacationers and boarding buses took less than half an hour. And now we are already rushing towards Budva. While we were driving, a representative of Prometheus talked about Montenegro and handed out advertising leaflets of her travel agency to everyone. Since the Mediteran was the first of 5-6 hotels along the route, after half an hour we were climbing the stairs of the main entrance to the hotel.
Accommodation.
From our bus two families settled in Mediteran: my wife and I and another couple with a child. A representative of the Prometheus travel agency led us to the reception, after which she immediately disappeared without saying anything about our further interaction. It should be noted that CHECK IN in Mediteran is at 12.00 and CHECK OUT is at 14.00. We arrived at the hotel around 4:00 pm.
There was no queue at the reception, so after five minutes they took our passports as a pledge (this is the hotel’s rule, but no one warned us about this), a voucher and without any additional comments were given: a room key on the third floor, a client card and two cards for using the beach and swimming pools (deposit, returnable, 15 euros per card). We went up to the third floor in the elevator, entered the room and experienced a shock. The first thing that caught my eye was that the room was catastrophically small (even for one person). We have not seen such small rooms even in three-star hotels in Europe. The size of the room was about 2.5 meters by 3 meters. In fact, the entire room was occupied by an ordinary French double bed. To the right of the bed to the window, the distance is about 20 cm (only to have room for the curtains), to the left of the bed to the wall is about 50 cm.
(there is one bedside table), in front of the bed there is a desk with an LCD TV and a built-in mini-fridge. The passage between the bed and the table is so small (40 cm) that the only chair is in the corridor, and the door of the built-in refrigerator cannot be opened normally and the refrigerator has to be used through the gap. In fact, this is a single micronumber, because if one needs to go somewhere, then the other must either climb onto the bed or hide in some corner. In the narrow and short corridor of the room there are two narrow cabinets (one of them with a small safe). The bathroom also turned out to be so small that instead of a normal bath there was a shower, a small washbasin and a compact.
The second thing that caught my eye was that the room did not have a balcony, only two small windows, both with a "splendid" view of the two blank walls of our hotel, through a small gap between which the city was visible in the distance. Realizing that there was an overlay, we immediately leave the room and go down to the reception in order to quickly resolve the issue of changing the number. We explain to the receptionist that we booked and paid for a standard double room with a park view and a balcony (which is confirmed by a voucher) and would like to receive it. To which we get the answer that at the moment there are no such free rooms (! ? ), but after 2-3 hours such a number will be free and we will be provided with it. Our question about why we were not warned when placing us that they would put us in a room with worse conditions and not corresponding to the voucher, remained unanswered.
There was a feeling that we were being "divorced", because when the situation was clarified, the receptionist's vocabulary of Russian words ended, she fell into a state of "chronic misunderstanding" and switched to English. We also switched to English. She realized that "the trick failed", after which she switched to the Serbian language. What she was counting on remains a mystery to us. We decided not to spend the evening of the first day on a showdown and waited for the specified time. After 2 hours, we again approached the receptionist to find out how things were going with the replacement of the room. And then the circus began. She stated that according to our voucher, the hotel should provide a room without a balcony, since the voucher does not contain the phrase "room with a balcony", so there should not be any claims against the hotel, and we should deal with our travel agency. But they did not run into those.
We demanded their price list, where the option was indicated in black and white: standard dbl, which by default comes with a balcony. But if you want a room without a balcony, then you need to indicate in the voucher: standard dbl w / o balcony, since accommodation in such a room is 3-5 euros per day per person cheaper. After an unsuccessful attempt by the hotel to "deceive" us on this nuance, the receptionist went back and said that today there were no free rooms that corresponded to our booking condition, but tomorrow morning, Sunday, there will be an eviction of tourists and we will be relocated 100% . Our initial conclusion that we are "hung noodles on our ears" has been confirmed once again. Having finally made sure that we would be forced to spend the night in a micro-room, according to the contract, we informed the meeting party about the inappropriate accommodation of our travel agent. It is easy to guess that on Sunday morning there was no free room either.
Obviously, the calculation was only that their shift would end, and we would already be the problem of another shift of the reception staff. And so it happened. The shift changed and we had to explain everything again. Of course, the mood was spoiled and we, to put it mildly, began to "boil". Travel agencies were silent, so they had to take the initiative to protect their violated rights into their own hands. After several "hard" negotiations with the reception staff and the involvement of the higher management of the hotel, we were promised to change the room now on Tuesday. We demanded that we issue a certificate that the hotel provided us with a room of an inappropriate category, and also asked how the hotel would compensate us for three days of hassle. Help was promised to us, but only upon eviction. They promised to talk to management about compensation.
On Tuesday, after breakfast, we again approached the reception to find out how things were going with the replacement of the room, and were forced to repeat our story with the number to the receptionist once again (they have a "short" memory or what? ). We were confirmed that rooms would be vacated at 12.00 and we would be relocated. In order not to violate CHECK OUT at 11.55 we vacated our room and stood at the reception, waiting for a new key. But even here it was not without problems - the receptionist, who was in charge of our settlement, said that now she needed our voucher for resettlement, to which she received an answer that she took the voucher from us during the initial settlement and, naturally, we would not have it maybe. Then she said that she also did not have a voucher, since the vouchers were taken by their travel agency. Having received an answer from us that this was her problem, she, with obvious regret and discontent, gave us a new key and a new client card for the room on the first floor.
At the same time, we did not hear any apologies, and, moreover, we did not receive even the most elementary bonus-compensation from the hotel (yes, even the same free massage in their SPA or a bottle of wine, as is customary in any hotel that values its reputation), which once again confirmed our belief that the service in this hotel does not correspond to four stars.
The new number was different from the old as heaven and earth. The room itself is twice the size. There is more furniture, instead of windows - full-wall glazing, a wider and longer corridor with large wardrobes, a larger bathroom, where there is already a normal bathroom (albeit with a broken SOS-system cord) and a large washbasin. Plus a balcony with table and chairs. The view, of course, is not very good - on the service yard (where the technical staff walks, smokes and carries garbage), the roof of the indoor pool, the water park (by the way, this season is free for hotel guests), the road and, somewhere far away, the mountains.
Even in this replacement, the hotel showed an absolutely disregard for us as guests - a lot of people were evicted that day and the hotel could somehow compensate for the three-day hassle and allocate a room with a better view of the park - because it cost them nothing. However, we got what we got. It remains to be consoled by the fact that this view is better than the previous view of the walls. What then to say that in the new room, instead of one double bed, there were two single beds standing together. And this is for a couple.
impression of the building and grounds.
In general, the condition of the building and the interiors and infrastructure corresponds to the 4 * level, but in some places cosmetic repairs are already required (torn wallpaper in the corridors, broken tiles in the bathroom). The aquarium in the far corner of the hall is in a very neglected state - it needs to be urgently cleaned, since there is a real swamp there.
The water in the fountain to the right of the main entrance and in the pond is very dirty - it looks completely different from the advertising photos from their website. The condition of the exercise machines in the gym is also puzzling - both treadmills are disassembled and do not work, exercise bikes, like ergometers, are in a semi-working state - somewhere the screens fail, somewhere the seat falls off. From the moment of arrival until the very departure, the condition of the simulators did not improve at all. Separately, it is worth noting the elevators of the hotel. There are three of them. Two for 4 people. One for 6 people. In fact, if two people are already riding in an elevator for 4 people, then no one else sits down to them - it's crowded. The same can be said about the elevator for 6 - in fact it is an elevator for 4 people. Add to that the very dim lighting in two of the three elevators (saving electricity? ). I'm not claustrophobic, but I felt uneasy in these elevators - you feel like in a coffin - dark and cramped.
In addition, one of the elevators began to act up, and it was on the third floor. It stopped not flush with the floor of the floor, but 10 cm higher, so I almost fell a couple of times because of this. In general, there was a strong impression that the main idea of the building project is how to get the maximum number of rooms in a given area and, accordingly, profit, without worrying too much about the convenience of guests and the views from the rooms. Therefore, there are not so many rooms with a really good view, and even rooms with a sea view are first of all a view of the huge Splendid 5 * hotel and only then the sea. Hotel Mediteran is a system of labyrinths, just like in the movie "Wizards" ("Who builds like that? " - remember? ). Hence the presence of such micronumbers, one of which we initially got into. And bad views from the window, including the view from some rooms to other rooms.
Clean inside and outside the hotel.
The territory of the hotel is open to everyone, which, as it turned out later, is not always good. In fact, the hotel does not have an adjacent territory - only sunbeds around the outdoor pool (which are not welcome after 21.00) and tables in the open part of the Opera cafe. Nothing else - no parks, no places to relax in the evening in nature. Every evening from 21.00 to 23.00 in front of the Opera cafe there was live music and vocals (a couple of musicians performed - violin and keyboards). The musicians are high-level professionals with a varied repertoire, but listening to their performances every day is annoying.
Rooms are cleaned daily. The quality of cleaning can be assessed with a maximum of 4 points on a five-point system, since they do not differ in the thoroughness of cleaning. In general, it seems that they removed it, but as we saw the sand from the beach in the corners of the room and the corridor during check-in, it remained there during check-out.
In addition, when cleaning, some kind of chemistry is clearly used to rub all the glass surfaces (there are a lot of them in the room), so the first hour upon returning you need to ventilate the room from chemistry. There are also small slips during cleaning. For example, we ran out of toilet paper. When cleaning, the empty roll was removed, and they forgot to hang a new one. Change of all towels (7 pieces for two) - daily. But the frequency of changing bed linen remained a mystery. We stayed in the first room for three days. And two days later they changed the sheets. We lived in the second room for four days. The linen was never changed. Total for seven days - one replacement.
The rooms have individual air conditioners with remote control. We had no complaints about the operation of air conditioners. But the pressure of the water did not always suit.
If on the third floor there was a very good pressure at any time of the day, then on the first floor the pressure is much weaker and unstable even in temperature, which often resulted in a contrast shower.
The mini safe in the room is really mini. A camera, phones, money, documents and even a small women's handbag will fit there. There is no chance for a laptop, a netbook, if it’s really small, it’s possible to put it there. The safe opens with a password (maximum up to 9 digits). Convenient as there is no need to carry any keys to the safe. The room has Internet (wire in the drawer). There were hair dryers in both rooms, but washing and ironing for a fee, and if in the first room there was at least a clean order form for laundry, then in the second room they didn’t worry about it. The same goes for bathrobes. The first room had one bathrobe and two pairs of slippers, and at our request they brought another bathrobe.
In the second room there was not a single bathrobe and slippers, and we didn’t even ask - we weren’t going to use it anyway. Also in the first room there was no landline phone, but in the second it was. And so in everything.
The service system at the hotel works well - he said that there is no bathrobe, the drain is clogged, the mini-bar needs to be replenished - after five minutes they knock on the room. Although everything is ambiguous here too, the factor that after the "tough" proceedings on the issue of settlement, the reception staff tried to exclude the possibility of additional overlays and, accordingly, our dissatisfaction, could work, so they organized the resolution of all issues very quickly. For example, when we left a request for cleaning the initially clogged water drain in the shower of the room on the third floor, we were told at the reception that we had to wait a day. However, five minutes later the locksmith knocked on the room.
As a result, there was little sense in cleaning - the water continued to collect in the shower tray, but they tried to pretend that they were trying.
LCD televisions in Samsung rooms. Russian-speaking - 2-3 channels (1 worldwide network, RTR-planet and some other. The TV remote control in the room on the third floor was rewound with electrical tape - it doesn’t look like a 4 * hotel at all. With a refrigerator - how lucky. In the first room there is a refrigerator was with a freezer and cooled just fine, and in the second room the refrigerator was without a freezer and even at the maximum the drinks were slightly cool, not cold. The same with the beds - as lucky. The first room has a classic double bed. In the second - two attached friends beds on wheels to a friend. At the slightest movement, the beds move apart, which, you see, is not very convenient for a married couple. The first room overlooked the inner territory of the hotel, and it was quiet.
The second room overlooked the water park, the music and noise from which, when the balcony doors were open, even the TV drowned out.
Prices in the minibar of the room, especially for alcohol, are 3 times higher than even in the MegaMarket store across the street from the hotel. It is forbidden to bring drinks and food into the hotel, but after the situation with our accommodation, our conscience fell silent and we bought water, alcohol, nuts, chocolates from MegaMarket and loaded everything into the refrigerator. That is, in fact, everything is the same as the mini-bar, only much cheaper (we didn’t eat regular food in the room, we didn’t take anything out of breakfast and dinner). There were no questions from the administration. By the way, all the other guests of the hotel also carried products from the store - it is clear that the administration has come to terms with this situation.
Meals at the hotel.
Breakfasts and dinners - buffet.
Breakfasts at the hotel for all guests, but with the tour we immediately bought dinners, which we did not regret later.
Dinners can also be purchased at the hotel upon check-in - it will be a little more expensive. When buying a tour, we paid 7 euros for dinner per person, the hotel sells 10 euros for dinner per person. Breakfast is very monotonous, although there is a small selection. Every day these are eggs (boiled, fried eggs, scrambled eggs), sliced u200bu200b(ham, two or three types of sausages, two types of cheese), bacon, sausages, toast, unripe tomatoes, fresh cabbage - old and tough, breakfast cereals of three types with yoghurts and milk, jams, puffs, ugly fruits - apples, bananas, kiwi. Drinks for breakfast are free: pure water, some kind of "a la UPI drink" colored chemicals, tea from disposable bags from budget manufacturers, a coffee drink (this drink has only a distant relation to coffee), cocoa, milk. The first couple of days breakfasts go with a bang. On the third or fourth day - harder. From the fifth day, I no longer have the strength to look at the eggs.
It remains a mystery to me how you can hold out for a couple of weeks with such monotony. Dinner is a completely different matter. Large salad bar (8-9 options to choose from). A large selection of meat dishes, the assortment of which changed slightly daily. Sometimes there were fish. Large selection of side dishes and various options for hot appetizers, casseroles and much more. For dessert every day: watermelons (none), up to ten types of cakes and jelly, as well as already familiar ugly fruits. All drinks for dinner are free of charge. And the prices for restaurant drinks: tea bags with lemon - 2 euros, a bottle of local wine 0.18 liters. - 4 euros (in the store next to the hotel, the same bottle is a little more than 1 euro). Service at breakfasts and dinners for 5 (according to a five-point system). It would be possible to put 5+. But the layout of dishes on the "island" is not very conveniently thought out.
The left and right sides are not fully duplicated, so if you want exactly the “that” version of meat with exactly “this” side dish, then you have to defend both lines. Although the queues are small and move quite quickly. By the way, the entire range is replenished instantly. Never once did a dish run out completely. The waiters in the hall also work very clearly - I didn’t have time to set aside a plate, they immediately fly up and clean it up. Tables are cleared immediately after customers.
Beach.
Hotel Mediteran is located on the second line from the coast. Behind Montenegro's only five-star Splendid and three-star Tara. . On the path from the exit from the Mediteran Hotel to the entrance to the private beach, 250-300 meters (of which 100 meters past the gutter with evening frog concerts). It is from this ditch that water flows into the sea on the left side of the Mediteran beach.
Armchairs, and especially rafts, are very popular - nothing like this has been seen on other beaches. There are always few people in the water - at most 30-40 people. The beach is sandy. By lunchtime, the sand is so hot in the sun that only yogis can walk barefoot on it. In addition, the beach is two meters from the water and the first two meters in the water are very small pebbles, which also makes walking on it uncomfortable. Therefore, many of the sunbeds go to the water in shoes and leave it on the shore, and some go straight into the water in special shoes and swim in it. The beach is very clean, in addition, paths are periodically swept throughout the day. The beach staff is polite and courteous. There is also a lifeguard constantly on the beach, although we saw him only once on the tower. Children's animation on the beach is completely absent. For everyone, three times a day, yoga, Pilates, and Latin dance classes were held free of charge.
The only thing is that the hotel did not really bother to equip the place of study with some kind of canopy. Imagine hot, in the truest sense of the word, sand, scorching sun and fast dancing classes.
The beach is open to everyone, not just hotel guests. This season, for hotel guests, a set of two sun loungers, an umbrella and one (as it turned out later) set of towels per day is free of charge. For the rest - 10 euros for two sunbeds and an umbrella, 2 euros for each towel and 5 euros for an additional third sunbed if necessary. You need to go to the beach with a guest card and security cards. The first time we took only security cards, and the hotel reception did not warn us that we would need a guest card to visit the beach.
A guest card is needed to control the guest's right to use sunbeds and umbrellas for free and to prevent guests from using free towels more than once a day. However, the beach staff went to meet us, took our word for it, and we did not have to return to the hotel for a map. In addition, it turned out that you can only use one set of towels per day for free. Each next one is already paid - 2 euros each. Nobody warned us about this either - another minus for the hotel. There are up to 350 sun loungers on the beach, so there has never been a case that they were not enough. However, the hotel did not guess to allocate a non-smoking area. Sometimes they started to "smoke" in such a way that they had to change their place on the beach. One more feature. Even if you come to the beach in the morning, to its opening (at 7.
00), almost the entire first row of sunbeds and almost the entire second row are already occupied - there are no people, no personal belongings, and hotel towels are laid out on the sunbeds. There is no doubt that this is a "small business" of the beach staff, and in the morning you can only get to the front row for an additional unofficial fee.
Impressions about the service in the cafe.
Cafe Opera (Mediteran territory). Very slow in taking orders and billing. Once they specifically timed it - the waitress came up to take the order after 15 minutes, although the cafe was empty. The calculation is the same - you can wait at least half an hour until they take the money and bring change. They will walk past and "not notice" that the money is in the account. Therefore, many customers do not wait, they go to the cashier to pay. And this, despite the tip. And the openness of the cafe for everyone also once spoiled the evening. We sit at a table, enjoy live music. And then a real camp of 20 people with children "fills up" from the street.
And with loud cries and screams of small children, they occupy several tables, after which they begin to discuss something loudly under the cries of children. Needless to say, after 10 minutes there was no one left in the cafe except for them.
Cafe Azurro (Mediteran beach). We usually have lunch there. Modest lunch for two at least 20 euros. Although you can easily leave twice as much. The service is very good, the waiters are polite and attentive. The kitchen is good. Therefore, we did not skimp on tips.
Cafe L`umbrella (opposite Splendid 5 *).
Separate story. One evening after dinner, after walking along the promenade, we decided to go to this cafe for coffee / ice cream. It attracted us with its location (on the seashore) and restaurant table setting (tablecloths, napkins, plates, glasses, cutlery, etc. ). Come in and place an order. After a while, the waiter came up and began to clear everything from the table, including napkins and a tablecloth.
They either don’t know Russian at all, or they don’t know Russian very well - they immediately try to switch to English or Serbian. The exception is one Russian-speaking employee at the hotel, but she is not always there, so we communicated in English everywhere, even with the hotel reception.
Impressions about the weather, nature and the sea.
At 5+++. The weather was just perfect all the time - clear skies, not a drop of rain. The nature is amazing, a lot of greenery, the air and the sea are clean. While you are on the beach, a light breeze blows from the sea all the time. There was absolute calm on the sea - there was not even a surf. The water temperature is 25 degrees. One night there was a small storm, but in the morning it was calm again, although the water temperature dropped significantly, so there were very few people who wanted to swim that day. But within a day, the situation with the temperature almost returned to normal. Acclimatization, in fact, was not at all. Felt at home.
Eviction.
It is easy to guess that there was no certificate, and the hotel administrator pretended to be very busy and could not prepare it (in general, for the whole week of "showdowns", the administrator never considered it necessary to leave her counter, hiding behind it, and preferring to communicate with hotel guests through the reception staff). I had to again exert a little "emotional pressure" and leave an impression about the hotel in the guest book. After that, the administrator stirred and took up the same for help. Meanwhile, the bus arrived. While the administrator was writing a certificate, I decided to read the book of complaints. Let me tell you, it's a very interesting read. A lot of things are opening your eyes. If you are there and there is a desire - read the complaint and guest books (they are at the reception) - many questions will disappear - such an attitude towards guests is the hotel system.
By the way, we noticed that two large (15-20 people each) groups of tourists arrived at the hotel this morning, and for some reason a Russian-speaking employee conducted a tour of the hotel for them. Probably, in due time, for our group of 5 people, they decided not to conduct such an excursion - they will figure it out themselves.
Transfer hotel-airport.
No nuances.
Flight.
About 40 minutes in the queues of the Tivat airport and we are in the waiting room. The hall is packed with people waiting for their flights. There are no free seats. The passengers of our flight are located along the walls - someone is on the floor, someone is on things, someone is standing. It's getting hot. The air conditioning system is clearly not working. There is a cooler with drinking water in the hall, but disposable cups run out very quickly and no one is in a hurry to replenish their supply. There is a long queue at the entrance to Duty Free. They are not allowed to go inside even with women's bags - they are asked to leave them at the entrance.
Moreover, without control of both the safety of the bags themselves and their contents. There are no words. The store itself is very small with a very limited range of goods. Nowhere else in Europe have we seen prices higher than this Duty Free. More than an hour of waiting in such conditions and, finally, boarding is announced. The flight itself passed without incident.
Our travel agent.
In accordance with the terms of the contract, we turned to our travel agent for compensation. The travel agent was very surprised to see the certificate from the hotel. For many years of work of this tour operator, this is the first case when a tourist managed to obtain documentary evidence of a violation from the hotel. Naturally, the difference in the cost of the tours was quickly returned to us.
Summary.
Hotel Mediteran for 4 * absolutely does not pull. Maximum 3*. And this is not just our opinion. Unfortunately, the service of the hotel in particular, and Montenegro as a whole, is still far from Western European (there is something to compare with). The legacy from the "scoop" makes itself felt.
Will we ever return to Mediteran? Absolutely not. However, the entire network of Mediteran hotels around the world no longer exists for us. Will we return to Montenegro? Perhaps in a few years, when we know that their level of service has risen to the level of Western Europe.
The only thing worth going to Montenegro for is the amazing nature. Therefore, if you are unpretentious about the service, Montenegro may suit you perfectly.
5 months), when settling rooms with a sea view may not be available. Having listened to the arguments of the agent, and in order not to risk it, we decided to stay in a standard double room with a view of the park / road, especially since there are an absolute majority of such rooms in the hotel (more than 200), and the travel agency gave them instant confirmation, since it was the travel agency bought these numbers in bulk even before the start of the season. After reading reviews on the Internet about this hotel, we secretly hoped that maybe we would get into a room with at least a side sea view. If only we knew what awaits us! We didn’t even consider the third option, the room “without a balcony”, since saving 70 euros on the tour is not worth depriving yourself of the opportunity to sit on the balcony late in the evening with a glass of wine and admire the beautiful views of Montenegro.
Now about the journey itself.
Flight.
Except for the 40-minute delay in departure, the flight was completed flawlessly. Customs control in Montenegro passed quickly and literally the first to leave the small airport in Tivat.
Transfer airport-hotel.
Montenegro met us with excellent sunny weather, but the representatives of the meeting Prometheus travel agency were nowhere to be seen. We decided to walk around the bus stop in front of the airport to find a bus from this travel agency. As a result, they found as many as two buses from Prometheus`a, but again, there was no one next to them. We decided to wait for representatives of the travel agency. After a couple of minutes, they really appeared near the buses and were very surprised to learn that our plane had already landed. They claimed that there had not yet been an announcement that our flight had landed. After talking with us, they went to meet the rest of the tourists with a sign.
Since the lists and routes of movement around the hotels were compiled by the meeting party in advance, the whole process of distributing vacationers and boarding buses took less than half an hour. And now we are already rushing towards Budva. While we were driving, a representative of Prometheus talked about Montenegro and handed out advertising leaflets of her travel agency to everyone. Since the Mediteran was the first of 5-6 hotels along the route, after half an hour we were climbing the stairs of the main entrance to the hotel.
Accommodation.
From our bus two families settled in Mediteran: my wife and I and another couple with a child. A representative of the Prometheus travel agency led us to the reception, after which she immediately disappeared without saying anything about our further interaction. It should be noted that CHECK IN in Mediteran is at 12.00 and CHECK OUT is at 14.00. We arrived at the hotel around 4:00 pm.
There was no queue at the reception, so after five minutes they took our passports as a pledge (this is the hotel’s rule, but no one warned us about this), a voucher and without any additional comments were given: a room key on the third floor, a client card and two cards for using the beach and swimming pools (deposit, returnable, 15 euros per card). We went up to the third floor in the elevator, entered the room and experienced a shock. The first thing that caught my eye was that the room was catastrophically small (even for one person). We have not seen such small rooms even in three-star hotels in Europe. The size of the room was about 2.5 meters by 3 meters. In fact, the entire room was occupied by an ordinary French double bed. To the right of the bed to the window, the distance is about 20 cm (only to have room for the curtains), to the left of the bed to the wall is about 50 cm.
(there is one bedside table), in front of the bed there is a desk with an LCD TV and a built-in mini-fridge. The passage between the bed and the table is so small (40 cm) that the only chair is in the corridor, and the door of the built-in refrigerator cannot be opened normally and the refrigerator has to be used through the gap. In fact, this is a single micronumber, because if one needs to go somewhere, then the other must either climb onto the bed or hide in some corner. In the narrow and short corridor of the room there are two narrow cabinets (one of them with a small safe). The bathroom also turned out to be so small that instead of a normal bath there was a shower, a small washbasin and a compact.
The second thing that caught my eye was that the room did not have a balcony, only two small windows, both with a "splendid" view of the two blank walls of our hotel, through a small gap between which the city was visible in the distance. Realizing that there was an overlay, we immediately leave the room and go down to the reception in order to quickly resolve the issue of changing the number. We explain to the receptionist that we booked and paid for a standard double room with a park view and a balcony (which is confirmed by a voucher) and would like to receive it. To which we get the answer that at the moment there are no such free rooms (! ? ), but after 2-3 hours such a number will be free and we will be provided with it. Our question about why we were not warned when placing us that they would put us in a room with worse conditions and not corresponding to the voucher, remained unanswered.
There was a feeling that we were being "divorced", because when the situation was clarified, the receptionist's vocabulary of Russian words ended, she fell into a state of "chronic misunderstanding" and switched to English. We also switched to English. She realized that "the trick failed", after which she switched to the Serbian language. What she was counting on remains a mystery to us. We decided not to spend the evening of the first day on a showdown and waited for the specified time. After 2 hours, we again approached the receptionist to find out how things were going with the replacement of the room. And then the circus began. She stated that according to our voucher, the hotel should provide a room without a balcony, since the voucher does not contain the phrase "room with a balcony", so there should not be any claims against the hotel, and we should deal with our travel agency. But they did not run into those.
We demanded their price list, where the option was indicated in black and white: standard dbl, which by default comes with a balcony. But if you want a room without a balcony, then you need to indicate in the voucher: standard dbl w / o balcony, since accommodation in such a room is 3-5 euros per day per person cheaper. After an unsuccessful attempt by the hotel to "deceive" us on this nuance, the receptionist went back and said that today there were no free rooms that corresponded to our booking condition, but tomorrow morning, Sunday, there will be an eviction of tourists and we will be relocated 100% . Our initial conclusion that we are "hung noodles on our ears" has been confirmed once again. Having finally made sure that we would be forced to spend the night in a micro-room, according to the contract, we informed the meeting party about the inappropriate accommodation of our travel agent. It is easy to guess that on Sunday morning there was no free room either.
Obviously, the calculation was only that their shift would end, and we would already be the problem of another shift of the reception staff. And so it happened. The shift changed and we had to explain everything again. Of course, the mood was spoiled and we, to put it mildly, began to "boil". Travel agencies were silent, so they had to take the initiative to protect their violated rights into their own hands. After several "hard" negotiations with the reception staff and the involvement of the higher management of the hotel, we were promised to change the room now on Tuesday. We demanded that we issue a certificate that the hotel provided us with a room of an inappropriate category, and also asked how the hotel would compensate us for three days of hassle. Help was promised to us, but only upon eviction. They promised to talk to management about compensation.
On Tuesday, after breakfast, we again approached the reception to find out how things were going with the replacement of the room, and were forced to repeat our story with the number to the receptionist once again (they have a "short" memory or what? ). We were confirmed that rooms would be vacated at 12.00 and we would be relocated. In order not to violate CHECK OUT at 11.55 we vacated our room and stood at the reception, waiting for a new key. But even here it was not without problems - the receptionist, who was in charge of our settlement, said that now she needed our voucher for resettlement, to which she received an answer that she took the voucher from us during the initial settlement and, naturally, we would not have it maybe. Then she said that she also did not have a voucher, since the vouchers were taken by their travel agency. Having received an answer from us that this was her problem, she, with obvious regret and discontent, gave us a new key and a new client card for the room on the first floor.
At the same time, we did not hear any apologies, and, moreover, we did not receive even the most elementary bonus-compensation from the hotel (yes, even the same free massage in their SPA or a bottle of wine, as is customary in any hotel that values its reputation), which once again confirmed our belief that the service in this hotel does not correspond to four stars.
The new number was different from the old as heaven and earth. The room itself is twice the size. There is more furniture, instead of windows - full-wall glazing, a wider and longer corridor with large wardrobes, a larger bathroom, where there is already a normal bathroom (albeit with a broken SOS-system cord) and a large washbasin. Plus a balcony with table and chairs. The view, of course, is not very good - on the service yard (where the technical staff walks, smokes and carries garbage), the roof of the indoor pool, the water park (by the way, this season is free for hotel guests), the road and, somewhere far away, the mountains.
Even in this replacement, the hotel showed an absolutely disregard for us as guests - a lot of people were evicted that day and the hotel could somehow compensate for the three-day hassle and allocate a room with a better view of the park - because it cost them nothing. However, we got what we got. It remains to be consoled by the fact that this view is better than the previous view of the walls. What then to say that in the new room, instead of one double bed, there were two single beds standing together. And this is for a couple.
impression of the building and grounds.
In general, the condition of the building and the interiors and infrastructure corresponds to the 4 * level, but in some places cosmetic repairs are already required (torn wallpaper in the corridors, broken tiles in the bathroom). The aquarium in the far corner of the hall is in a very neglected state - it needs to be urgently cleaned, since there is a real swamp there.
The water in the fountain to the right of the main entrance and in the pond is very dirty - it looks completely different from the advertising photos from their website. The condition of the exercise machines in the gym is also puzzling - both treadmills are disassembled and do not work, exercise bikes, like ergometers, are in a semi-working state - somewhere the screens fail, somewhere the seat falls off. From the moment of arrival until the very departure, the condition of the simulators did not improve at all. Separately, it is worth noting the elevators of the hotel. There are three of them. Two for 4 people. One for 6 people. In fact, if two people are already riding in an elevator for 4 people, then no one else sits down to them - it's crowded. The same can be said about the elevator for 6 - in fact it is an elevator for 4 people. Add to that the very dim lighting in two of the three elevators (saving electricity? ). I'm not claustrophobic, but I felt uneasy in these elevators - you feel like in a coffin - dark and cramped.
In addition, one of the elevators began to act up, and it was on the third floor. It stopped not flush with the floor of the floor, but 10 cm higher, so I almost fell a couple of times because of this. In general, there was a strong impression that the main idea of the building project is how to get the maximum number of rooms in a given area and, accordingly, profit, without worrying too much about the convenience of guests and the views from the rooms. Therefore, there are not so many rooms with a really good view, and even rooms with a sea view are first of all a view of the huge Splendid 5 * hotel and only then the sea. Hotel Mediteran is a system of labyrinths, just like in the movie "Wizards" ("Who builds like that? " - remember? ). Hence the presence of such micronumbers, one of which we initially got into. And bad views from the window, including the view from some rooms to other rooms.
Clean inside and outside the hotel.
The territory of the hotel is open to everyone, which, as it turned out later, is not always good. In fact, the hotel does not have an adjacent territory - only sunbeds around the outdoor pool (which are not welcome after 21.00) and tables in the open part of the Opera cafe. Nothing else - no parks, no places to relax in the evening in nature. Every evening from 21.00 to 23.00 in front of the Opera cafe there was live music and vocals (a couple of musicians performed - violin and keyboards). The musicians are high-level professionals with a varied repertoire, but listening to their performances every day is annoying.
Rooms are cleaned daily. The quality of cleaning can be assessed with a maximum of 4 points on a five-point system, since they do not differ in the thoroughness of cleaning. In general, it seems that they removed it, but as we saw the sand from the beach in the corners of the room and the corridor during check-in, it remained there during check-out.
In addition, when cleaning, some kind of chemistry is clearly used to rub all the glass surfaces (there are a lot of them in the room), so the first hour upon returning you need to ventilate the room from chemistry. There are also small slips during cleaning. For example, we ran out of toilet paper. When cleaning, the empty roll was removed, and they forgot to hang a new one. Change of all towels (7 pieces for two) - daily. But the frequency of changing bed linen remained a mystery. We stayed in the first room for three days. And two days later they changed the sheets. We lived in the second room for four days. The linen was never changed. Total for seven days - one replacement.
The rooms have individual air conditioners with remote control. We had no complaints about the operation of air conditioners. But the pressure of the water did not always suit.
If on the third floor there was a very good pressure at any time of the day, then on the first floor the pressure is much weaker and unstable even in temperature, which often resulted in a contrast shower.
The mini safe in the room is really mini. A camera, phones, money, documents and even a small women's handbag will fit there. There is no chance for a laptop, a netbook, if it’s really small, it’s possible to put it there. The safe opens with a password (maximum up to 9 digits). Convenient as there is no need to carry any keys to the safe. The room has Internet (wire in the drawer). There were hair dryers in both rooms, but washing and ironing for a fee, and if in the first room there was at least a clean order form for laundry, then in the second room they didn’t worry about it. The same goes for bathrobes. The first room had one bathrobe and two pairs of slippers, and at our request they brought another bathrobe.
In the second room there was not a single bathrobe and slippers, and we didn’t even ask - we weren’t going to use it anyway. Also in the first room there was no landline phone, but in the second it was. And so in everything.
The service system at the hotel works well - he said that there is no bathrobe, the drain is clogged, the mini-bar needs to be replenished - after five minutes they knock on the room. Although everything is ambiguous here too, the factor that after the "tough" proceedings on the issue of settlement, the reception staff tried to exclude the possibility of additional overlays and, accordingly, our dissatisfaction, could work, so they organized the resolution of all issues very quickly. For example, when we left a request for cleaning the initially clogged water drain in the shower of the room on the third floor, we were told at the reception that we had to wait a day. However, five minutes later the locksmith knocked on the room.
As a result, there was little sense in cleaning - the water continued to collect in the shower tray, but they tried to pretend that they were trying.
LCD televisions in Samsung rooms. Russian-speaking - 2-3 channels (1 worldwide network, RTR-planet and some other. The TV remote control in the room on the third floor was rewound with electrical tape - it doesn’t look like a 4 * hotel at all. With a refrigerator - how lucky. In the first room there is a refrigerator was with a freezer and cooled just fine, and in the second room the refrigerator was without a freezer and even at the maximum the drinks were slightly cool, not cold. The same with the beds - as lucky. The first room has a classic double bed. In the second - two attached friends beds on wheels to a friend. At the slightest movement, the beds move apart, which, you see, is not very convenient for a married couple. The first room overlooked the inner territory of the hotel, and it was quiet.
The second room overlooked the water park, the music and noise from which, when the balcony doors were open, even the TV drowned out.
Prices in the minibar of the room, especially for alcohol, are 3 times higher than even in the MegaMarket store across the street from the hotel. It is forbidden to bring drinks and food into the hotel, but after the situation with our accommodation, our conscience fell silent and we bought water, alcohol, nuts, chocolates from MegaMarket and loaded everything into the refrigerator. That is, in fact, everything is the same as the mini-bar, only much cheaper (we didn’t eat regular food in the room, we didn’t take anything out of breakfast and dinner). There were no questions from the administration. By the way, all the other guests of the hotel also carried products from the store - it is clear that the administration has come to terms with this situation.
Meals at the hotel.
Breakfasts and dinners - buffet.
Breakfasts at the hotel for all guests, but with the tour we immediately bought dinners, which we did not regret later.
Dinners can also be purchased at the hotel upon check-in - it will be a little more expensive. When buying a tour, we paid 7 euros for dinner per person, the hotel sells 10 euros for dinner per person. Breakfast is very monotonous, although there is a small selection. Every day these are eggs (boiled, fried eggs, scrambled eggs), sliced u200bu200b(ham, two or three types of sausages, two types of cheese), bacon, sausages, toast, unripe tomatoes, fresh cabbage - old and tough, breakfast cereals of three types with yoghurts and milk, jams, puffs, ugly fruits - apples, bananas, kiwi. Drinks for breakfast are free: pure water, some kind of "a la UPI drink" colored chemicals, tea from disposable bags from budget manufacturers, a coffee drink (this drink has only a distant relation to coffee), cocoa, milk. The first couple of days breakfasts go with a bang. On the third or fourth day - harder. From the fifth day, I no longer have the strength to look at the eggs.
It remains a mystery to me how you can hold out for a couple of weeks with such monotony. Dinner is a completely different matter. Large salad bar (8-9 options to choose from). A large selection of meat dishes, the assortment of which changed slightly daily. Sometimes there were fish. Large selection of side dishes and various options for hot appetizers, casseroles and much more. For dessert every day: watermelons (none), up to ten types of cakes and jelly, as well as already familiar ugly fruits. All drinks for dinner are free of charge. And the prices for restaurant drinks: tea bags with lemon - 2 euros, a bottle of local wine 0.18 liters. - 4 euros (in the store next to the hotel, the same bottle is a little more than 1 euro). Service at breakfasts and dinners for 5 (according to a five-point system). It would be possible to put 5+. But the layout of dishes on the "island" is not very conveniently thought out.
The left and right sides are not fully duplicated, so if you want exactly the “that” version of meat with exactly “this” side dish, then you have to defend both lines. Although the queues are small and move quite quickly. By the way, the entire range is replenished instantly. Never once did a dish run out completely. The waiters in the hall also work very clearly - I didn’t have time to set aside a plate, they immediately fly up and clean it up. Tables are cleared immediately after customers.
Beach.
Hotel Mediteran is located on the second line from the coast. Behind Montenegro's only five-star Splendid and three-star Tara. . On the path from the exit from the Mediteran Hotel to the entrance to the private beach, 250-300 meters (of which 100 meters past the gutter with evening frog concerts). It is from this ditch that water flows into the sea on the left side of the Mediteran beach.
Armchairs, and especially rafts, are very popular - nothing like this has been seen on other beaches. There are always few people in the water - at most 30-40 people. The beach is sandy. By lunchtime, the sand is so hot in the sun that only yogis can walk barefoot on it. In addition, the beach is two meters from the water and the first two meters in the water are very small pebbles, which also makes walking on it uncomfortable. Therefore, many of the sunbeds go to the water in shoes and leave it on the shore, and some go straight into the water in special shoes and swim in it. The beach is very clean, in addition, paths are periodically swept throughout the day. The beach staff is polite and courteous. There is also a lifeguard constantly on the beach, although we saw him only once on the tower. Children's animation on the beach is completely absent. For everyone, three times a day, yoga, Pilates, and Latin dance classes were held free of charge.
The only thing is that the hotel did not really bother to equip the place of study with some kind of canopy. Imagine hot, in the truest sense of the word, sand, scorching sun and fast dancing classes.
The beach is open to everyone, not just hotel guests. This season, for hotel guests, a set of two sun loungers, an umbrella and one (as it turned out later) set of towels per day is free of charge. For the rest - 10 euros for two sunbeds and an umbrella, 2 euros for each towel and 5 euros for an additional third sunbed if necessary. You need to go to the beach with a guest card and security cards. The first time we took only security cards, and the hotel reception did not warn us that we would need a guest card to visit the beach.
A guest card is needed to control the guest's right to use sunbeds and umbrellas for free and to prevent guests from using free towels more than once a day. However, the beach staff went to meet us, took our word for it, and we did not have to return to the hotel for a map. In addition, it turned out that you can only use one set of towels per day for free. Each next one is already paid - 2 euros each. Nobody warned us about this either - another minus for the hotel. There are up to 350 sun loungers on the beach, so there has never been a case that they were not enough. However, the hotel did not guess to allocate a non-smoking area. Sometimes they started to "smoke" in such a way that they had to change their place on the beach. One more feature. Even if you come to the beach in the morning, to its opening (at 7.
00), almost the entire first row of sunbeds and almost the entire second row are already occupied - there are no people, no personal belongings, and hotel towels are laid out on the sunbeds. There is no doubt that this is a "small business" of the beach staff, and in the morning you can only get to the front row for an additional unofficial fee.
Impressions about the service in the cafe.
Cafe Opera (Mediteran territory). Very slow in taking orders and billing. Once they specifically timed it - the waitress came up to take the order after 15 minutes, although the cafe was empty. The calculation is the same - you can wait at least half an hour until they take the money and bring change. They will walk past and "not notice" that the money is in the account. Therefore, many customers do not wait, they go to the cashier to pay. And this, despite the tip. And the openness of the cafe for everyone also once spoiled the evening. We sit at a table, enjoy live music. And then a real camp of 20 people with children "fills up" from the street.
And with loud cries and screams of small children, they occupy several tables, after which they begin to discuss something loudly under the cries of children. Needless to say, after 10 minutes there was no one left in the cafe except for them.
Cafe Azurro (Mediteran beach). We usually have lunch there. Modest lunch for two at least 20 euros. Although you can easily leave twice as much. The service is very good, the waiters are polite and attentive. The kitchen is good. Therefore, we did not skimp on tips.
Cafe L`umbrella (opposite Splendid 5 *).
Separate story. One evening after dinner, after walking along the promenade, we decided to go to this cafe for coffee / ice cream. It attracted us with its location (on the seashore) and restaurant table setting (tablecloths, napkins, plates, glasses, cutlery, etc. ). Come in and place an order. After a while, the waiter came up and began to clear everything from the table, including napkins and a tablecloth.
They either don’t know Russian at all, or they don’t know Russian very well - they immediately try to switch to English or Serbian. The exception is one Russian-speaking employee at the hotel, but she is not always there, so we communicated in English everywhere, even with the hotel reception.
Impressions about the weather, nature and the sea.
At 5+++. The weather was just perfect all the time - clear skies, not a drop of rain. The nature is amazing, a lot of greenery, the air and the sea are clean. While you are on the beach, a light breeze blows from the sea all the time. There was absolute calm on the sea - there was not even a surf. The water temperature is 25 degrees. One night there was a small storm, but in the morning it was calm again, although the water temperature dropped significantly, so there were very few people who wanted to swim that day. But within a day, the situation with the temperature almost returned to normal. Acclimatization, in fact, was not at all. Felt at home.
Eviction.
It is easy to guess that there was no certificate, and the hotel administrator pretended to be very busy and could not prepare it (in general, for the whole week of "showdowns", the administrator never considered it necessary to leave her counter, hiding behind it, and preferring to communicate with hotel guests through the reception staff). I had to again exert a little "emotional pressure" and leave an impression about the hotel in the guest book. After that, the administrator stirred and took up the same for help. Meanwhile, the bus arrived. While the administrator was writing a certificate, I decided to read the book of complaints. Let me tell you, it's a very interesting read. A lot of things are opening your eyes. If you are there and there is a desire - read the complaint and guest books (they are at the reception) - many questions will disappear - such an attitude towards guests is the hotel system.
By the way, we noticed that two large (15-20 people each) groups of tourists arrived at the hotel this morning, and for some reason a Russian-speaking employee conducted a tour of the hotel for them. Probably, in due time, for our group of 5 people, they decided not to conduct such an excursion - they will figure it out themselves.
Transfer hotel-airport.
No nuances.
Flight.
About 40 minutes in the queues of the Tivat airport and we are in the waiting room. The hall is packed with people waiting for their flights. There are no free seats. The passengers of our flight are located along the walls - someone is on the floor, someone is on things, someone is standing. It's getting hot. The air conditioning system is clearly not working. There is a cooler with drinking water in the hall, but disposable cups run out very quickly and no one is in a hurry to replenish their supply. There is a long queue at the entrance to Duty Free. They are not allowed to go inside even with women's bags - they are asked to leave them at the entrance.
Moreover, without control of both the safety of the bags themselves and their contents. There are no words. The store itself is very small with a very limited range of goods. Nowhere else in Europe have we seen prices higher than this Duty Free. More than an hour of waiting in such conditions and, finally, boarding is announced. The flight itself passed without incident.
Our travel agent.
In accordance with the terms of the contract, we turned to our travel agent for compensation. The travel agent was very surprised to see the certificate from the hotel. For many years of work of this tour operator, this is the first case when a tourist managed to obtain documentary evidence of a violation from the hotel. Naturally, the difference in the cost of the tours was quickly returned to us.
Summary.
Hotel Mediteran for 4 * absolutely does not pull. Maximum 3*. And this is not just our opinion. Unfortunately, the service of the hotel in particular, and Montenegro as a whole, is still far from Western European (there is something to compare with). The legacy from the "scoop" makes itself felt.
Will we ever return to Mediteran? Absolutely not. However, the entire network of Mediteran hotels around the world no longer exists for us. Will we return to Montenegro? Perhaps in a few years, when we know that their level of service has risen to the level of Western Europe.
The only thing worth going to Montenegro for is the amazing nature. Therefore, if you are unpretentious about the service, Montenegro may suit you perfectly.
Translated automatically from Russian. View original
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OTHER REVIEWS ABOUT THE HOTEL
- Hotel with excellent cuisine. Beautiful spa complex, beach. Convenient location for excursions
- Nice hotel, chic indoor pool, water park
- the hotel is not bad
- A large hotel with a private beach and a free water park.
- friendly staff, good climate in a beautiful country) I liked the hotel very much
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