MrsWS-2013
Google
Just returned from 3 nights at The Level at Villaitana (mid-May, weekday booking). It's a bit of a mixed bag at this time of year! ||TL:DR; Overall, it’s a beautiful site with amazing pools and perfectly comfortable rooms, fabulous architecture and good a la carte restaurants. The buffet food is very disappointing and there were some poor service experiences. Would we go again? Yes, but maybe at a weekend and/or on a different board basis.||The good:||- The pools are gorgeous. These are the biggest, most beautiful pools we have ever sat by, and at this time of year you get them all to yourself! The water is cool, but not prohibitively so. Just get in! You also have your pick of the sunbeds, all day; we estimated there were no more than 10% being used at any one time, at any of the pools. ||- Our room was large, bright, airy and clean, with a dressing room and separate shower and bath. The bed was two pushed together, but that’s minor. The air con was in action during our stay, and overall we were very comfortable. The wooden Villaitana souvenir magnet is a nice touch.||- The resort is built like a small town, and the architecture is stunning. It’s an exceptionally pretty site, with courtyards, gardens, fountains and lovely walkways.||- Even with events taking place, the resort itself is quiet and ideal if you’re wanting a peaceful, relaxing holiday with lovely pools, plenty of sun, great views, and a hint of sea breeze. ||- The Level breakfast is good, with a lot of choice: pastries, charcuterie, fresh fruit, bread, waffles and crepes, and hot items including made-to-order omelettes. This is also where you are most likely to meet the Level cats, who are super cute.||- The two a la carte restaurants open during our stay were very tasty, with generous portions. The Papamambo truffle Caesar salad is delicious and easily a sharing portion (far too big for a starter), and everything we tried at Cosa Nostra was top notch. Can highly recommend the pineapple carpaccio for dessert.||- The majority of staff was very friendly and efficient. Special shout out to Tony at the Level, for being so helpful and getting our luggage down the (many) steps. ||The not-so-good:||- Guests v “VIPs”: During our 3 days on site, there were also a Finnish filming crew, an international judo convention, and a corporate conference which all caused disruptions, and impacted our experience as guests.||The filming crew prevented access to coaches, so on arrival we were dropped off right at the gates to the resort and had to walk up the hill with our luggage. Halfway up we were stopped again by crew and told to “wait” or “go around” to check in. A passing hotel staff member overrode this to let us through, via a back route to avoid the filming in the main plaza, but the first people we saw on arrival were filming crew lackeys, blocking the way but knowing nothing about the hotel and unable to answer any questions. Why no hotel staff facilitating arrivals at the gate, a golf cart to at least take luggage up, or signs to advise on where to go? | On collecting our luggage once our room was ready later that day, we needed to cross the main cobblestoned plaza from over-fill to go back through the Level reception to our room. We were again stopped by the filming crew, who said our luggage was too noisy and we needed to just stop where we were, indefinitely, until they were done. Even though we were paying guests, who were 10ft from the door we needed to go through. We weren’t detained for long, but Melia should have thought more about the guests’ experience, and either insisted the filming crew pay for exclusive use, or made it easier for arriving guests to move around efficiently and quietly without being accosted, maybe by laying a carpet, or providing staff to assist and direct. There weren’t any staff around, even at check-in time and knowing that filming was taking place right outside the building they were channelling every new arrival into. Melia didn’t do enough here; our break shouldn’t have started off with what were essentially *other guests* treating us like we were trespassing just for trying to check-in to a hotel we’d paid to be at too.||- Check-in queue: For some reason all hotel guests were checking in at the Level as the regular reception was closed, and this included the numerous, large sports teams (who were not Level guests) arriving for the judo convention, which caused us to queue for 40 minutes (around noon). Staff training was also happening at reception, slowing things down during this incredibly busy time. There was a “priority check-in” lane – is that for Level guests, maybe? If so, it needs to be clearer.||- Luggage room security: Rooms are not available until 4pm, so everybody (including the sports teams) was leaving their luggage and ours had to go into over-fill. This involved us going to another, empty building and leaving our luggage – none of which was logged, tagged or ticketed by hotel staff – in a single locked room which staff were allowing regular guests to enter to leave or collect belongings, passing items left by other guests. Hardly a safe approach, and we’ve never seen this before in 4 or 5* hotels!||- The wristband with integrated key magnet may not unlock your room if you are given this before your room is available. ||- Communication around the resort is poor. For 2/3 of our stay the Botanico buffet was closed in the evenings. We were not informed about this in advance or at check-in, and no sign was posted outside the restaurant or at the top of the stairs. It simply didn’t open. The first closure appeared to be because of a corporate event occurring at the Botanico pool bar (which was otherwise closed); the event was signposted, but not the closure for regular guests. We had to chase information on what our options were instead, when this should have been made clear to any guests who had paid for evening meals at the supposedly higher-end Level services. (Options were the regular Mosaico buffet, or the one open restaurant with supplement fee waived.) No clue why it was closed on the third evening, but technically we had paid to eat at a restaurant that was inexplicably unavailable to us for two-thirds of our stay.||- On our first evening (around 10pm) an alarm went off at a building close to ours then stopped, then shortly after our building alarm went off. Four times, overall, over 10 minutes. We were the only guests in the block, and there was no emergency information in the room. Was it a drill, or an actual fire? No idea. We ran out and bumped into a lone staff member who was talking on a walkie talkie by the pool, who said it was a “mistake”, no fire. No apology or explanation either, though.||- The evening buffet food isn’t good. Our one evening at the Level buffet (Botanico) served us corked wine, pink pork, and so many bones in both the chicken rice dish and fideua. There wasn’t a lot of choice but we put that down to being off-season. All the pastry-based desserts were soggy and chewy. On the second night due to the Botanico closure we tried Mosaico (main resort buffet) which was worse, and more canteen-like; basic pasta, buckets of fries, pink pork again, fish, meatballs, a Mexican chilli station but no rice. The charcuterie section looked plentiful but was actually limited to only a few options which were then duplicated. At neither buffet did I see the lone “show cook” chef cook anything. This isn’t 4* food, or anywhere close. The Botanico building, ambiance and selection is marginally better but we’d still only give that 3.5*.||- There isn’t a lifeguard at every pool. At Mosaico, the one guard sat at the quarter sectioned off by bridges, and we only saw him check the other 75% of the resort’s biggest pool once the entire day we were there. At the Level, the smaller, heated Romano pool has a guard, but not the larger Botanico pool. ||- We only found one working poolside shower, at the Level Romano pool. None of the ones we tried at Botanico or Mosaico worked. ||- Wifi is poor, and we gave up trying to use it.||What you need to know:||- The Villaitana Level is not adult-only, and the heated pool (Romano) is where most of the children spend the day.||- The resort is huge, and there are a lot of steps. There are lifts dotted around, but it's not always clear where they are or where they take you. The lift down to Botanico (large pool and buffet restaurant for Level guests) was out of order, so accessing the Level pool and restaurant can be problematic for less abled guests. ||- A lot of the resort is closed in May, so go into town and buy snacks, water and mixers. Aside from the buffet restaurants, the only restaurants available are Casa Nostra (Italian) in the evenings and Papamambo during the day. The poolside bar at the Level Romano pool is open, but not the one at the larger pool - bringing drinks to the lower level involves lots of steps. The heladeria and Mosaico poolside bar are closed (can only get drinks from Papamambo). There is no weekday entertainment, but Fri-Sun the Lima restaurant is open and evening entertainment is provided. ||- The Level Lounge has limited offerings, and nothing may be taken outside. Crisps, nuts and pickles are a constant; the morning’s pastries are swapped out around noon for jars of sweets. There are bottled soft drinks, beers and water in the fridges, cava and wine, and a small selection of spirits, as well as coffee machines. ||- For half-board guests: If Botanico is closed, the €16pp supplement fee at the a la carte restaurants is waived. ||- Access to the water circuit at the spa is around €30pp for an hour. ||- There is a small shop onsite, which mostly sells souvenirs and essential toiletries (sun cream, shampoo, nappies, etc), plus beach dresses, shirts, hats, sandals, handbags. They do not sell water or food. ||- A round of two cokes and a large bottle of water costs €10.20 – not unreasonable!||- It’s possible to grab a taxi from drop-offs at the resort, or download the PideTaxi app: a round trip into Benidorm is around €17-20. ||Despite the disappointing aspects, we did really enjoy our stay here! Having the pools to ourselves, and no fighting over prime location sunbeds, was absolutely lovely! Melia just needs to work on the food, communicate better and remember hotel guests shouldn’t be negatively impacted by the presence of corporate clients and special events.
