W Algarve

I am an Ambassador with the Marriott program with >$40k spend last year. This is the worst hotel I have stayed in, in a really long time. Here is the long list of issues I experienced during my stay: Upon my arrival to the restaurant there was no hostess to greet me. After waiting at the entrance for a few minutes I just went ahead and sat down. After sitting down I was trying to get the attention of a waiter for more than 5 minutes. After I got up and approached the waiters the hostess said you should have checked in with me, I said I tried to but no one was there. After this I waited another 10 minutes to be served, I was approached by two different waiters asking me if I in fact wanted to sit at the table I was sitting at but still they didn’t take my order. Finally my order was received. I ordered the sangria pitcher which turned out to be just pure sugar and juice concentrate – it had nothing to do with what a sangria should be. I asked for it to be changed to a bottle of wine. At this point my food arrived and I began eating but it took another 10 minutes for the waiters to tell me that the bottle of wine that I ordered was not in stock. At this point I was almost done with my meal so it was useless to get any wine anyway. As I waited for the bill I saw two seagulls come and ravage multiple tables that had leftovers from people that have departed after lunch. They found a shellfish carcass and began tugging at it from both sides and spilling food all over the place. A disgusting site to see while you are eating. I saw multiple employees see this disaster occurring and do nothing about it. After this horrible lunch (food is also mediocre at best) I tried to forget about it and relax at the pool. I came to the pool, no one greeted me to hand me a towel or find me a pool bed. I found a pool bed by myself after waiting and did so without a towel. I saw a waiter that isn’t busy, I asked for a beer and a wine – these are not hard to make cocktail drinks – just pour it in the glass. After waiting another 30 plus minutes and not receiving my drinks I went back into my room. In the evening I went out to a concert and returned with my car at 1 am (not that late).There was no valet to be seen to take my car, very poor service. Next morning, at 10am the cleaners barged into my room. They didn’t knock and wait, meanwhile checkout is at noon. Horrible service I then went to the breakfast – needless to say the service was extremely poor. I cannot stress how horrible the scrambled eggs were. It was basically a liquid sludge that I could barely lift with my fork as it fell through it, instead I had to use a spoon. Horrible. After this I went to the pool area again. They couldn’t find any sunbeds for me. I sat in the restaurant area. A few minutes later out of nowhere a waiter says “here are your two beers” and places two beers that I didn’t order, turning around extremely quickly and walking away before I could say that is not my order. I had to get up and chase him to tell him it is not my order. Horrible. After all of this happened I demanded to speak to the general manager at check out. At check out I was led to believe I am speaking to the general manager, but only after the conversation I found out I was actually speaking to the Welcome Desk Supervisor and not the general manager (by reading the business card) - deceitful. The Welcome Desk Supervisor offered me 20k Bonvoy points as an apology. This is not enough but its something. I accepted this. However after going through all of this I checked and I was also cheated out of points. Yes I received the 20k Bonvoy points but to offset this the hotel under-delivered the points that I deserve for my stay. I only received 2.5k Bonvoy points for the actual stay when by my calculations I should at least have received 6-10k+. So I was getting bad service even after check out!

Arrived on an early flight and our room was ready on arrival which was very welcome as didn’t want to wait until 3 pm. Check in was swift with a cold drink and lots of information about the hotel.

We stayed in a 2 bed Residence with garden access. We thought we had booked an apartment with a double room and a twin room but when we got there, there were 2 double rooms and an odd wheely bed in the lounge nestled up against the patio door. We quiried this and were told that they don’t have twin rooms. We moved the bed into the second bedroom to make it a twin. Both bedrooms had large en suites and the rooms were clean and well presented. The rest of the apartment was enormous with a well appointed kitchen Inc dishwasher and washing machine. The dining and lounge area was huge with patio doors going out to the garden from master bedroom and lounge.

The rest of the hotel was lovely. We used both pool areas and it didn’t matter what time you went you could always get a lounger. Inevitably there were a couple of idiots hogging loungers with towels for hours whilst not being there but in the main the place was occupied by grown ups who just used loungers when they needed them.

‘Wet deck’ area was great. Music all day, very attentive staff bringing food and drinks when required. Menu was a little limited and a little pricey but just enough when peckish round the pool. We had a cabana for a day which was nice and rather than charge explicitly they just ask for a minimum spend which is good.

The hotel grounds were well kept, the beaches associated with the hotel were a bit of a walk away and quite small but the hotel doesn’t advertise itself as having a beach. There is not much of note around the hotel and albufiera itself only warrants a single visit uni are under 30.

The pluses are that the hotel is wonderfully presented, rooms in the residences are fantastic and the staff are all warm, friendly and attentive.

So why not 5 stars…. The W stands for Whatever Whenever but when a simple request was made for a clothes airer to dry our washing, one couldn’t be provided yet we could see them on loads of other balconies - we didn’t want anything special just something that everyone else seems to have. We asked on 2 different days and were told it wasn’t possible. The main bar was ice cold every night - people were having to sit inside with blankets on which is not the relaxing environment you expect from a hotel bar. Despite being a Marriot, I was told that I could not earn any Bonvoy points because I was in the Residences rather than the hotel - reception happily took my Bonvoy number but when I asked about points on checkout I was told that I hadn’t earned any - ignoring the residence aspect I still spent over £1000 on food and drink in the 5 days I was there so very surprised and a bit disappointed) that no points were earned.