O7 Cala Ratjada

Before the trip, I read a lot of negative reviews, but in reality, none of them were true. The room has working air conditioning and hot water in the shower; the room is cleaned every day except Tuesdays, and the staff—from the receptionists to the waiters—are friendly. The pool is clean, and there are always available spots. I recommend it 100%.

Absolutely — I’d add it as its own section, and slightly tighten a few sentences so the criticism of reception sounds specific and credible rather than just angry. ⭐️ Avoid unless you enjoy mould, broken air conditioning and maintenance issues We genuinely cannot understand how this hotel has received the ratings it has. We would not stay here again if we were paid to. Cala Ratjada itself is beautiful, and we will absolutely return to the area — but this hotel did the resort a serious disservice. The grounds & pools The grounds are easily the best thing about this hotel. There are two decent-sized pools, a lazy-river-style pool and two smaller pools for children. There are also some lovely trees and garden areas, and the pool bar is pleasant. But the pools desperately need cleaning. There was visible mould around the edges of all the pools, and throughout our entire stay we never once saw anyone cleaning the pools or the surrounding areas. There were also maintenance issues and discarded items scattered around various parts of the grounds. The communal toilets were another joke — broken flushes and cistern lids left off, meaning guests were having to manually flush toilets. The rooms — and the “air conditioning” The air conditioning was absolutely useless. Our first room had no working air conditioning whatsoever. On our first night I became so overheated that I was physically sick. At around 5am I ended up sitting in the swimming pool just to get some relief from the heat. We went to reception three times and were repeatedly told the air conditioning would be fixed. It wasn’t. Eventually, we were moved rooms. Did that solve the problem? No. The air conditioning in the second room barely worked, producing little more than a weak cool breeze. Thankfully, we were given two fans, which made the room somewhat bearable. To make matters worse, the air conditioning in the second room was leaking and smelled strongly of damp and mould. There was also visible mould on the bathroom ceiling. The toilet flush in our first room was broken too. The beds and pillows were uncomfortable, and the balcony doors were ridiculously difficult to open and close. They didn’t appear to run properly at all and seemed to require forcing against the frame. And we’re not the only ones What really concerned us was what happened after we complained at reception. Multiple other guests approached us independently and told us they were experiencing exactly the same air-conditioning problems. Some also told us they had visible black mould around the air-conditioning vents in their rooms. At that point, it was very clear that this wasn’t simply an isolated problem with our room. Reception & customer service Unfortunately, the experience at reception was just as disappointing. With the exception of one male member of the reception team who was polite and helpful, we found the reception staff to be extremely rude and unhelpful. We witnessed staff interrupting guests while they were trying to explain their issues, having conversations amongst themselves that were completely unrelated to the customer standing in front of them, and at times appearing to simply ignore guests waiting for assistance. When you are already dealing with problems such as a room with no air conditioning, this kind of attitude makes the situation even more frustrating. The reception area itself also had a strong smell of damp. The luggage storage room was even worse, with a serious leak, visible damage and mould across the ceiling. You shouldn’t have to wonder whether the building is being maintained properly while you’re on holiday. 🍽️ Food & drinks The food was your typical cheap, low-quality all-inclusive fare. The drinks were adequate for the price, but don’t expect anything special. Let’s just say… Thank God for chips and bread. The staff deserve better To be fair, the animation team, restaurant staff and kitchen staff appeared to work incredibly hard. They were one of the few genuinely positive aspects of the stay and clearly deserve credit. The cleaners also appeared to be working extremely hard. Unfortunately, hardworking staff cannot compensate for a hotel that appears to have such significant maintenance and cleanliness problems. Would we return? Absolutely not. Not for free. Not for a discount. Not even if someone paid us. The saddest part is that Cala Ratjada is a gorgeous place, and we would happily return to the area. But we would go out of our way to make sure we never had to stay at this hotel again. There are some good features here — particularly the grounds — but the mould, damp, broken facilities, poor maintenance, inadequate air conditioning and poor customer service at reception made our stay extremely uncomfortable. Cala Ratjada deserves better than this. If you’re considering booking this hotel, I’d strongly recommend looking elsewhere.

Please avoid at all cost. I am all for a budget family friendly hotel but the fact this is a classed as a “3 star hotel” is shocking. The hotel has a strong unpleasant smell throughout like mould, and the air conditioning in our room smells like urine, making it uncomfortable to spend time in the room. The hotel feels tired, poorly maintained and in need of significant refurbishment. The bathroom fixtures were heavily covered in limescale, the room didn’t feel as clean as expected, and the overall standard was nowhere near what was advertised in the photos. We also noticed obvious maintenance issues in the communal areas, which didn’t give us much confidence in the hotel’s upkeep. For the amount we paid we at the least expected a clean, comfortable hotel, but this has fallen well below those expectations. We have raised our concerns with reception and our holiday provider as we don’t feel the accommodation is of an acceptable standard.