While our time sight-seeing on Mallorca was great, our hotel was rather disappointing. Our fly-and-drive deal included the 2 hour flight with Air Berlin, a rental car with Enterprise and the hotel room at Hotel THB Class Felip for 4 nights. The 4-star seafront hotel was located at the eastern coast of Mallorca in the quiet town, Porto Cristo. It was an “adults-only” hotel and it was quite clearly so from having sparkling wine served at the breakfast buffet. Hotel THB Class Felip also had a spa or wellness center but we didn’t get the opportunity to visit it. The spa was only open during the day and closes at 6pm…which, in my opinion, defeats the purpose of a spa center cause you would want/need to relax after a day out sight-seeing or hiking and that happens after 6pm. We stayed in a double room with a balcony and a sea view. We had not requested for the sea view but had gotten it nonetheless and thought it was a nice gesture. The room was small but sufficient and served all the wants and needs of its occupant…at least it seemed so at first.
We had several problems with this hotel. Don’t get me wrong, the staff were really professional and helpful. We had a problem with the car rental on the last day and needed to contact Enterprise to extend our contract. We sought help at the hotel reception and without hesitation, they made phone calls to get hold of the right people and make the inquiries. However having said this, the room was less than satisfactory.
When we first got to the room, we realized that it was only a room away from the lift. I didn’t think this would have been a problem…we weren’t right next to the lift, so we shouldn’t hear much. However, whenever the lift moved, it made this loud low bellowing sound as though some part needed oiling. The first time I heard it I thought some part of the building construction was about to give way and that we might need to evacuate the building soon…it was that bad. Despite this, we didn’t request for another room because we figured that a sound like this would travel much further down the corridor, beyond even 5 doors away. So we stayed where we were.
The items in our room (left) and bathroom (right).
The room had a heater and air-conditioning system all rolled into one unit. For some reason, even without the system switched on, the room was toasty warm. That was nice to return to after a walk around the town in the cold. However, for sleeping we like to have the room a bit colder, say around 21°C. But when we switched the air-conditioning system on, hot air was being released. We tried to sleep without the unit switched on but it became too stuffy quickly and we needed ventilation. Finally, we decided to leave the door to the balcony open for the night. However, in doing this we then faced the problem of noise from the street. At night, local teenagers liked to hang about across the road from where the hotel was. And like all teenagers, they were loud and liked to ride their motorcycles up and down the street even if it was only for a 100 meters. So for our entire stay, we barely got a good night’s rest.
But wait! There’s more! The room included a set of glassware, cups, tea-spoons, a kettle and a pair of tea-bags and coffee packets (picture above). It sounds great and I was really happy about this until we were about to use the spoons to eat some cake we bought earlier. We were appalled to discover the spoons dirty, encrusted with something I don’t even want to imagine. The other things that were provided in the room, the bathroom more specifically, were shower foams, shampoos and other toiletries. I admit, I’m particular about what I put on my skin so I always carry my toiletries even if I end up staying in a 5-star hotel. Hubby however, is the complete opposite of me. He couldn’t care less and he always used the soaps provided by the hotel cause according to him, the quality is usually pretty good and the soaps are neutral (in smell, pH, etc.). But this time, after using the shower foam and shampoo at Hotel Felip, he called out to me saying that we needed to get him something from the supermarket…apparently the quality of the soaps here was highly questionable. And while we’re on the subject of the toilet, we were disappointed with the shower. I mean, they had a great shower-head! It was one of those rain showers! It was awesome with high water pressure! But the shower was unable to maintain temperature. So the water was oscillating between hot (or warm, whichever temperature you set it to) and cold….one moment hot and the next moment cold. Not quite what we were expecting from a 4-star hotel.
Breakfast was included in our hotel stay and in our opinion, it was not worth waking up for. It was a buffet style breakfast which I will not go into much detail except this. Despite having 3 coffee machines, none of the coffee brewed was good. Maybe we have a different idea of what good coffee is but if you like Italian coffee and not so much American coffee, we’re on the same page. Hubby tried all the possible combinations and options offered during breakfast but it was the same brown coloured liquid with something resembling milk every time. I wondered whether it was because the Spanish don’t know what good coffee is. But not long after I came up with this hypothesis did I throw it out: after breakfast, we walked across the lobby area, pass the bar which had a proper professional espresso machine and watched a hotel staff drink coffee from that machine. Super, right?
Belosophy 