Ondamar Hotel

To put this simply, this hotel is NOT A FAMILY HOTEL. We traveled as two family groups both 2 adults, 2 kids. If you are looking for a relaxing holiday do not visit this hotel. The hotel seems to have become a party hotel for groups of teenagers! We were stuck here for 8 nights of which we had 2 nights of uninterrupted sleep. Of the other 6 nights we had to go down to reception to security and ask them to do something about the noise!

Rooms- Room wasn’t cleaned for the entirety of our stay even after requesting at reception and also asking the cleaners directly. We had to ask for fresh towels and new toilet roll. Full Bin bags were left outside of rooms in walkways for multiple days! Rooms are showing their age and use.

Pool area- Relaxed in the mornings and late evenings. Hotel seems to have a policy of late check ins combined with early arrivals where groups of teens who have just arrived are sent to the pool area and more stupidly the pool bar. On multiple occasions we had to ask our kids to come out of the pool as new arrivals became drunk and oblivious to their surroundings. Footballs being kicked at full power skimming across the pool and American footballs being launched at speed. We as parents couldn’t relax once the new arrival’s entered the pool area. No hotel staff were monitoring the pool and it was left to the adults to try bring things under control when they got out of hand.

Staff- Bar staff were friendly. Reception staff changed daily which meant you were never dealing with the same person for two consecutive days. One security guard was on site to manage 91 apartments 80-90% of which were filled with grips of 4 boys or girls. Security guard did her best but was fighting an uphill battle.

Food- Over priced, poor quality. Again purely designed to cater to teens on a sesh. Only area to get food was next to the pool. Me and my wife went for breakfast once and it was the most budget of breakfast I’ve ever experienced. Other than drinks and ice creams we ate outside of the hotel for the entire trip.

Atmosphere- Early morning while teenagers were recovering from night before were relaxed and chilled at the pool. As teens began to wake up and arrive at the pool the party vibe began. We left the hotel every evening returning between 10-12 at night to room parties, boys and girls screaming from balconies, abuse being shouted from balconies between different nation. The hotel usually fell quiet between 12 and 3am. From 3am on groups began to return from clubs, again parties would start, screaming and singing from balconies and screaming up and down corridors. We were on edge the whole trip!!

This hotel caters to teens, stags and hens if you do not fall into one of those groups DO NOT visit this hotel!

We booked this hotel because it was advertised as being family-friendly, but unfortunately that was not our experience at all.

To make matters worse, the start of our holiday was far from ideal. For the first two nights of our stay, we had to stay in a different apartment because our booked room was not ready. The beds in this apartment were extremely uncomfortable. My husband ended up sleeping on top of a pillow one night because the springs were almost coming through the mattress. I had to use the spare quilts and blankets from the room underneath me just to make the mattress bearable and stop the springs digging into my back. It was an incredibly uncomfortable start to what should have been a relaxing holiday.

The hotel was full of very young guests who appeared to be Leaving Cert students on holiday. Almost every night they were partying loudly. They would typically head out around midnight and then return in groups from around 3:00 a.m. onwards, making noise throughout the corridors and balconies. On five out of our eight nights, we had to complain to reception about the excessive noise because it was impossible to sleep.

The disturbances included loud music, parties in rooms, shouting across balconies, and one night we were even woken by someone vomiting outside. It completely ruined what should have been a relaxing family holiday.

During the day, the atmosphere around the pool was generally calmer, but there were still occasions where the behaviour was inappropriate. One of the adults in our group had to ask a group of boys to calm down because they were kicking a football around aggressively close to other guests. We had younger children with us and didn’t feel the environment was particularly safe or relaxing for families.

The housekeeping was also extremely disappointing. Despite asking both reception and the cleaner, our room was never actually cleaned during our stay. We repeatedly had to request fresh towels ourselves, which is simply not the standard you would expect.

Overall, this hotel did not deliver the family-friendly experience it advertises. Between being moved to an alternative apartment with unusable beds for the first two nights, the constant late-night disturbances, poor housekeeping, and the lack of effective management of guest behaviour, we left feeling very disappointed. We would not recommend this hotel to families looking for a peaceful holiday.