Pine Cliffs Ocean Suites, Algarve

We stayed at the Ocean Suites on the property for four nights. Everything was great except the front desk and concierge at the Ocean Suites. They failed to correctly make a taxi request and failed to make any of the 3 dinner reservations we requested. Management was never available - actually no management is there 2 days a week!! Horrible customer service. We had to go to the main hotel to get any sort of customer service. For the large sum of money they charge per night to stay there, lack of customer service should not be an issue!!

First the positives - the grounds are beautiful, the beach is nice, the staff are generally pleasant and well meaning. Our room (a 3 bedroom penthouse suite) was ok, if dated and worn. Also, it is easy to hear furniture being dragged across the floor in a neighbouring apartment. Others have complained about this and it’s easy to solve (foam-pads on furniture legs), so not quite sure why the hotel has done nothing about it. But now for the worst bit - the food. It’s bad and it’s very expensive. If it wasn’t bad, I’d be ok with it, but a couple of examples. My daughter ordered a tuna bread dish in the health cafe (Zest)… she was given a burnt ciabatta with tuna from the can. A joke for 18 euros. We then had dinner in Portofino, the hotel Italian restaurant. I ordered a pizza, which was undercooked. My daughter ordered a truffle pasta, which was effectively a supermarket mushroom pasta with some cheap truffle from a jar. The latter was 45 euros! Finally, even though Corda cafe was ok, 39 euros for a fajita…. Really?!!!! Also the breakfast - I asked for them to add some fresh scrambled eggs to the buffet tray. The cook withdraws a large pre-prepared dish from below the counter, that had clearly been there a while… very off-putting.. no thanks. Believe me, there are much better dining options, and considerably cheaper, just outside the hotel. The hotel should also do something about the flies in the sun bathing area (near the lift to the beach). It became hugely irritating to sit in this area due to this. I ended up staying on the beach as a result. So there you have it - basically a nice hotel, let down by really bad and expensive food. I would not return.

We went to the piri piri steakhouse for dinner it was shocking we waited 15 minutes for our drinks to arrive then my steak was really fatty and not presented very well my Husbands steak was ok but definitely not worth 52euros!! Don’t go on a Thursday as they are getting rid of all produce as they are shut on a Friday and Saturday had better steak in villamora than here for half the price !!! Very overpriced for what they pretend to be ..,, This is no reflection on the hotel as it is clean tidy and a amazing hotel cannot fault.

We are concluding a week stay here; We have elite tier status with Marriott and were disappointed in this stay - The food all around was way below expectations, and way below the simple quality we cook at home – from steaks at Piri Piri to simple fajitas as Corda; I wish we didn’t do Half Board – and the resort needs a serious uplift in chef skills – import new chefs If needed, what was served was not acceptable, and simple recipe tweaks could have delivered so much more - Ants in room from day 1 – we had to ask for our place to be disinfected, but it seems like a common problem – if that’s the case – please spray between client changes and/or often - Screaming children everywhere – ruining the atmosphere at the pool and at dinners. It’s not the resort’s fault but we beg the resort to make simple tweaks, the resort could deliver a huge change for guests – eg - for the biggest dining areas – please separate where families with young children sit vs. adult only / families with teenagers. Jardim and Portofino were the worst. There are 8 pools – could you make several 15+ or introduce etiquette rules? - Would echo guest prior reviews on being nickel and dimed; The resort loves to talk about having water sports – but all of them cost extra money and sometimes significantly – 15 minutes on a jet ski was some insane amount; Taking one group gym lesson – 15-20 Euro; Half board doesn’t cover water/drinks; Lots of extras added on – left us with a further bad experience; You can do much better - If you want to sit on the beach every day – the beds were packed like sardines. Avoid. Widely, staff were lovely and helpful; albeit Portofino restaurant team were completely scattered; Grounds beautiful, rooms well cleaned excluding the ant issue; Easy to get around the resort. In the round -incredibly expensive and experience delivered not commensurate with cost

This is now our 4th time staying at the Pine Cliffs and it was good. We stayed in a 1 bed apt on Pine Cliff Gardens which was perfect. The size is great and the apartment was well equipped. Housekeeping cleaned our room to perfection every single day – thank you. The only niggle that we had was there was no full-length mirror – we couldn’t believe it. I had read this two years ago but thought better that PC would have done something about it, but no! So plan your outfits before you leave ladies as you will have to use the balcony patio doors to see what your outfits look like! Please correct this PC, why have such beautiful apartments, that are very well equipped and you forget such a basic thing like a FULL LENGTH MIRROR! We flipped between the pool & beach most days. Pool, we had no trouble getting beds but staying here previously there is an absolute need for an adult only pool & again have left this feedback before but of course nothing has been done about it. Ocean suites pool was much quieter and has a bar where you can get drinks. Beach, you must get there early to get beds, but they did put out deck chairs and umbrellas if people did struggle. Mare was closed due to the storm, so it is waiter service only and toilets were porta loos. The beach staff need to do more to not let non residents use the beds. We saw on three occasions people just using the beds. One woman even took an umbrella as the people weren’t sat here! The beach guys saw this and did nothing to move them on. I know you can’t educate people on manners but maybe there needs to be some security down there and someone more senior to alleviate this problem. Food is fine still lack of veggie options, but the veggie burger is still excellent. There are better places around and the best coffee shop over the road that do-good sandwiches for lunch and so cheap too. None of the above would put me off staying here again. It is safe, clean and the staff are mostly accommodating. There is an IKOS opening shortly and I do think this will have an effect on PC, so they do need to start to up their game a bit!