Hotel Kalma Jardín de Bellver in Benicassim

We stayed in this hotel in May22 and it was great. We reserved our room for our trip down in August (as it was perfect for our dogs) when we left. How things change! We were given the wrong room which did not have outside access, we were shown another room but it had 3 beds in so I had to crawl into my bed. During the wait for the room to be cleaned we asked for 2 small draft lagers. These were not available! We then ordered bottled beers, these arrived zero alcohol! And so it went on. Dinner was not available, then we had a reservation at 8.00, we arrived to find we had to wait until 9.00. The fish course was warmed up crab sticks and the main was undercooked chicken leg with no sauce or flavour. It was truly awful. In the morning breakfast was really good but then there was confusion with the bill which was partly my fault as they didn’t know if we had paid for dinner even though it was inedible. So I asked for a bill to be emailed and I would settle it. We had 3 amounts taken from our bank which were incorrect and a large overpayment. Many emails followed, in capitals from reception!! In the end they admitted by phone they had charged for the dogs and drinks twice but we never received an written apology or a full breakdown of their charges. The final insult was no reply to an email I sent asking it I had left a dress there. A grim and expensive experience.

A comedy of errors. Booked 2 connecting double rooms so our young children could have their own room. This was not available at checkin, with the staff unable to think of a solution which was not evicting another hotel resident from a room. We waited to be checked in, with our toddler unable to take a nap, to finally be given a double room with no connecting room as a connecting room could not be found. So be it, we can live with this, if it wasn’t for the appalling service we received during our wait. We were provided brunch menus at 1, ordered at 1.30, and then told the kitchen didn’t open until 2, some of our meals arrived at 3.30, some did not! During this time we could see numerous other diners enjoying lunch clearly from a different menu, when the kitchen was allegedly closed. Honestly a mediocre hotel, made truly ghastly by its stunning incompetence. Would make for an amusing TV show, but not so much a fun weekend away with friends and small kids.