Viceroy at Ombria Algarve

Great service and beautiful facilities. Even the most basic room was beautiful. A great stay.

Nice Hotel but a bit out of the way

Just returned from a week’s holiday staying at the Viceroy Ombria. It is a hotel which has a lot of potential but disappoints on some levels. Firstly although marketed as a five star hotel it really isn’t. We arrived to our room and waited for one and a half hours for our luggage to be delivered. On sunny days in November there is no pool service for drinks - in fact the pool area is not staffed at all it would appear outside high season. I mislaid my Kindle by the pool and despite asking several staff about where it might be no one took any responsibility at all. Again I would not recommend the hotel in the wintertime - no where cosy to sit, no real place to have a comfortable drink and outside the Ombria Kitchen dining choices were sparse. You can eat in the Clubhouse used by golfers but it is like a school canteen with no atmosphere. We ate in Solalua marketed as a tapas restaurant which it very clearly is not and although Millie our hostess was beyond charming it was incredibly expensive for cold bites of food. The cocktails were however delicious. Our room was beautiful it must be said and we were upgraded as some building work was taking place nearby. The hotel management need to remember that their staff should be customer focused always and that the hotel in the autumn and winter needs a refocus towards what guests might need when the sunshine is in limited supply. It had huge potential but currently underwhelms on many fronts.

Totally catastrophic arrival We are family of 12 peple arrived today at around 3.45pm in the afternoon. Our rooms were not ready and we waited 2,5hours for them and still no rooms. One couple received their room but the luggage arrived after several requests 3 hours later. Still the elderly couple and the rest of the large family did not have their rooms nor luggage. Elderly couples luggage were left to the street without any observation for hours and they were still there when we had to leave for pre-reserved dinner to a town nearby. No-one could not shower/change their evening clothing but wear the same that they had worn the whole day in the sun in the sea. Irony is that the owner of the property had arrived little earlier with his large delegation with perfect check-in procedures. We heard all kinds of explanations how busy the day had been. If it is true, they have a severe lack of employees in that case. Now we are fully checked in and received our rooms at 10pm and finally also our luggage to our rooms. It seems that the A/C is not that properly functioning the bedroom but that is another story. After all this, no-one even bothered to say they were sorry and apologize for such a bad service. Maybe the hotel staff needs more training?