Ola Hotel Club Panama

Avoid this hotel. Our holiday was ruined.

We stayed at Globales Panama in July 2026 after booking a seven-night package holiday through TUI for approximately £2,900. It was supposed to be a relaxing family holiday, but it became one of the worst travel experiences we have ever had.

From the moment we arrived, problems started.

Our room was filthy. There was thick dust throughout the room, hair left by previous guests and, most shockingly, visible faecal residue still inside the toilet. This room had clearly not been properly cleaned or inspected before being given to new guests.

The air conditioning in our room repeatedly failed during the night. Although the display showed 16°C, the room became unbearably hot and my wife barely slept for four nights out of our seven-night holiday. Only later were we told that the unit actually required replacement because of a faulty control board.

My mother's room also had defective air conditioning from the first night. Instead of moving her, the hotel simply gave her a portable fan.

When we were finally moved from Room 514 to Room 515, we expected the problems to be over. Instead, the replacement room was also dirty. We immediately found hair, dust, sticky shelves, dirt in the bathroom and heavy grime inside the wardrobe. My wife ended up cleaning parts of the room herself with disinfectant wipes before unpacking because she no longer trusted the hotel's housekeeping. Reception staff saw the filthy wipes and housekeeping management attended the room.

Food hygiene then became another serious concern.

The day after arrival my wife became seriously ill with gastrointestinal symptoms after breakfast. Later in the holiday our healthy 16-year-old son also became ill after eating breakfast at the hotel. He developed stomach pain, diarrhoea and nausea, forcing us to cancel our planned day in Palma. Afterwards he became so worried about the hotel's food that he refused to eat breakfast there for the rest of the holiday, so we had to pay to eat elsewhere.

We also photographed and filmed undercooked eggs with raw egg white still visible, together with hair attached to a sausage. These photographs and videos form part of the evidence we have submitted.

Throughout the holiday we spent hours dealing with reception, housekeeping and the TUI representative instead of enjoying our holiday.

One of the advertised outdoor restaurant terraces that influenced our booking decision was unavailable throughout our stay.

On our final day conditions inside the hotel became so uncomfortable that we paid for our own transport to the airport instead of waiting for the transfer.

This was advertised as a 4-star hotel, but based on our experience it fell nowhere near that standard. Basic cleanliness, room inspection, maintenance and food hygiene all fell well below what any guest should reasonably expect.

We documented everything with photographs and videos and submitted a detailed formal complaint.

After months of correspondence, TUI acknowledged many of the failures but offered only £105 compensation for a holiday costing around £2,900. We rejected that offer.

We are now proceeding with legal action to seek appropriate compensation for the loss of enjoyment of our holiday under the Package Travel and Linked Travel Arrangements Regulations 2018.

My advice is simple: avoid this hotel, and if you are considering booking it through TUI, think very carefully. Based on our experience, we will never book another holiday through TUI again.

This holiday left our family exhausted, stressed and recovering from illness instead of returning home with happy memories.

It also raises serious questions about how this hotel continues to hold a 4-star rating. Based on our experience, it did not come close to meeting the standards we would reasonably expect from a 4-star property and, in several respects, would struggle to meet the standard of many budget hotels. We simply cannot understand how this hotel has received so many 4 and 5-star reviews, as our experience was completely inconsistent with that level of quality.

Excellent service from Barack at reception. He was very welcoming, professional, and always ready to help. I would also like to thank the kitchen staff Mustafa, Mohamed, Abel, Moncef, and Ali for their kindness, great service, and hard work. They all made our stay much more enjoyable. Highly recommended!