The bad points.......
The idea that this hotel is 4 star is laughable! I would give it a possible three star. The bathroom had a little black mould around the bath and (cracked) tiles. The bottom of the bathroom door was ragged and water damaged, as previously said by another reviewer. The TV remote control was non existant and you couldn't turn the volume down or up and to turn over the channels you had to stick your finger in a little hole and poke!
All this I could handle (scrub the tiles, stay away from the bathroom door for fear of bleeding toes, get hubby to change channels on TV......you know, the usual!) The thing I couldn't handle was after 3 days of being there, not seeing the room service, collecting my own toilet rolls......being told to take my own rubbish to the service room (It's true!) I went down to the reception and explained that we hadn't seen a maid or had our room cleaned. The male receptionist was quite rude and patronising. He didn't see the problem with having to use damp towels or food waste left in the kitchen bin for 3 warm days and told me I was overreacting.
ANYWAY...... Everything apart from the hotel was brilliant!!!!!
The good points.......
I went on this holiday on the 20th October with my husband and son (14). We flew with Thomas Cook from Newcastle which was fine. The hotel was ok........at first, clean, bright, with a good view of the pool which I had emailed the hotel and asked for.
The supermarket was literally next door with a good choice of food and drinks. There is a lower floor where you can buy Pizza Hut, burgers and a salad meal if you don't want to go too far. Very nice! Just across the busy road there is a MacDonalds or KFC if you have fussy eaters. There is also a great little chinese restaurant which we went to twice on our visit. Called Tim Tims. The food was amazing and the people who work there were so freindly and welcoming! Well worth a visit, I promise!
Anyway, enough of the food.......
There is a small road train just outside the hotel which takes you to the strip and the old town for just 3 euros and you use the same ticket all day.
Try the steak on a stone, it's brilliant! The beaches are fantastic and the old town is lovely to wander around in the evenings
A trip to the Zoo Marine is a must!.The dolphins were brilliant and the 4D cinema is amazing and educational, my son loved this day out!
A great holiday apart from the hotel!
Would we go back to the Hotel Paladim? NO WAY!
Would I go back to the Algarve? TRY TO KEEP ME AWAY!

Our family of four including teenage kids, stayed at the Paladim for two weeks in August and had an excellent time. Hotel was very clean and we had a pool view one bed apartment, room 208. Although I wouldn't really want a room on the otherside of the hotel as they look directly onto the busy road and directly above shops and cafes. Staff were very good and polite. Location of the hotel is great for Albufeira as it is directly in between the old town and the strip, it being a 15 minute walk to either.
If anyone would like any more info let me know.

From the time we were allocated this apartment we had nothing but problem after problem. On our arrival our electricity didn't work so we had the handy-man come fix it, then he returned the next day to replace all the light bulbs that had blown in the apartment. The wooden veneer on our bathroom door was very badly split on both sides. We didn't complain about this until the baby caught his toe underneath it causing him a lot of pain. It took the handy-man two days to fix it by putting a steel panel over the ends of the door but he had to take the door away with him for a while to do this leaving us ( 3 adults, 1 child, 1 infant) with no door. There was mould growing around our bath. We again complained and it was cleaned. One of the chairs belonging to the dining set had sub standard padding so much so that we could only let our daughter sit on it. (an adult would have fallen through the chair) Our fridge constantly leaked, the baby fell a few times on the water seeping from it, he got a right bump on his head and bruising from the fall. We constantly had to leave a towel on the floor to mop up the water. We had no idea there was a gap on the upper shelf of the wardrobe until my husband put two t-shirts up there and heard them slid down behind the pipes. Again the work-man came with a fish-hook thingy to retreive them. Our air-conditioning in the bedroom broke down, it took two days for the handy-man yet again to come and fix it. (the wooden pelmet under the unit was warped from where this had happened before). On our last night the air-conditioning broke down again.

We feel there were too many problems on this holiday. The hotel is rated as four star but we don't feel it should have been given a two star grade.

We had no problem with the staff, they were very freindly and courteous, any problems we told them about were fixed but this apartment shouldn't have been allocated to anyone.

We spoke only to one other couple who were not happy with their accomodation everyone else said their apartments were fine. (we obviously got the apartment from hell).

No problems either with the daily cleaning service.

My husband and I have never been to the Algarve before so after reading many good things and the good reviews on this site we decided to book the Paladim Aparthotel for a 2 week break from 24th June 2007. On arrival I was a little worried as we pulled up over the road from a main road and i had heard that the noise can be quite bad but after checking in an directed to our room I was pleased to see we had a room with a pool view. The room itself was spotless, with a large sitting/dining/kitchen area, a bedroom and bathroom. We arrived quite late so went down to the Eden Bar for a bite to eat. The staff were very friendly and the omelette's lovely. In the morning we decided to walk to the 'Strip' which took us about 10 minutes. I was a little disappointed as it wasn't what we expected as it's a long road full of bars and restaurants and a couple of large nightclubs yet once we had a look around and ventured in the evening it was o.k. A taxi costs approx 4 euro's. We decided to try the 'Old Town' the night after and we immediately fell in love with it. It's got a great atmosphere with some great bars and restaurants and at the weekend live music/acts in the main square. Again the walk took approx 10 minutes and a taxi 4 euro's. The tourist train runs every 20 minutes from just up the road from the apartment to the strip and the old town which was handy too. We visited the mall which was o.k. and managed to pick up a few pressies and had a day at Zoo Marine which was fabulous. The dolphin show is a must see.