A LETTER TO THE HOLIDAY INN

I have just returned from my third trip to Aruba and chose to stay at the Holiday Inn (all inclusive) and I was extremely disappointed with the service, the food, the amenities and the overall hotel itself.

I was at the Allegro Occidental Hotel in Aruba in October 2003 (all inclusive) and was very happy with the service, food, entertainment, front desk and so on.

When we arrived, the check-in time was not until 4:00, which is absolutely ridiculous. When we got to our room, we were surprised at the fact that we were given two double beds, when in fact we paid for a king size bed, the faucet in the bathtub did not drain and the tub was flooding, the lever for the toilet did not flush we had to hold it for a couple of minutes before it flushed and the safe did not work, we were not able to set our own code. When went to the front desk to advise that we wanted another room with a king size bed, we were told that they could not do anything until the next morning. Therefore, my husband and I were forced to sleep in separate beds upon our first night arriving.

The next morning we went to the front desk to inquire about our room change for a king size bed and were told we had to wait until later in the day for a room to become available, so we were forced to live out of our luggage for a whole day and a half. Nevertheless, when we finally did receive our keys to our room later that day, there were plenty of towels, but no shampoo, conditioner or soap. Throughout the rest of the week the toiletries were never replaced and we were lucky if we got two or three towels per day.

Every morning we went to the towel hut for fresh beach towels and out of seven (7) days that we were there, I think we got fresh beach towels perhaps twice, the other five (5) days, they never had towels and when they did get some, they were the towels from the hotel rooms. This is disgraceful, when you consider that people go through several towels per day, between the beach and the pool.

I do not even know where to begin when it comes to the food at the Holiday Inn. The quality of the food selection was absolutely horrible. The first day we arrived we had something from the Seabreeze, which was okay, not the greatest, but okay. We decided that we would try the buffet for dinner and were surprised that dinner was not held in La Palmas, but at the Seabreeze. I could not believe my eyes when I went to select my dinner from the trays. There were about four items to select from, and it was some type of macaroni salad, some broccoli that was sitting for hours, which was yellow and mushy, a tray with something that was supposed to look like either fish or chicken, I am not sure what it was, a few rock-hard buns and a bowl of wilted salad that was brown and stale. I was absolutely disgusted and appalled at the fact that this is what the Holiday Inn calls a buffet dinner.




The next morning we thought we would try the breakfast buffet and surprise, surprise it was in La Palmas and not at the Seabreeze, yet again, another day of shock and disappointment, there was minimal fresh fruit, apples, oranges, bananas, lots, but minimal pineapple, watermelon, which had no taste and some honeydew, which was garbage. The rest of the buffet was atrocious, the eggs smelled very funny, the sausage was fatty and very greasy, as well as the bacon. We had half a cup of coffee and left because I thought I was going to be sick to my stomach.

For lunch, we decided to try the pizza at the Iguana bar; the pizza was very, very oily and had no taste. But we thought it would do for the day until dinner.

We heard from some other couples that Miramar was one of the better restaurants at the Holiday Inn, and decided to try it. We made reservations, no problem and went on our merry way. We had reservations at 6:30 and we ordered tomato caprese for appetizer and the mushroom lasagna and the fettucine with oil and garlic for our meal. The garlic in the pasta was stale and old and the pasta was swimming in oil, not sure what type of oil, but whatever.

The next morning I was sick to my stomach, vomiting and diarrhea, fever and stomach ache. My whole day was ruined because I was feeling so sick, later that evening I ended up at the hospital because I was so ill from the food that you serve people, who go away on vacation expecting to have a great time, and it gets ruined by some horrible food that the hotel provides.

From that day forward, my husband and I went out for all of our meals, with the exception of lunch on a few occasions at the Seabreeze, for some chicken tenders and quesadillas, which were not the greatest, but we paid for all inclusive and were disappointed that we could not even take advantage of that. Like I said, we went out for breakfast and dinner for the remainder of our vacation

The service at the bars was satisfactory, nothing to rant and rave about. Actually, one afternoon we went to the Iguana bar on the beach and ordered two drinks, the bartender (female) was sick and was blowing her nose with a tissue and holding the tissue in her hand and then using the same dirty hands to make drinks and put straws in those drinks, this is absolutely disgusting and if she was sick she should not have been there serving people. The staff was not friendly at all and the alcoholic beverages were okay.

As far as the activities at the pool and the nightly entertainment go, I can clearly say that there was none. There is a posting on the bulletin board in the foyer where the pool is and it has tons of activities listed for the day (i.e. beer drinking contest, aqua aerobics, bingo, etc.) and of the list of activities the only one that actually happened was the family bingo, which on the bulletin board says it happens daily at 2:00, and we actually only saw it happen twice. None of the activities listed ever took place unless, they were held inside, which makes no sense, we never saw anything.

Actually, the following is a statement that is on the website for the Holiday Inn Sunspree Aruba, “Vacation in an Island Paradise! The Holiday Inn SunSpree Aruba offers outstanding values and unlimited fun!!
Fun, what fun, there was the Palicoco room which had a DJ every night with some loud and annoying music, you call that entertainment, my version and past experience of entertainment is people putting on a show, keeping the people entertained, getting them involved and having a great time. Every night at the Palicoco, people would sit there, have a few drinks and leave, there was nothing there for entertainment or fun.
I am very disappointed with the service at the hotel and would never, ever return to the Holiday Inn Sunspree Aruba, nor would I recommend it to friends or family. I am telling you; please do not send me anything, as far as another stay at the Holiday Inn Sunspree Aruba because I would never stay there again, not even if it was given to me for free.

I would check postings on the Aruba website daily for comments and suggestions about the Holiday Inn Sunspree Aruba because you can bet your bottom dollar that this one will definitely be posted on the Message Board. I love Aruba and plan on returning someday in the not so distant future, but we will not stay at the Holiday Inn Sunspree Aruba.

I strongly suggest that someone reads this in its entirety and perhaps take into consideration some of the comments that have been made.

Sincerely,

D