Hotel Pabisa Sofia

The staff in housekeeping were the bright spot. The room was very clean, and the cleaning ladies were polite and always smiling despite working in the heat. The hotel is also conveniently close to transport, supermarkets, and the beach. Breakfast had lots of options and was good, but there’s no air-conditioning in that area. Some food didn’t taste right after sitting in the heat for hours, including donuts with melting chocolate and frosting and cheeses that tasted strange. Our booked Pool&Sea View Room at the front wasn’t available when we arrived, even though we’d chosen and paid for it two months earlier. They moved us to what they called a more expensive side sea-view room, as if we should be grateful. We asked for a pool view at the front, but the room on the fourth floor looked toward trees on the left side, with no pool view. The first-floor room they tried next was the same. They said the system classified those rooms as pool view, so we went back to the original sea-view room on the eighth floor. Their official site shows pool-view rooms facing the front with views of both the pool and sea. We waited over half an hour in the lobby while a group of more than ten people checked in. There was no air-conditioning, and everyone was sweating. There wasn’t even a bottle of water in our room. The balcony door was difficult to open and close, and the smell of weed outside was too much for us. For all four nights, the shower kept swinging between scalding hot, freezing cold, and normal for a few seconds. We reported it to reception several times. Each day they said they’d pass it to maintenance for the next day because other rooms were complaining too, but it was never fixed. Later, a young receptionist said she knew nothing about it and thought it must have been sorted. Half an hour later I burned myself in the shower. When I told them the next morning, all I got was “oh sorry.” Nothing changed during our stay. The room AC wouldn’t go below 26°C, even when it was 36°C outside. Sun through the windows heated the room like a greenhouse by midday, and the fan and AC couldn’t make it comfortable. It felt suffocating. Most of the women at reception had a bad attitude. When we first raised the room problem, the blonde receptionist spoke about us to her colleagues in Spanish, apparently thinking we wouldn’t understand. I understand Spanish well. She wasn’t even handling the issue, and talking badly about us instead of helping was a terrible look for someone in customer service. At the pool, the sofas were very dirty, with ants everywhere from spilled drinks, plus leaves and other things from the trees.

Ramona at reception made a real difference during our stay. She was kind, dedicated, and helped us several times, especially with renting a car. Her tips for exploring Palma were great, and we felt very well looked after. A big thank you to her!

Nobody took responsibility when things went wrong. The hotel kept telling me to contact the travel agency, and the agency sent me back to the hotel. They only replied to my messages once a day, if they replied at all, so I felt ignored and stuck. The service was terrible and completely unprofessional. I can already picture the public reply saying they’re “trying to fix the issue” and will “contact me soon.” That’s their standard message to look helpful in public. They did the same thing to my friend. Avoid this place if you don’t want stress and no support.

Some hooligans chased us, and the hotel gave us a safe place to hide. They arranged a taxi and got us home safely. I can only recommend staying there!