Hotel Vila Margot

We got free parking for all our motorcycles, and the breakfast was the best of our whole Balkan tour. It's a small, family-run hotel set in a huge villa.

The view over Herceg Novi is one of the best, and we slept comfortably. The air-conditioning worked perfectly. Staff were lovely and helpful, and breakfast was generous and changed each day. I couldn't finish it. I've seen some negative reviews. The hotel is run by two older people, and communication may be difficult for foreigners, so a little patience helps. They're kind and willing to help. Ten out of ten for us.

Breakfast and the pool were good, and the location worked well. But the room we were first shown smelled strongly of smoke. Opening the windows and doors didn't help, and we realized the smell was deep in the bed. It was actually a couch with no mattress, as the photo shows. We thought previous guests may have smoked inside, since there was no smoke detector. We asked to move, but the host said everything was booked and kept telling us in very poor English that the sheets had been cleaned. We tried to explain that the smell came from inside the couch. After half an hour of arguing, he offered a much smaller room, with no balcony and less privacy. At least it smelled okay. We accepted the switch for a lower price. He first refused, then offered a €10 discount. The staff could be very unhelpful, and the facilities weren't the best.

The villa is very close to the sea, and the beach area is easy to reach. There are markets, ATMs, shops, and lots of restaurants nearby, plus the old town is close enough to walk to and back. The pool was great, and breakfast had a family feel, served by the hotel managers. We'd booked a balcony room well in advance, but on arrival the owners said they'd forgotten the reservation. Instead, they put us in a room with no view and almost no airflow, basically a basement room. We lost the balcony view we had wanted and still paid the same price. The room was full of old stuff, with a 20-inch TV you could barely see and a bathroom light that only worked sometimes. There was also a very annoying smell in the bathroom. I think it's a family-owned place and the family looks after the whole property.