Hotel Bella Vista

Stayed at Bella Vista for 4 nights with my parents (who are senior citizens) as part of our broader trip to Albania. Having travelled a fair bit, I could straight up say this place wasn’t meeting the standards of a 4 star property, but, often, family run hotels make up for the lack of finesse/amenities with their personal attention towards their guests. Boy! what we experienced here was far from that. We were given a family suite and after two nights in the suite, we noticed there was a puddle of water forming in the middle of the bedroom the third morning. We dismissed this at first, assuming it was the condensation from the aircon. By late morning, the floor of the room was practically filled with water. At this point, we reported the issue to the staff, who, I must say, promptly attended to the issue. We explained to them the situation to the best of our ability given no one (but for one staff member) speaks English. They acknowledged the situation and OFFERED us a room change. We were on our way out for sightseeing at the time so they kindly also offered to shift our luggage to the new room they were going to be allotting us and we agreed to collect the keys later in the day when we got back. Besides the slightly anxious start to the day, we were not inconvenienced by the whole thing and infact openly expressed our gratitude towards the staff that had helped sort things out. When we did get back to the hotel later that day, we popped at the reception to collect keys to the new room. The lady at the reception (who could speak English) asked us what had caused the issue - we repeated the events of the morning. To our absolute shock, her reaction was and I quote “if you wanted us to give you a better room, you should have just asked us; you didn’t have to do all this” . I think it took my parents and me a couple seconds to register what had just happened. Naturally, we were not happy being directly accused of manipulation. We did give her a piece of our mind and infact had our tour guide also speak to her in a language she may have been more comfortable with but she remained stubborn and arrogant, showing no signs of remorse. This was an absolutely ludicrous accusation, especially given we were not the ones to request for a room change, neither did we demand a bigger room. Both these offers were made by the hotel voluntarily. And the nightmare continued. Despite these events, the next two days we were on the receiving end of rude behaviour from the hotel staff. There was no housekeeping in our room - dustbins not emptied, no vacuuming, towels weren’t replaced and the list goes on. It surprises me how they are still in business in the hospitality industry. Reading through some of the previous reviews from guests, seemed like rude behaviour from the staff is a part of the deal when you stay at Bella Vista. The hotel had many flaws - poor bathroom storage (no place to leave your toiletries in the shower, we had to leave them on the floor), the bath

I wouldn't class this hotel as 4 star. The standard room was pretty basic especially when it comes to the furnishings, we was given a balcony but the view was mainly of the road. Our bathroom kept flooding after taking a shower and I continuously told the receptionists but nothing was done to fix it. Housekeeping could have also done a better job with cleaning the rooms, they would take our towels and not replace them or give us stained ones, there was a lot of dust on our bedside towels. Breakfast was poor especially when the hot food was cold, the options and quality of food wasn't great. Otherwise the hotel is near a lot of shops and restaurants, we visited in late September so there were a few places that were shut for the season. There was still a lot of options to pick from as well as a bus stop being less than 5 minutes from the hotel. The hotel does provide parking for guests. If you want to go into town it would be around 30 minutes to walk.

Room was beautiful and spacious. However, sink and shower easily stuck, it become a swimming pool at every shower. Breakfast wasn't really appetizing and we were careful with what we took not to get sick (not really the kind of feeling you wanna have in a restaurant) Staff was however the most unfriendly people we've met. We were very unwelcoming, they really need to learn how to make their clients happy. I first asked for a map of the town; as an answer I got a "well, you can use Google maps" with an unfriendly tone. Since I don't have internet on my phone, no I can't use Google maps when I'm out (therefore I asked for a map). I then had booked this hotel because I was in need of washing my own and my baby's clothes and it was written there was possibility of washing with ofc an extra cost in booking. The staff told me yes for washing, 300 lek per bag. I fix and sort 2 bags of clothes that i bring down the next day. The staff starts to argue in front of me and I understand they aren't willing to do it so I go back up to my room with my dirty bags of clothes. The next day, they don't clean the floor of our habitation, I ask them if it's possible to do it (since they were cleaning all other rooms), the staff comes really mad and does it in 5 seconds and goes out again without a word. Finally, we find out they cancelled our reservation in booking so we won't write a negative review there. That can explain why it only stands good reviews about their hotel. Booking is now being contacted so they know about the situation.

This is one of the best hotel we ever stayed. It was very clean, the room were spacious, beautifully decorated, very comfortable and well equipped. The breakfast was various and had plenty to eat. The staff is extremely friendly and helpful, they are very professional and made us feel like home. The location is also pretty good. Next to the beach, everything close at hands. We would like to come back every time.