Review of Hotel Serrano Palace 5*

Alisonn660

6/10
Booked through jet 2, I would recommend that you don’t get the jet 2 transfer as it took 3 hours — private transfer is about an hour and I would say worth it.
We arrived at this hotel just before midnight.
We were greeted warmly by the night manager — however he said our rooms were not ready and we would be given a suite for the night, (we had booked 2 sea view standard doubles and had requested that they be together — we are 2 children and 2 adults staying for 11 nights).
We gave our hotel voucher to him and he called someone and confirmed that we would be given 2 suites for just that night on different floors. We had no choice to accept this as it was late and we were tired. He also said that I should come and see the manager in the morning to find out where we would be moving to in the morning and that we would be compensated. He said the rooms we were going to get the next day were lovely rooms and together.
He gave us a welcome drink and offered us some food. He shared no further information about the hotel.
We went to our rooms which were adequate but we couldn’t unpack and settle or use the safe as we knew we were off again in the morning.
I Went to reception in the morning — the receptionist was so rude — some of her statements in our brief conversation ‘the hotel was full last night you were lucky we gave you nice rooms — we could have sent you away at the door as the hotel was completely full ‘ and ‘ we can’t give you any compensation as you had an upgrade for the night ‘
I pointed out to her that I couldn’t start my holiday till I had unpacked and settled.
She said that I wasn’t to worry and at 2 pm all the hotel rooms would be cleaned and we just had to leave our bags packed in our temporary rooms and they would be transferred for us. I asked where we would be going to and she said two room numbers on different floors at opposite ends of the building. At this point I said I was more dissatisfied with this than anything else. She said that having rooms together wasn’t guaranteed. Now I was angry/upset and I did start to raise my voice and said I wasn’t very happy with the situation. Thank goodness the lovely Alba and another male receptionist came to my aid and they did suddenly find us two rooms that were available immediately and were situated together (The rude receptionist backed away — I didn’t deal with her for the rest of our trip — I recommend she is retrained In customer service! )
We moved our bags ourselves to the new rooms (there is no concierge service) — I was very unhappy for most of the morning and actually cried to my husband as felt responsible as had chosen and booked what I thought was going to be a lovely holiday — What a miserable start!
Later that day the hotel sent us fizzy wine and chocolate strawberries to apologise for the inconvenience. That was nice and we all appreciated the gesture.
The rooms were big and had a big balcony (I would prefer a table and chairs rather than 2 loungers). The beds are really comfortable and we managed to work Netflix through the TV — bonus! They had a kettle but no tea and coffee provided. I took my own Yorkshire tea and small jar of coffee as had read this on a previous review. You can buy milk and water from the spa opposite.
The fan In Room 120 was especially noisy for the air conditioning (it reminded me of a washing machine on the spin cycle! ) This was reported — two maintenance men attended and said it was normal — I informed them that 119 (our second room) has a completely silent fan and much more efficie air conditioning — they laughed and said that I should move to that room then. I wore a sleep mask all week and slept ok / ish. However I was woken up every day at 8:30 by cigarette smoke coming in through the air conditioning — this was reported to lovely Alba who dealt with whoever was smoking out side the fan unit and this went away after day 4.
The pool areas are really nice — the outside pool is nothing special — just a basic pool. The inside pool has a jacuzzi and jets — one issue is the sun loungers are so uncomfortable and gave me and my daughter back ache. In my experience 5 star hotels normally have really comfortable loungers with cushions so this was a let down and stopped us from staying around the pool. (on the plus side — this did help reduce our bar bill — we normally spend a ton at the hotel pool bar but not this time as we went else where! )
The pool bar service is not up to 5 star standard either. You have to get up and order at the bar. All other hotels I have stayed at at that rating we have had a QR order system or buzzer system available (again this helped us reduce our costs! ). That said food and drink at the pool was very reasonably priced and very tasty.
Food in the restaurant was superb (we were half board) well done to the chefs — the chef who cooks the pancakes and meats is so funny and so good at his job.
The waiting staff are attentive and friendly — the Mallorca wine list is reasonably priced and all of them we tasted were delicious.
Evening entertainment was limited to just a singer with backing tracks. About as good as karaoke. It was Entertaining but maybe for the wrong reasons. It would have been nice to see some traditional entertainment or a magician or something else. Again this reduced our bar spend — we found that you can buy beer and wine from spar and sit on your balcony. You can still hear the entertainment from the hotel bar!
The area is magical. I will go back as we loved it. The little train which goes to all the local beaches and main buses stop right outside the hotel — and there is a lovely promenade to the harbour where you can take boat trips. Not to mention the little beach which is located just over the road. We used this a lot (and the 3 beach bars) — it’s great for swimming and snorkelling.
All in all we enjoyed out holiday in Cala Ratjada. I would just perhaps stay elsewhere 😊 (after writing this review I might not have a choice 😂)

Nightly rates from $226.91