Futura Club Torre Rinalda

We were a family of three adults and a baby, but on arrival it turned out we had just two sunbeds and one umbrella in the third row. Reception offered two more sunbeds and another umbrella for €105, also in the third row but at a different spot, so we couldn’t stay together on the beach. Later, I noticed sunbeds free in the fourth row right behind us. Reception confirmed they were available and assigned them to me, but I had to search the beach myself. I had no problem paying extra for another sunbed. I’d already been contacted about the reservation, though, and nobody mentioned this issue. It could easily have been sorted out in advance. At reception we were told there were two one-hour slots each for breakfast, lunch and dinner. We had to choose our times as soon as we arrived, and keep them for the rest of the week. I’d missed the note on the hotel website saying dining slots might be used, but I wouldn’t have expected this at a four-star hotel. That set a bad tone for the vacation. I didn’t need more than an hour to eat, but having a fixed one-hour window was uncomfortable, especially in the morning. We chose the first canteen slot for breakfast, 7:30 to 8:30. There’s no coffee bar in the canteen, only one outside. After breakfast you have to go there, and coffee costs extra because all-inclusive doesn’t start until 9:30. It seemed absurd that the hotel made us eat at set times, while guests on the second breakfast slot could get their coffee at the bar for free. People on the first slot had to pay or wait an hour. The bar’s list of included items, which I saw in the attached photo, says birra alla spina, draft beer, is part of the all-inclusive package. But staff said draft beer, which was Messina, cost extra, and that the package only included canned Dreher. Draft beer was available only at the beach bar, not the main one. Nobody explained why we couldn’t have what the website and the bar menu said was included. There were no soft drink dispensers at the bar either. If you ask for Cola, staff go to the back, take an already opened bottle from the fridge, pour from the half-empty bottle that’s been opened ten times and has gone flat, then serve it in the smallest plastic cup. The canteen’s drink dispensers were also faulty. Of the three machines, one was out of order for a couple of days in a row, and the others served flat soft drinks. Staff shouted at guests trying to use them, as if it were our fault the machines were broken. Repairs and maintenance happened during meal times, so we lost part of our one-hour slot queuing for drinks and trying to find a machine that worked. At meals, we could refill our own water bottles only from the dispenser inside the canteen during our assigned slot. At the bar they would give us a cup of water but wouldn’t refill a bottle. In the summer heat, that meant either buying water or walking back from the beach every time we wanted another cup. Ridiculous. The staff could be rude, especially at the main bar in the morning. If you ordered something thinking it was included, they didn’t tell you it would cost extra until after they’d made your drink, so you had to pay. There were only one or two employees serving, the line got long, and there was no shade. Even with all-inclusive, we had to queue with everyone else to speak to the cashier, despite all of us wearing identification wristbands.