Pine Cliffs Ocean Suites, Algarve

I rarely post on trip advisor but felt I needed to put out a more balanced view of the Pine Cliffs resort. We arrived last Sunday (28th June) and honestly given some of the recent reviews I was very nervous and had low expectations!! But wow was I wrong!! It is a 5 star resort not like other so called 5 star resorts we have stayed in in The Algarve. The resort is really fantastic and has everything you need for a relaxing family holiday. The pools and toilet areas are spotless and areas are cleaned every evening and sun loungers reorganised. I have attached the view from our apartment of one of the pools - no rush to reserve sun loungers - it’s still pretty much empty at 10am. This is mainly due to the number of pools dotted around the resort and the beach. And there are towel huts at all the pools despite what other reviewers have said! The beach is beautiful and has a bar and loads of sun loungers. The atmosphere around the hotel in the evening is pure holiday chill. There is a burger van on the lawn for a different dining experience. There is also a small ice cream stand on the lawn so after dinner we have walked there for ice cream. The hotel have also a huge screen on the lawn to watch the World Cup which has created a really special experience for our kids. We have had no issues with staff and our check in was very pleasant. There are staff members everywhere and all of whom have been very helpful when needed. Our apartment is immaculate and very comfortable. We have all the mod cons- dishwasher, washing machine/ tumble dryer, x 2 coffee machines ( pod & filter, the pods are replaced daily) and even have a water filter machine so we don’t need to buy bottled water. The resort itself is immaculate, with paths and lawns well maintained creating beautiful walking paths around the resort. We have not had need to use the golf buggy transportation as everything we have needed to access so far is only a 5 minute walk ( beach, pools, reception). The kids soccer academy is about a 20 minute walk but as we have a car we will drive there. We here is a 10% service charge on all food and drinks but staff have been very forthcoming and have to be paid on purchases. So for anyone traveling here in the coming weeks do not believe everything you read on trip advisor!!!

Fraudulent charges to room. Forged signatures. No proper controls in place and putting the blame on new staff which is unfair. Proper measures and controls should be in place.

I am currently at the Pine Cliff resort now with family and cannot understand the negative reviews on here. The complex itself is stunning, rooms immaculate and all staff so far have been so friendly and helpful. Never any problems with beds around the pool unless you sleep till noon- 10.30 plenty of availability. I’m staying bed and breakfast and the choice is unreal, but people complaining saying it’s the same things everyday. Definitely beats a bowl of cornflakes and a slice of toast ( which we all know that’s what everyone has), however I may be wrong, I’m sure the complainers are having mackerel fillets and dried apricots with little espressos. Not really sure what people’s expectations are but this has far exceeded our’s. Reading previous reviews left me feeling a little anxious of coming to Pine Cliffs but I think it’s a case of “ you can’t please all of the people all of the time”. I assume it’s more the type of people writing the reviews than the resort ( I’d love to know the type of lives they live as I seriously cannot find fault with the complex) My only negative, and it’s a choice, is the pricing in the resort. I do find it excessive and overpriced but a €5 Uber can take you pretty much anywhere if you want a decent drink / food without paying Pine Cliffs prices. My advice would be, ignore the haters, try it for yourself and hopefully you will have the same experience as us. Well done Pine Cliffs!!!

The grounds are genuinely beautiful and arrival recognition was warm — a welcome bottle of wine and chocolates were a nice touch. That is where the positive experience ended. Pine Cliffs has invested heavily in the appearance of luxury - the clifftop setting, the manicured gardens, the Luxury Collection branding. What it has not invested in is the service culture required to justify any of it. Across five nights I encountered the same pattern repeatedly: staff who deflect rather than own, departments that don't communicate with each other, and problems that were acknowledged but never actually resolved. This is a resort that has confused aesthetic with standard. Housekeeping was a consistent failure throughout. An open wine bottle and wine glass sat in my room uncollected for four days. Towels were inconsistently replaced despite repeated follow-up. These are not edge cases - they are the baseline of what any hotel at this price point should manage without prompting. Finally, when I pulled in my Marriott Ambassador and gave the stern feedback, my room was immaculately serviced on my last day - it just goes to show that the staff are capable, but simply don't care and their management are totally absent in enforcing basic service standards expected from a resort that advertises itself as 5-stars. Food and beverage service compounded this. Wait times across restaurants and bars regularly exceeded 20 minutes with no acknowledgement from staff. At breakfast, guests were expected to fetch their own water from the service counter - a detail that would pass unremarked at a mid-range hotel but is inexplicable at a Luxury Collection property. At the Mirador Bar I waited over 30 minutes for a Negroni that never arrived. When I raised it, there was no record of my order and no apology. When the drink eventually came, it was the wrong type. When I flagged this, I was told it was the correct order. It was not. On day four I woke with over a dozen bites. Later that day I found two trails of ants - one beside my bed, one in my bathroom - and raised the issue via the Marriott app. I was told housekeeping would attend while I was at dinner. No completion update was ever sent. I returned to find ants still on my bedside table, unwell and having explicitly said I needed to sleep. The lack of follow-up is unsatisfactory for a Luxury Collection resort. The front desk sent housekeeping back with a manager, whose first response was to blame reception rather than address the problem. When I raised my concern about bed bugs, I was told, emphatically, before any inspection had occurred, "we do not have bed bugs." Only after I showed my bites did she inspect the bed, for approximately five seconds. An offer to deep clean or relocate me was made approaching 11pm while I was ill. This was not a resolution. The following morning the hotel provided a written response via the Marriott app stating the wine bottle had been collected the previous night. It had not. I carried it to reception myself that morning. This is a false statement, made in writing, in direct response to a formal guest complaint. I have the full message thread and photographs of the ants taken after housekeeping had supposedly attended. Five-star grounds. One-star housekeeping. One-star pest response. Zero-star honesty. For an Ambassador-level stay on a 220,000-point redemption, this is an embarrassment to the Luxury Collection and Marriott brands.

My family and I have stayed at the Pine Cliffs for over 24 years and have always had the best time unfortunately this last trip has been hugely disappointing. We got moved after night 1 because of ants and the air con not working but the real issue was how they handled a situation with my 2 year old grandson. He has allergies which he has been hospitalised with before and after ordering a take away meal for him and explaining his allergies he soon became very unwell and had to have emergency care. We have asked for the full list of ingredients and have only been given a partial one as we could see ourselves certain items had been omitted so we have no faith in the fact certain allergens were in there too. What was truly upsetting was the lack of care after speaking to the management who seemed very belittling and wanted the problem to be left unresolved. On returning home there still has been no follow up. I hope this never happens to another guest in the future. There was also a clear reduction in staff as well as the service across the resort was not up to its usual standard. This was certainly visible at the breakfast buffet where there was a long wait at the egg stations and there was a sausage left on the side with ants crawling all over it for a lengthy period of time.