AluaSoul Ibiza - Adults Only

Bad experience here

2.0

I was really excited to stay here, it looks and sounds amazing on the jet2 website. When we first arrived at the hotel around 11am we experienced quite a long wait for check in even though there were only two other couples. The reception staff that were working were not at all friendly or welcoming on arrival. They did not explain how the hotel worked or did they mention booking the al a carte meal that is part of the all inclusive. We ended up missing out on it as no one mentioned it throughout our stay. We were quickly offered an ‘upgrade’ of a room for more money per night, but the couple beside us were offered an upgrade for less than we were offered. I had / or thought I had booked a nice room already so I politely declined and they said we’ll go see your room and if you change your mind let us know. We arrived to our room eventually, no help with luggage. The room was tiny, the bathroom was also tiny it was in extremely bad condition too . The shower chrome was filthy , there was a massive hole in the chipboard under the sink and there was a loose electrical point beside the bed. We actually nearly cried . We paid for a four star hotel room . Not a tiny , dirty room in disrepair. We had lunch went out to explore and then back to the room and my daughter refused to use the bathroom and I knew I had to speak to reception. Reception were rude and looked as though they did not believe us and they told us to go wait in our room and they would send someone. We waited for two hours and no one came. The went back to reception and left my daughter to wait . The receptionist knew nothing about it so I had to re explain it all again and I was told again to go wait in the room . We waited until dinner time and both of us were really fed up at the stage and also quite hungry so we decided to go for dinner and we spoke to reception on the way to dinner. When we got back to the room someone had been as the electrical fitting had been fixed but the shower was exactly the same. This time I took photos and returned again to reception and asked for a new room. He was cold, unfriendly and made me feel so bad about my request. I showed the receptionist the photos and he made some phone calls and after 30 minutes or longer he told me that all the rooms are in the same state but I could have another room and allocated another room at the other side of the hotel. We returned and repacked and lugged our bags to the other side of the hotel . The new room was much bigger and looked like the room I had originally booked on jet2 which was really weird as I felt the first room we had been given was for single use. I got the feeling they had allocated a small room so we would pay more to upgrade and I think they might keep the money they make on the upgrade hence them offering at different price to different people. We were absolutely mentally exhausted at this stage as it was 11pm by the time it was sorted out. The new room smelt badly of drains but we couldn’t start to complain after only being moved. We found out that the shower was actually blocked and completely flooded the bedroom and bathroom. Hence the smell , we were told not to use the shower until it was fixed the following day. . I doubt it was the first time it had flooded either. I think the whole hotel have major drain issues and a lot of money needs pumped back into this hotel to make it a four star hotel that they are advertising to be. It is certainly not 4 star . The staff need trained in customer service and common decency as I have never been treated the way that we were treated. No apologies only staff that refused to admit that there was a problem. I felt like an inconvenience rather than welcome . We have stayed in many different parts of Spain and always have had lovely experience's and staff have always been friendly, welcoming and helpful. I don’t drink alcohol and there was a severe lack of non alcoholic drinks . Only diet Fanta, diet sprite or diet cola were on offer in the restaurant. At breakfast there was a container of watered down fresh orange juice which was awful. No bottled water which was really disappointing for a non alcohol drinker as there were so many bottles of wine and alcohol for all inclusive. I don’t like fizzy drinks especially diet drinks . I asked for water with my meal one evening and was handed tap water in a dirty smudged glass with dirty finger prints on it. I also have a dairy allergy and struggled in the restaurant as there were no labels . There was also a lot of cross contamination of foods. I spoke to jet2 rep who was really unhelpful , she told me to find the restaurant manager. When I did he asked a member of staff point out when I was able to eat that evening but it only happened on one occasion, the rest of my stay was a guessing game. The plates were never very clean either. Restaurants need to keep vegetarian options separate with separate tongs to stop meat eaters using bean scoops to lift bacon . This could be easily avoided, there was a lovely selection of fresh fruit each mealtime thankfully so I pretty much lived on dry plain salad apart from the one night that they had hummus so I could had that with the salad. . and fruit. I found myself very hungry later in the evenings and there was nothing to eat for all inclusives in the hotel except at meal times. I’m surprised to read so many good reviews on here and wonder if they actually stayed at the same hotel . We had no electricity or running water at all in the hotel from the Thursday afternoon right through to late that Thursday night, I had to ask reception for a small bottle of water to take to our room . The only positive for me was the fresh fruit at the buffet at meal times and the second bed was comfortable . The food truck that is meant to be part of the all inclusive also wasn’t mentioned and you are left to your own devices to navigate and be shouted at due to not knowing the protocol. After being shouted at we didn’t bother getting to try it: I only took the photos of our room to show to deception but I wish I had taken more of the general state of the hotel . When our second room flooded we were more concerned about moving everything off the floor so our belongings didn’t get soaked. Last thing on my mind was taking photos. Definitely my worst holiday experience in 52 years .

Big Time Chill

8.0

We have just returned from a fantastic 10 nights vacation, we had a fantastic time in general, loved the hotel, location, food ??? drinks, excellent staff and all round chilled vibe that was abundant,however it could have been much better if only a slight investment were applied, ie the black out blinds that did not fit resulting in a nice early awakening each Morning, the food whilst very tasty and lots of choice was generally not hot,such a shame after a great effort by the chefs,a good few residents also agreed, Please Please Please purchase a microwave as other Alua hotels we have been to have,I complained to Janice at reception, sadly nothing changed, also leaking shower door,needs replacing, leaking hand basin room1517. That said we have booked for next year lol,hopefully they will have purchased said microwave. Special thanks to all staff on the great job they do especially Alicia, Carlos ( Santana),Manolo,Antonio, Felix in the bar and young Carlos in the Restaurant, Muchias Gracias.

Food poisoning. Avoid.

4.0

Unfortunately I experienced food poisoning from the main buffet restaurant on our second night. As much as the hotel was fine, pool was nice, most of the staff were lovely and accommodating, it is just not at all 4* standard, even without the food poisoning unfortunately. We informed the reception staff of what happened, they wouldn’t take any responsibility whatsoever and said it was impossible. The lady on reception tried to then blame it on my celiac disease, which either way you look at it, the food was contaminated by the hotel, because I only ate things that were labelled gluten free and I hadn’t eaten anything other than the hotel food. I’m also very strict on eating any gluten and also know the difference between eating gluten and having food poisoning, it was very clear it was the latter. I told them I wasn’t comfortable eating in the restaurant again, the servers in the main restaurant then tried to accommodate us and convince us to eat in there. I asked for plain pasta as I couldn’t eat much else at the stage, but gave me over boiled, horrendous tasting gf pasta swimming in water. After being ill this wasn’t ideal. They also walked me through everything that was gf, but then said I could have a soy sauce salad and black pudding, which both contain gluten, I had to correct them on this. This makes me question whether any of the food was labelled correctly. I’m not sure they’re as clued up with allergies as they like to make out. I also thanked them for trying to look after us, looking back I’m not sure why I did that. I think many other people would’ve been absolutely livid at the experience we had. We also felt no real effort was made to make us a little happier and more comfortable. We found it a real shame that they didn’t try and swap our room for us, or comp anything at all, like a Balinese bed for example, which costs them nothing to give us. We didn’t expect a lot, we didn’t need an upgrade etc but some small gesture would’ve been nice. We decided to eat out every evening after that, which obviously was a large cost after having paid for all exclusive. We did eat at the pool from the food truck and they seemed more knowledgeable and were happy to give me a simple burger with no bun. But the main restaurant was just a mess. To be honest, the food we did eat on the 1st & 2nd night generally was just bad and flavourless, not 4* quality at all. Besides that, we can’t fault the pool bar staff, they were all so lovely and work extremely hard! I have to mention the night porter on reception, who helped me when I was unwell. We never got his name sadly but he was amazing, so kind and accommodating for us so thank you so much! I honestly would recommend anyone to just pay that little bit extra and go elsewhere, again it was a fine hotel but just not up to scratch I’m afraid. We don’t like to complain or rock the boat and we always try to make the best of a bad situation, hence why we just moved on and tried to enjoy our holiday. I rarely leave reviews but I would avoid this hotel at all costs. After reading reviews before booking, I knew something was off as there are a lot of bad reviews, especially when it comes to the food. Looking back we made a mistake, it’s 3* at best sadly. (We understood that without a doctors note, we couldn’t make a formal complaint which was fine and by that point we didn’t want to spend anymore money and time and just wanted to try and enjoy the rest of our holiday so we didn’t proceed- incase the hotel replies about that.)

A hotel we would definitely return to.

10.0

Pay no attention to the negative reviews. An excellent hotel, great staff, great food and a very chilled atmosphere. An extra special thanks to Carlos and Antonio who went above and beyond to make our stay a memorable one, cheers guys.

AVOID THIS HOTEL

2.0

Awful hotel,bathrooms smell of sewers, the girl incharge of the reception is extremely rude. We arrived at this hotel for 5 days but after a few hours in the hotel,we began to notice this definitely isn't a 4☆ standard. We requested to move hotels with tui . This unfortunately cost us nearly £300 more although we had paid five days for this hotel. We are waiting for the resort tax back as the hotel is responsible for that& hopefully the four days half board we cancelled. However they are ignoring Tui emails. This shows you how bad it is

Hotel Alua Soul, Es Cana Ibiza

10.0

Hotel right on the front, restaurant overlooking the sea. 3 generous pools, no problem getting a sunbed. Buffet style meals, good quality with plenty of choice, good upgrade for unlimited drinks with evening meals 7 euros per day. All staff were very friendly especially the bar staff.