Royalty Barra Hotel

The location is pretty good, right by the beach, with a busy street full of restaurants nearby, so getting a meal is easy. The room, though, was dirty overall. The floor felt greasy enough that I wouldn't walk barefoot, and the bedding looked like it hadn't been cleaned or replaced. There was black mould in the bathroom and on the curtain. The Wi-Fi kept dropping, with my phone and laptop repeatedly disconnecting and reconnecting. I had to go to reception during the night to get a stable enough signal. Breakfast was miserable: watery scrambled eggs, the worst sausage, no vegetables, and only mediocre fruit.

The main draw is the location across from the beach, with restaurants and bars nearby. Otherwise, the hotel feels poorly maintained beyond the lobby, and the price is high. A pool construction site across the street can be very loud. Internet is usually out or painfully slow, and when occupancy is high the rooms get made up late. Towels are worn and more gray than white, and there's light mould around the bathroom corners. All in all, it only merits somewhere around 2.5 stars, perhaps two to a low three.

The beach view is unparalleled, and all the staff are wonderful. Charles especially takes great care of guests and is a big help. This is my second visit, and it's always a pleasure. The Wi-Fi has improved a lot since I was here last, which was a nice surprise.

The hotel is old and could use renovation, which is understandable if you choose to stay here. What really isn't acceptable is the Wi-Fi. On the second floor, it only worked in the middle of the day, not early in the morning or in the evening. At reception the connection works, but it's so slow that downloading 20 MB of emails takes half an hour. That's really annoying. Reliable Wi-Fi matters a lot to foreign guests, whether they're here on holiday or for work. Please do something about it.