Balaia Plaza Hotel Apartment

During our stay, we were offered heroin within ten minutes of arriving, casually and in front of reception staff. A few days later, two other men offered me cocaine. Drug dealers walked freely around the hotel and grounds, and staff knew them and regularly communicated with them. That is unacceptable anywhere, especially in a supposed ‘4 star rated’ hotel with children and families around and employees in full view. The building can look nice at first glance, but there are obvious problems once you look closer. There's stagnant water in a lobby feature and several pools are closed. The rooms have very few outlets, just one in my bedroom, no AC and no fans. The pillows were uncomfortable and the sheets stained. Breakfast was laughably bad: cold, neglected scrambled eggs that looked reused from a previous day, bitter pineapple juice, and water that tasted bizarrely acidic, as if mixed with vodka or the glasses had been washed with bleach. The single small, very old elevator sits in a filthy corridor among cleaning equipment and old appliances. We often took the stairs because we feared getting stuck or worse. We told the hotel there were three of us in one room, but they only provided two single beds and said they'd charge extra to make up a third. The only joy the ‘cheerful’ Balaia plaza hotel offers is checking out and leaving.

There were some lovely staff, apart from one receptionist, and the hotel is quite far from the strip. But we weren't happy with our stay, and the problems affected our holiday. I wouldn't recommend staying here at all. My mother and I stayed for a week on a leisure trip in June 2019. The older receptionist greeted us rudely and didn't seem to care or offer much help. There was a sewage smell in the apartment and gurgling from the bathroom, though at first we didn't pay much attention. Then, as my mother was cleaning the bath before her shower, brown stuff suddenly came up through the drain. It was sewage in the bath and shower, the smell was horrendous, and we couldn't shower for the rest of our stay. We told the staff, but nothing was done. I would have shared pictures, but they were too gruesome. Our valuables also got locked in the safe, though the manager came up and helped with that.

We had a great experience and no problems at all. The hotel has two sides, but that shouldn't put you off coming. The staff were amazing and helpful. Some of the reviews had really scared us before the trip, but after staying there, I'd say some people exaggerate or are real snobs. I've included some pictures from inside the hotel and the view from our room.

Don't be fooled by the photos. This place isn't worth a single star. There were cockroaches in the rooms, ceilings coming down, torn sofas, dirty sheets and used pillows. We even had to ask reception for fresh towels. Worst of all, the room smelled unbearably of tobacco.