"We booked a very last minute stay at the Hotel Honucai, as based on the hotel reviews and photos we thought it looked perfect for us. We’re a couple in our early 40s and generally enjoy smaller, boutique hotels (extra points for adults only) - and minimum 4 star. We usually stay in PP but sadly couldn’t find accommodation there due to the last minute nature of our trip.
First - the positives!
1) Location - The hotel sits right on the harbour front of Colonia San Jordi with beautiful views.
2) The hotel was absolutely spotless. From the lobby, to our room, the corridors and pool area, it was clear that the housekeeping staff do an excellent job.
3) Most of the staff we encountered were very friendly and helpful.
4) Food & drinks - No complaints here in terms of quality. We didn’t eat at the restaurant but both breakfast and lunch by the pool were tasty, if a little repetitive after a few days.
5) Comfortable beds & bedding, stocked mini bar (on arrival only), in room safe and free wifi.
Now, for the more constructive!
1) Breakfast was chaos. There is nobody co-ordinating it, as you would normally expect. People could also walk off the street and have breakfast too, so some mornings it was difficult to find a table. Guests were essentially left to find their own table and a couple of times even had to source our own cutlery etc. There appeared to be a maximum of 2 staff on duty. A very strange experience indeed and we chose to skip it a few days purely for the sake our sanity.
On our last day we noticed a sign next to the toaster advising that poached eggs and omelettes were available on request. If you could find staff to order from,
you’d be doing well…😂🙈
2) Our room was TINY! Yes, we didn’t have the luxury of room choice due to booking very close to our arrival, but there was nowhere to store our luggage so we had to pretty much keep moving it around the room as we got ready.
The room was clean but very tired and in need of a re-vamp. The curtains were marked, mould in the shower and grout etc.
The first time we showered, the bathroom completely flooded! We reported this to reception and had to request extra towels as we used them all to clean up. Reception said they’d get someone to come and clean up for us. Which they did but the shower was never fixed and continued to leak for the rest of our stay. We had to roll up towels and place them along the outer door edge to stop the bathroom flooding again. Despite this and housekeeping replacing the towel everyday; they never gave us any extra to compensate.
3) The pool & bar didn’t open until 11am, which is quite late for a pool. Not realising this beforehand (we assumed at the latest 10am!), my hubby headed up to read his book and found that the umbrellas had also been locked away and weren’t brought out until 11am, so his choice was to sit in direct sun close to midday or go elsewhere.
We attempted to buy a bottle
of water from the bar after the staff arrived for their shift but was told we’d have to wait, so we ended up going to our room to retrieve a bottle instead.
4) Atmosphere - now we’re hardly party goers, but apart from the days they have a DJ on at the rooftop bar, there was pretty much no life in the hotel after 10pm. The rooftop bar on DJ night took an awfully long time to be served, so we abandoned it after 1 cocktail.
5) General service - We were given little information about the hotel upon check in, other than the breakfast timings. No wifi info, area details etc. We didn’t discover the salt lake until our second last day.
We booked a restaurant in a neighbouring town one evening and approached reception to call us a taxi. To our surprise, we were told this wasn’t possible, as the taxi situation was “complicated”. After calling around with no success, we eventually gave up and cancelled our reservation. Never have I been unable to get a taxi from a hotel, even in the most remote of areas! Staff advised that the bus was an option but the last one was only an hour after our dinner reservation so we’d have been stranded there. Thankfully we had a car so drove there the following evening instead. Worth keeping in mind, especially if you plan to grab a taxi back to the airport!
Colonia San Jordi itself is an odd little place. More a sleepy residential/2nd holiday home vibe. There’s a tourist train, but hardly any tourists…👀 and with the exception of the weekends, there’s little atmosphere past 9pm, with many restaurants also closed.
Overall, our stay was fine. But this hotel feels like it was perhaps a 4 star long ago, but not so much now. They clearly lean heavily on a productive marketing team. Also, we’re still unclear if the hotel is adults only? If not, it absolutely should be. The pool area etc are not suitable for children due to size (without disrupting other guests), yet there were noisy kids in the bar on DJ night and at breakfast, so we’re really unclear on that one!"
