Hotel Buenavista

Good service and a really nice location. The hotel itself is pleasant and clean. I’d definitely recommend it.

You can walk to the town and seafront in just a few minutes. The pool and restaurant have a lovely, relaxed feel throughout, and our room, while on the small side, was fine since we only used it to sleep and change. The rooms are quirky and rustic, and the family-run hotel is built into the rock faces. We’ll be back.

The guesthouse itself is lovely, very clean, with a bohemian-chic feel and a great location. Parking is possible, and the pool area is nice, though the water didn’t seem very clean. The staff experience was poor, which took away from an otherwise great guesthouse. The South American staff couldn’t speak English, and at breakfast they didn’t know basic food words like “toast” or “biscuits.” They seemed to have no other language skills besides Spanish. Between us, we speak five other languages, but not Spanish. I paid Eur 2.50 for an expresso that I had to make myself from the machine. When I asked whether there was a biscuit, the South American young lady had no idea what I meant, shrugged, quickly rang up the sale, and said nothing else. It made me wonder why she was working there if she didn’t want to be. It was also impossible to get simple toast because they didn’t know how to make it or what “toast” meant. One of the South American young women also seemed to think it was normal to flirt with male guests and try to pick them up, even when they had a partner. Maybe the bad service came from a lack of hospitality training and hiring random summer workers. I think Spanish workers with an education and other language skills would be a better choice.

It’s a nice village and a great base for exploring the island. The garden and pool area are lovely, and breakfast is fine, with lots of bread, fresh fruit, eggs, cheese, and other choices in a cosy room. The standard room was good, but the bathroom was very small, and I really don’t like shower curtains. I hadn’t seen any pictures of that before booking. A fridge in the room would be useful, too. Some people put towels on pool beds in the morning and didn’t show up until the afternoon, so maybe the hotel could have a rule against reserving sunbeds that way.