Ses Fontanellas Plaza Timeshare Release

What is it with RCI in Europe that it is acceptable to have the worst room in the hotel set aside for RCI guests?

To then add insult by charging a resort fee (for what I’m still unsure) when the pool is freezing and all other facilities you have to pay for?

Great flat but overlooks the bins and road – luckily only used for sleeping but the bin lorry empties at 0430hrs every morning.

This is my third stay at Ses Fontanellas Plaza and I last reviewed it after my first stay in 2011, giving it 2/5. Plenty of time then for them to work on the issues, and to some degree they have.

For starters, we didn’t pay a lot to stay here so I wasn’t expecting perfection. I also wasn’t expecting to arrive at a newly walled complex with no obvious entrance to the reception area. Compared with 2011/2012 when we last visited there has been a new wall built along the roadside and unless you know where you’re going (thankfully we did), you could be searching for the reception for ages as there’s no signage. Not a good first impression and it now looks a bit prison-like in my opinion.

The reception staff however, were very polite and helpful throughout and their standard of English was also good. They were happy to change notes and ring taxis for us etc, so no complaints there.

The rooms – these were the main source of my complaint last time because they were unbearably hot all the time. Unfortunately the bathroom still is. I’m not sure what some hotels have against ventilating their bathrooms but it kind of defeats the point if you have a shower to cool off and are then immediately sweating again. No progress there.

We took up the option of aircon this time and that, along with 3 giant fans, managed to keep the room temperature at a more comfortable level than the last 2 visits. Glad I brought earplugs though as they’re not quiet. The aircon unit is a portable thing and unless you want to empty the water from the tank every couple of hours, you have to point both hoses onto the balcony, meaning that your balcony is then wet underfoot.

A gripe of mine last time was the quality of the furniture and again, no progress seems to have been made. One of the patio chairs collapsed whilst I was sitting on it which gave me a sore hand (I reported this and it was replaced the next day) and the slats on the sofa kept dislodging. The two armchairs were very comfortable though.

At the poolside, most of the sunbeds seemed to have bits missing from the rear, limiting the lounging angle in many cases to either upright or flat.

An unexpected bonus was free Wifi throughout the complex. I stayed in reasonably upmarket hotels in America last year which didn’t come with free wifi. On holidays I like to shut off from Facebook/emails etc as much as I can but other friends used it regularly to make contact back home – thankfully the days of confusing payphone international calls are well behind us!

I think Ses Fontanellas Plaza is due a refurbishment. Tired, flimsy furniture, steamy hot bathrooms and awkward aircon really let the place down. It doesn’t help that it now looks more like a prison as well.

I’d happily have forgone the free wifi to have fixed some of these issues. Lovely staff and at least the availability of aircon to improve comfort are why it gets 3 rather than a 2.

So we are part of CLC and as they don’t have their own hotels in Ibiza we went to Ses Fontalles as one of their partner hotels. Arrived on Sunday evening to be met by Señor Grumpy on reception. No ‘Hello welcome to Ses Fontalles’ and they didn’t have any record of our booking either. He found us a room and although it was clean and tidy it had definitely seen better needs and it need of a refurb – sliding door on the wardrobe kept coming off the runner but they did fix it the next day.

The reception area is dated and no ‘Welcome Book’ with any details of Ibiza, places to go, trips, the usual stuff.

On

site supermarket was closed all week. Pool was okay but nothing special, restaurant also okay but short of staff so service was slow. Martin the RCiI rep on site came and saw us about having no record of our booking and said he would get back to us but he never did, too be fair he did say he run ragged at the moment being the only rep on site and that the resort was due to have a refit.

No air on just the ceiling fans, this was okay for last week of Sept but height o summer and I think the room would have been unbearably hot.

On a positive note, I was unwell towards the end of the week and they kindly let us have the room till 2pm on the day of checkout at no extra charge.
As we were not departing till after 4pm they said we should our luggage at their sister hotel next door Marina Palace which was not a problem but want a difference in hotels.

Marina Palace much nicer modern reception, welcome book, smiley staff, nicer pool and a supermarket that was open. Why didn’t Ses Fontanalles reception mention the supermarket next door and the fact we could use their pool?!

Accepting that CLC owned hotels are of a much better quality as a CLC member I would expect a better quality hotel as part of their portfolio for the membership fees we pay. Out side of that is probably meets standard 3* accommodation. A little further out and around the bay but a nice leisurely 45 min stroll gets you into town or a €1.50 bus ride or a €10 cab ride

I will start by saying that this was a privately rented apartment so therefore the quality was good, not above my expectations but certainly not a disappointment.

The complex itself was kept very clean and in a fairly good situation for the local strip and local buses. It had a bar and 2 pools overlooking the sea and as we had good weather a good part of our holiday here.

The Island of Ibiza is beautiful with some lovely beaches which can be reached by bus or ferry and Ibiza city is well worth a visit.

The disappointments lay in the local beaches and the local strip which appeared to closing down daily and we had a problem finding nice places to go of an evening although this was early October. Even San Antonio which is just about walkable with a bus back, seemed to be closing down not that we are of age looking for the club scene.

A very tired Resort. Unfortunately lived up to all the other reviews I read previous to travelling. Staff are to be congratulated with the attentive service they gave despite the resorts inadequacies.

My apartment had no privacy on the Balcony looked on by apartments opposite and vice versa.

No attempt is made to entertain you and keep you on site. Food choice poor, you would have thought due to the proximity to the local “strip” it would have been preferable for the resort to have the Euros?

We use the Timeshare apartments which are in much need of a Makeover.

We become more disillusioned with Timeshare every time we use it no use was made of the refurbished units which were empty during our stay.

We completely echo the thoughts of others.

Time to spend some money on the place!!