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There is absolutely no way Ta’ Cenc deserves a 5-star rating. In fact, it would be hard pushed to qualify as a 3-star. The whole place is tired, dated, and dirty. Feral cats wander everywhere – they come around your table while you’re eating, mewing or even loudly fighting. At lunch, you’re brought ketchup and mayonnaise in sachets – not exactly five-star service.||||The so-called “beach towel system” is laughable: you first have to track down the spa to hand over your towel voucher, then when you leave you must return the towels back to the spa, only to be given your cards again, which then have to be handed in at reception. And it’s not as though the towels are unctuous and fluffy – they’re thin, worn, and barely fit for purpose. Seriously – what five-star hotel makes guests jump through hoops for that?||||The interior of our room was depressing – dark, heavy wood paired with cold, functional tiles. My shower was dirty, with broken tiles and stained grouting. The minibar was completely empty. Furniture is outdated, some pieces broken, and everything feels neglected. There’s no turndown service, the bed linen is thin and worn, and the bed itself is a hard, basic spring bed you’d expect in a budget hostel, not a supposed five-star. The air conditioning unit is old and deafening. The soundproofing is appalling: from 7am you hear every word of staff in the corridor, along with noisy trolleys trundling up and down.||||Outside isn’t any better – pool umbrellas are broken, and the loungers are so uncomfortable it’s impossible to relax for more than a few minutes. On our patio, where the hedge had been cut, dried clippings were just left lying there. Around the property, mops and cleaning equipment are left out by staff – adding to the overall impression of neglect.||||The food is consistently poor. At breakfast it’s help-yourself to automatic coffee machines, fake orange juice, and bulk-buy basic meats and cheeses sweating away in the heat. Dinner was no better: the “fresh fish” was obviously frozen, and salt and pepper are provided in generic supermarket grinders. Menus come illustrated with laminated photos like a low-end café.||||None of this would matter quite so much if they were honest and described themselves as a three-star. But to pretend this is five-star luxury is misleading at best. Many of the staff worked hard and did their best, but their efforts are wasted in a hotel with no investment, outdated facilities, and obviously poor management. Ta’ Cenc needs to decide what it actually wants to be: a cheap, basic stop for budget tourism, or a genuinely decent hotel for travellers. At the moment, it fails on both counts.
