Gardenia Park Hotel

Pool is small and underground, not outdoors and very little was working - jacuzzi, steam room and hammam were all out of order. Rooms were ok, food not inspired. I guess it was reasonable value for money (it was offseason) and nothing was particularly awful, but not exceptional either. Good enough, and I would rate as a pretty standard package tourist hotel, in less than great repair. I wouldn't give it a terrible, but it was heavily used and staff seemed overworked and not particularly interested in fixing things (tape repairing one of the steps in the hall where a riser was broken - that stayed there the entire time I was visiting even though a very easy fix). Same could be said of the rooms, where phone in my room never worked (phone jack had probably been damaged years ago but never fixed, given the amount of dust on it).

I see lots of reviews here that are quite positive, but either the standards in Bulgaria for 4* hotels are much lower than in the rest of Western Europe, USA, Australia or this isn't a 4* hotel. As advertised, it has some of the amenities of a 4* hotel, including a pool, jacuzzi (not working), hair dryers and bar fridge in the rooms (mine didn't work) but the standard just isn't there - a lot of things are dirty, broken, the linens are cheap, there is mouldy silicone in the shower, there were dirty lampshades that didn't fit the lamps. I was just here for a few nights, so no big loss - originally I had booked a 5* up near the gondola but that was too far from restaurants so I had settled on this because it is in the middle of town and I didn't have time to do a lot of research. Good thing this place is centrally located because restaurant at the hotel is pretty boring and not great quality - food is greasy, few vegetables, no spicing (but this is true of a lot of Bulgarian food anyway). I ate there for breakfast and one dinner, rest of the time went out as first impressions didn't make me keen to stay in. I think it gets a heavy use by school groups, package tourists from UK. You can get an apartment or boutique hotel for a similar price.

Very nice hotel, very clean, nice lobby area with a great fire place, impressive taverna restaurant with another great fire place, great sauna and steam bath and a nice but not very big pool. The hotel stuff was very nice and helpfull, the shuttle bus to the gondola was very prompt and usefull. The hotel was a bit far from the Bansko gondola, but the shuttle bus resolved the issue.

It was very clean in the whole area. The food is not varied but with a great taste. The staff is polite and helpful. Spa facilities are excellent. Great value for money - I would definitely come back and recommend it.

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