Guest User
June 30, 2023
Rating as 2 - Poor experience. First of all the good: 1) The best, turquoise beach we'd ever been to. Arriving in early June to Stella Maris was the perfect time, the weather was a sunny 23 degrees with plenty of sunbeds everywhere, for everyone. The private beach is so peaceful, with stunning mountain views in the background. It's an idyllic haven from the popular Porto Giunco beach on the other side. 2) Food quality - very good, all a la carte - cooked to order. Particular high compliments to the pasty chef , who made some of the most beautiful desserts we'd ever seen abroad, consistently the Tiramisu and Creme Brulee were delicious. She was highly pleasant and talked us through every dish, every evening. 3) Plentiful and easy parking facilities 4) Nice swimming pool with good sea views, although not heated (fine from June onwards!) 5) The cocktails and bar services, nice touch to have complimentary bar snacks. However.... 1) The restaurant service was consistently awful. It was shockingly bad most nights. By the end of our "holiday" - our daily routine became a relaxing private beach day, followed by a stressful evening, extended to 2 hours waiting on bad service. Across most nights, we experienced a combination of i) orders not being taken for 30 minutes ii) orders being forgotten, up to 45 minutes iii) items being forgotten such as bread or water. Every evening I had to leave my table and chase staff myself - by far the worst hotel restaurant service. I complained already to the manager (interrupted him watching football...), and he simply gave a 100 EUR discount without asking any information. 2) Fixed guest tables. Most people will be excited by the prospect of sunset dinner views, however if you're assigned a bad table e.g. behind a pillar - you're stuck the entire holiday (we already tried asking to move, but too busy). Hotel suggestion: Do a "first come first serve" system, or rotate guest tables each night. 3) Staff spoke poor English, making it hard to solve problems. For example i) our air conditioning was broken, it requires us to ask 5 times over 2 days to get it fixed. ii) Nobody explained to us the Half Board and what was included. For example at breakfast, it's highly confusing on what eggs you can order, and what costs extra. Overall the biggest problem number (4), the management doesn't care about solving any problems. From TripAdvisor reviews they've had similar problems for years, simply search "eggs" and in June 2015 you find "Eggs can be cooked to order, but this isn't obvious". We had the same problem eight years later! The beautiful hotel setting deserves so much better than the bad management, who could be observed only in their background roles, taking selfies or watching football on television. At no point did they proactively speak to guests, or ask about the terrible restaurant experience. Overall avoid the restaurant, stick to B&B experience, and enjoy the beach. Then you'll appreciate Sardinia at its finest