Hotel Vistalmar

Pretty much decent

Well managed nice boutique hotel with very beautiful garden terrace

The staff was nice but the room was unlocked when we got back from being out after they cleaned it.

You need to know a few truths about this hotel. Even though the staff asked us to give them a five star rating, I think it only fair that people know the facts. We stayed in a suite with two bedrooms, shared bathroom and lounge area. On first appearance the hotel looks very nice and the ideal place for a few days in the sun. It is set in a quiet road which currently has a new building being constructed over the road. However, the hotel is in dire need of a revamp and the quality of facilities need improving drastically. Where to start? There is no food offered other than breakfast unless it is Saturday or Sunday. Even then, there is no menu and it’s whatever they feel like cooking that day. When we arrived we were not given any information about this and when we went and bought our own beers to drink in the evening they charged us a corkage fee. There is no bar list/menu to see prices when or what they are serving. The breakfast was average. Only two options which were alternated daily. Only scrambled eggs and very few fruit juice options, which is crazy as there is so much fruit grown in the area. This was such a disappointment as they could have a captive audience who would be willing to spend more money if only they offered a better service. The room and wicker-look furniture was dusty and there were ants crawling around the room. The bed linen and towels looked very old and had stains/dirt on them. The showers were hot most of the time and the bathroom was ok with soap and shampoo supplied. The swimming pool was dirty and needed a good clean and some of the tiles needed re-grouting. The leaves were emptied daily but our costumes came out with brown streaks on them where we had leant against the pool wall. No pool towels were provided and the five decent sun beds didn’t have cushions for a day because they were being washed. They were still stained and ripped when they did come back. The pool, although small, is great for watching the whales out at sea. There is also a terrace area which has two double sun beds, however these were dirty and converted in stains and dog/cat hair. This could be a really nice, boutique hotel and the potential could be huge but it needs a lot of work before it would be acceptable and earn a five star rating. Staff were polite but not overly friendly.

This is review is honest in every detail. We arrived at the Hotel Vistalmar in Manta Ecuador in the early evening, paid for the room and were given keys to enter the room. The room smelled musty and my spouse is highly allergic to mold which became an immediate concern. I suffer from asthma which also became a concern at that time. We observed the shower to be leaking and the air conditioner to be minimally working at best. We left the room appx. an hour later and searched for the restaurant that was advertised however there was none, not even a vending machine, nowhere to buy anything to drink either. We returned to our room and decided to find other accomodations for our stay in Manta. We found a resort hotel called the Ordo Verde right down the street and it was the best decision ever...a truly amazing stay we had there, the food was incredible and the staff were more than helpful. It was the difference from day to night. We returned to Hotel Vistalmar and waited appx. 8 minutes just to be let back into the hotel where the night desk clerk was supposed to be on duty but it took him all of that 8 minutes to open the door and let us in. This is an area that is not well lit either outside the hotel. Our cab driver waited for us to bring down our luggage and we told the desk clerk exactly why were were leaving and he never made any statement about providing any documentation, requesting a voucher be cancelled or the reservation be cancelled however we did explain we wanted a refund as we were not staying under the conditions provided to us. After we returned to the states we requested our payment be refunded to our credit card and the following is the reply from Hotel Vistalmar.....Hello Lisa, the procedure was to inform reception, present your documentation, request the cancellation of the voucher and cancel your reservation, currently we will not be able to make refunds......Under no conditions would we recommend this hotel to anyone.