Gerona Mare Apartments

The location is handy, close to the beach, shops, and restaurants, but it wasn't peaceful. Music from the neighbouring resort played loudly through the day. What made our stay stressful was the service, especially the receptionist's attitude at checkout. I hadn't planned to review Gerona Mare, even though the stay wasn't great, but that changed my mind. We got there at 1am and found reception shut. A handwritten note on the door was meant for somebody else and said their key was in the door of a room that wasn't ours. We had no clue what to do. The man who answered the emergency number sounded half asleep, said he knew nothing about our booking, and asked us to call back in 10 minutes. We called again after 15 minutes, and he then said he'd come in 20. We waited outside in the cold with our luggage, and he finally showed up about 30 minutes later. He couldn't find our reservation in the system. I offered to contact Loveholidays to confirm we'd paid, but he strangely told me not to. After plenty of huffing and faffing, he found an old email from December confirming the booking, though the reservation still wasn't in the system. Nearly 3am, after we'd been travelling almost 24 hours, he gave us a temporary room and said to sort it with reception in the morning. We'd unpacked, put groceries away, and were getting ready for bed when the room phone rang. He'd “found” the reservation and wanted us to move straight away. It was almost 4am. We were told the second room was an “upgrade.” It was damp and smelled strongly, with rusty hinges, mould on the patio door, uncomfortable beds, dirty blankets, no mattress protectors, and hardly any bedding. We each had one pillow, with an extra one in the wardrobe that had no case. Rooms are cleaned every 2-3 days, but that doesn't mean towels or bedding are changed. The freezer never worked properly. We complained several times, and the maintenance guy kept trying to fix it without success. We lost about €35 of food, including prawns and ice cream, and the maintenance man said we'd be reimbursed. At checkout, while we were paying the tourist tax, only 20 euro, we brought this up. The receptionist got defensive, sarcastic, and unpleasant. She said we'd should have told her earlier so she could move us to a room with a working freezer. But the other guy who checked us in, and was also a maintanance man, had told us that none of the freezers worked properly and they were only “meant to keep things going for a few hours.” This could be a lovely place with proper renovation and staff who treat paying guests with basic respect. Sadly, the stress started when we arrived and lasted until we left.