Playacartaya

Pros: 1. The rooms are spacious and well-maintained. 2. Excellent outdoor and indoor swimming pools, as well as fun water slides suitable for both children and adults. 3. The beach is conveniently located within a 10-minute walking distance. 4. Housekeeping services were efficient, with timely cleaning and towel replacement. 5. A decent variety of food options were available for lunch and dinner, especially for those who consume pork, beef, and fish. 6. A good selection of alcoholic beverages was offered, along with some juices and non-alcoholic drinks. 7. On-site hotel parking is available for guests. 8. The staff were exceptionally friendly, welcoming, and helpful, particularly accommodating when language barriers arose. ---------------------------------------------------------------- Cons: 1. The doors in Room 442 made loud creaking noises, creating an unsettling atmosphere. 2. The ceiling fan was noisy and operated slowly. Air conditioning is only available from June onward, which was inconvenient for a May visit. 3. Limited availability of chicken dishes, which was challenging for guests who do not eat beef and only occasionally eat pork. 4. Buffet items were not labeled, requiring guests to frequently ask staff for clarification. Language barriers with non-English-speaking staff made this more difficult. 5. The hotel offers two service tiers—Premium and Imperial. The Imperial package includes better rooms, services, and drink options, but costs an additional €20 per day at check-in. 6. Spa access costs €25, and massage services start at €65. The massage quality did not meet expectations in terms of pressure and technique. 7. The Kids Club is available from 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM and 4:00 PM to 6:00 PM, with a break on Sunday afternoons. However, the children enjoyed their time there. 8. Children's entertainment was average, possibly due to the off-season timing of the visit. 9. Underground parking incurs an additional charge of €9 per day. 10. There is nothing to see around the place actually, so if you like to explore you can see Sevilla. That's it. 11. Beds are big but not comfortable it's all spring beds.

The entertainment was only for small children, nothing for adults. Food was really bad except for the to order section by the grill. They seem to limit the amount of food that is prepared depending on the number of guests. Good steaks, fish usually dry, breakfast was ok. Some things served again and again, day after day, without trying to hide the fact it was served several times already. really the worst food of any hotel I have stayed. The bed was the hardest I have ever seen in my life. Staff very friendly and helpful. Building was beautiful. Lots of pools. The area is boring and nowhere to walk to nearby. I would not recommend it. Beach was beautiful, but was on a river, which could be very muddy and dirty.

Stunning, clean hotel. I travelled alone with my three children. I don't have a word if Spanish and everybody at the hotel went out if their way to make it an amazing stay. The rooms were spotless cleaned daily. The bathroom wS huge with the shower separate ti the bath, so clever. The food was delicious they varied the menu everyday. We walked the beach daily and then went yo the heated indoor pool. The chef and the crepe lady went out if their way ti cater for every individual taste. I ate squid to mutton tp pasta.

It was a very stressful and noisy week in Hotel Playa Cartaya It started during the arrival upon check in where the Reception team seemed stressed and without any front office organization. We where received without any welcome and were told that our room would be ready in 3 hours. When we asked for beach towels - 1 minute later- another team member mentioned that room was ready. No communication between this stressed team. Room was nice however “tired” with old furniture and cleanliness badly done. Gym was closed without any explanation- just closed. Indoor swimming pool and jacuzzi the same- closed. During the entire stay no opportunity to try this facilities. Outdoor areas very dirty around pool chairs and many broken sun beds. Poor service in the bar. Waiting too long to be served. Once again very tired team. We did not wanted to try the restaurant for lunch or diner. During the noisy and unorganized breakfast service we could imagine the main meals. We decided to leave the hotel 2 days earlier. Just could not stand being in a place like this. When we reported our feedback at the reception the previous evening, Team was so busy that did not reported our feedback to the Management on the previous evening. It seems that no turn down is done between them. the front office lady responsible for the Reception was staring/ looking at during check out time on the following day. Instead of coming and transmit personal assistance for hotel guests, she gave a tiny paper to the gentlemen that was attending us so that we could transmit our feedback per email. No comments, not greeting, nothing..very unprofessional. If you are looking for a chilled and relaxed holidays this is definitely not the place. Not to repeat ever again.

The Good * The rooms are nice and spacious, cleaning very good. * Beds are comfortable * Gardens well-maintained * Lovely beach accessible by tunnel from hotel The Bad Anything that required staff. They blatantly don't have enough people. At breakfast and dinner you will need to clear your own table, go & find more cutlery (if there is any). They run out of coffee cups, the coffee machine broke, the food was average at best. We weren't on all-inclusive and after paying for dinner on the first night we were really pleased we hadn't paid for it, I would have been fuming. There are some really nice restaurants a couple of miles down the road in El Rompido, I'd recommend those There aren't enough sunbeds by the pools for the hotel and the clientele match up to their European counterparts in terms of reserving them before breakfast with towels and then not using them all day. And the hotel do very little about it. Big queues for drinks. Again as most are on all-inclusive I guess they don't care as they have your money already. I never quite worked out why they always asked me if I was on all-inclusive *before* they made my drinks. If I had been would they have made me a rubbish one? There was also supposed to be a gym but it is 'temporarily' closed. Don't suppose I can get any money back for that as it was part of the package we thought we were getting. The clientele were also happy to let their kids run around the pool area until 2am making A LOT of noise and throwing stuff about. I kind of get the Spanish do things a lot later but this wasn't showing much respect for any other hotel guests - and the hotel did nothing about it. To be clear - the staff who are there work really hard, there just aren't enough of them. I'm sure as with anywhere this translates into more profit for the hotel owners at the expense of customers - and the staff.

Just got home from this hotel. So many good points, food lovely, staff are friendly, very clean, lovely rooms which were cleaned with made beds every day, nice pools and slides. Beautiful beach just over the road. Entertainment was ok in evenings. Nice drinks, proper makes of spirits (Smirnoff, absolute, disarano) instead of local. Bad points, everyone is Spanish very few speak English, so children couldn’t join in the kids club as they wouldn’t know what was being said to be able to join in. There’s a shop inside the hotel, we paid over 20 Euros for 2 floats for the pool. The lady in shop also inflated them for us. Got them into the pool and was told they’re not allowed. Why wasn’t we told before buying them? And why sell them in the shop in hotel if your not allowed them? We saw many other people having the same problem. Beach is amazing but no sunbeds or umbrellas therefore no shade so was too hot to stay there. Was meant to be all inclusive but had to pay extra for cocktails and ice creams. Although not a problem as was plenty of other options. And wasn’t expensive anyway. All in all a lovely holiday.