Kozi Gród

The grounds are beautiful, with plenty to do. The kids especially loved the high-wire park, and the weekend barbecue was excellent, with delicious food. The wait and cleaning staff were great. Nikita, our waiter, was funny and understanding, an absolute gem. The biggest problem was how badly understaffed the dining room was. On the weekend we left, there were 140 guests and just 3 servers. By the stated standard of one server per 15 guests, they were 6 staff short. Anyone who has waited tables knows even being one person down makes things hard. Asking people to manage with a third of the staff is unfair, whether they get overtime pay or not. The servers did their best, but many seemed to have few other job options, partly because of the earlier COVID lockdown. This is more than bad hospitality, it's a humanitarian issue. Shame on the hotel. Meals were mediocre, and breakfast options were limited. The so-called vegetable soup tasted like watered-down tomato paste. The kids' breakfast menu was always sweet, like pancakes or waffles. Pancakes now and then are fine, but having only those kinds of choices every day left us without healthy options. We also had no internet in the rooms from 7PM to 11PM, the time we were most likely to need it, and no mobile signal as a backup. When we raised it, staff shrugged and said too many devices were overloading their servers. It stayed that way through our entire two-week stay, which made it seem like management didn't care about guests' concerns. There were supposed to be child animators, or kids' group leaders, but we never saw any. The hotel blamed the COVID crisis and difficulty finding staff, even though Poland had been out of lockdown for 3 months. The manager was never there to hear our concerns, and reception staff, left to handle complaints, couldn't help. We learned from other guests near the end that we'd paid much more than some of them for the same rooms. With no manager available, we left a letter at reception listing that and our other grievances, asking them to pass it on ASAP. More than a week after we left, there was still no response.

The interior could use a bit of fresh air. The reception area and hallways felt very stuffy. The garden was pleasant, and there was a good range of things to do, including the pool, bowling, billard and tennis. I was there for a business meeting. Breakfast was good, lunch okay, and the rooms were clean.

The property was as advertised and seems great for families, with a big outdoor trampoline, pool and bowling alley. The gym is mostly cardio equipment, with weights only up to 5 pounds. The sauna and gym were almost always empty, which was nice. WiFi kept cutting out every 5 minutes wherever I tried it, and there was no WiFi or cellular service at all in rooms 4 & 5. There was no cellular service anywhere, either. The sheets smelled of a woman's perfume in one spot and men's cologne in another, which made me question how hygienic the laundry was. The French breakfast option with melted Brie wasn't amazing.

The hotel's setting is absolutely beautiful, but don't let the photos fool you. I don't like leaving negative feedback, and there are lots of places I highly recommend, but I want to spare someone else the disappointment. No service is included in the room rate, and for sure, never again. We'd arranged a weekend with our parents, who drove 300 km to spend it with us. We called reception first to ask if there'd be loud events, since we were travelling with an enfant who was 6 months old. They said no, and that they had no activities planned. Based on that, we wired around 700 zl as prepayment for 2 rooms. We'd stayed here several times some years ago and everything had been fine. Our first shock was that the rooms were in a different building, so every trip to the spa meant going outside, getting dressed, and going back and forth. Breakfast was the same, with the extra job of dressing our baby. Reception said sorry, there was no solution because they were overbooked. I asked how, since I didn't see many people, then noticed cars filling the parking area and leaving no space for our parents' car. Then we found out what was happening. We'd been told there were no events, but there was a wedding. Our building filled with drunk guests and loud music. Some family hotel. We tried to make the best of it, but we were hungry, so we went to the restaurant. We crossed a field with big loudspeakers and got to our room, where we could at least close the door for some quiet. Then the next surprise: there were no waiters. Eventually a hostess came, and we were about to order when she told us the waiters and kitchen were busy with the wedding. If we wanted food, all they had left was soup and 3 salads. That was enough. We went to reception and explained that we were guests too, had paid, and couldn't accept this service. We hadn't used our room, and our parents hadn't even arrived, so we decided to leave and find another hotel for our family weekend. They said the owner was away for the weekend, would return our money on Monday, and apologized. I thought perhaps it might not be the full amount, or maybe a percentage for a future stay. Two weeks passed without a word. I called and was asked to wait longer. Then I sent a letter with the full story. Mrs. Oliwia Wieczerzak (kierownik recepcji) wrote that the owner had refused to return the money. I asked for the owner's direct contact and got nowhere. I asked them to describe the full situation to him, but got no reply, then there were several months of silence. We still haven't got our money back. The owner ruined our weekend, and still owes me that money.