Balvanyos Resort



About
Balvanyos Resort is located in the heart of Romania, on foothills of Carpathian Mountains within a privileged protected natural area, offering a unique view of the surrounding mountains. The Resort offers the ideal conditions for an unforgettable escape from the hectic urban life, every season for both individuals and families as well as for groups and corporate clients.
The Resort encompasses two 4-star hotel: Grand Hotel Balvanyos**** and Peakture Hotel Balvanyos****, the unique wellness center - Grand Santerra Spa, Balvanyos Adventure Park, and 4 restaurants each with different specialty.
Balvanyos Resort offers 170 individually designed rooms, with high standard facilities offering comfort, relaxation and unforgettable experiences while savoring the breathtaking views.
Grand Santerra Spa is an oasis of tranquility offering complete experiences with 2 different Spas - a Spa for Adults Only and one dedicated to families with children.
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The services are quite average, but as usual, when there is sufficiency at the managerial level, on the principle of "that's how it goes", things will not move in the right direction, that is, towards delivering quality services at the level the price paid.
For example, in the hotel restaurant, Peakture side, at the breakfast area, there is no toaster! Asking why they don't have something like that, the answer was disarming: there is not any demanding from the people!
Some of the restaurant staff behave a bit like in a social canteen, they argue with you if you took a glass intended for tea and used it to drink juice!
On the other hand, the pizza served is vers good. For the rest, breakfast, at an average level, of a guesthouse 2-3 star.
The spa area is ok, in the adult area, a jacuzzi was non-functional, covered with a tarp, quite clean.
The organization of the area is worse, for example, they did the maintenance of the children's area on a Wednesday, and all children and parents were directed that day, until 2:00 p.m., to the adult area, the place that became at one point unbearable.
The Secuian sauna is very good, the small "shows" from 19.00 being very appreciated (Laszlo very good) especially on the chosen music (AC/DC).
In conclusion, a very nice place, with a lot of potential, overshadowed by services that do not match the asking price and the level of hotel (4*).
The superior room was quite nice, but not clean enough. The cleaning lady was really not cleaning the room , bathroom and balcony! In the bathroom she just changed the towels and put toiletries, not cleaning the shower area! We left the empty shampoo bottles on the shelf in the shower in 3 days never removed them and the shelf was not cleaned.. We left the shower head on the shower tap on purpose to see if she puts it on the shower rod and clean the tap, she did not moved it so she did not clean the tap or the floor of the shower! It looks like she has to clean all rooms on the floor-30 rooms I think! It is too much for 1 cleaning lady!
The hotel manager should put some more cleaning staff!
There was no water pressure and not really hot water! You have to wait a few minutes until the warm(not hot) water arrives! Not acceptable!
The SPA treatments and medical treatments at a very high level, an SPA receptionists did their utmost to fit the treatments to my schedule including a very early physiotherapy treatment at 07.30 when normally they start at 09.00. Very appreciated!
SPA facilities are very good.
Breakfast was good
The food and service at the Gastrolab restaurant is very good and at the Forest restaurant too.
The safe deposit box in the room was not fixed to the wall or cabinet.
A technician came over after our complain and fixed it with a bolt to the cabinet shelf!
No bell boy!
The excursions guide Rares was very kind and attentive.
Overall I would come back but they need some improvements to give a fair value for the money!


We loved the Spa area and the Spa treatments (some of the best we’ve had).
Breakfast is nice, the view from the restaurant in the morning is awsome.
The restaurant/ bar at the resort entrance (not the one in the hotel) was just great for us, food was good, atmosphere was nice, and the fresh bread in the evening was a treat.
Room ok, bed 8/10.
I think customer service at check in and check out can be improoved. Also they can give more attention to parking places and alleys during winter an clean them /dry them better.
I must say that the overall stay is a little bit pricy, but I think it’s well deserved.
Good food, good wine, great spa treatments, nice rooms, great experience.
Their biggest issue is that the facilities areas like SPA and restaurants are way too small compared with the number of rooms overall in the hotel. And this is a real issue, especially when the hotel is fully booked because it makes the experience in the hotel anything but relaxing.
On top of the fully booked situation they also allow people from outside the hotel to access the SPA. As you can imagine this creates an irritating experience.
They were short staff as well, meaning that we waited 45 minutes to 1 hour to get our food in the restaurant.
1st night the AC was not working, and nobody came to fix it even if I asked reception 2-3 times; they said they will send someone, but nobody came. We had to make a booking for breakfast and literally every chair was taken, long lines to pick up food as well … uncomfortable again.
The Internet was not working.
A terrible smell was coming from the bathroom.
In respect with the SPA all I can say is that it was the main reason I went there, and I ‘resisted’ the crowds there for maximum 1 hour in the first day and gave up the idea of getting back in there as there was no sunbed, chair, towels, space in saunas, pool etc.
Since I have a 15-year background working in the tourism industry I thought I should share the feedback with the hotel manager. So that’s what I’ve done, and she mostly looked for excuses and said that there are days when the spa is empty because the guests are going to visit the surroundings and days when the SPA is full so she cannot control these things. I suggested that a discount should apply to our bill since it was a very unpleasant experience and she give a 10% discount to our 500 euros total bill so we made a 50 euros saving and spent 450 euros to support the growing business of Balvanyos Resorts…
I definitely have better things to do in my life than giving bad reviews to hotels but I honestly feel like I had to do it for this one so they maybe work on improving the service and those interested to go there know what to expect.



Cons: Despite the beautiful scenery, outdoor walks outside the hotel area are risky due to the multitude of bears in the area. The sunbeds in the area of the indoor pools are permanently occupied, tourists leave their towels and go to their rooms, the staff does not release the sunbeds. There is no cleaning staff in the pool area, so there is quite a lot of dust and dirt, especially in the outdoor pool area. The water in the jacuzzis is miserable, and the outdoor pool has greenish deposits all around. As for the food, while it is tasty, it is unreasonably expensive and the menu is not very varied.
The area it is really beautiful but there is a problem of management.
The food very poor quality, the services overall are very poor, starts from reception to front and back house.
We been few years ago and i remember very good that the prices were very high, that the staff most of them they dont speak romanian and they dont come from Hospitality, just local people who needs a job, no matter what and this thing says lots of things about this place.
Dont even try to tell me that you are suffering having short staff because we know the reasons why you dont have good and enough staff, one of the reason being the salary.
Anyway, i remember that the maids came in my room, i was naked and i shoot at them to stop there and not to come inside, of course that didnt stopped and the only thing that she told me was " i need to clean the room!" With me and with my partner being naked! Imagine that!
We booked treatment at their spa, after i check out i had the surprise to see that i was charged more for services that i didnt asked,for a package that i didnt asked.
The whole place is a mess.
The staff are overworked, very high price for you get .
The area really beautiful, the spa beautiful but was much better to have a different area and pool for kids, can be very noisy and destroyed hollidays.
Really such ashame, the place in self has potential, beautiful views, spa is a plus.
Never again.
I asked for a manager wich was not even bothered to listen not speaking about taking any measures.
I do not recomand this hotel.
We we arrived we found out that our initial cabin had pipes issues due to the cold, so we got another cabin (without the view we payed for).
The second accomodation was uglier and always cold (the thermostat was fixed only to nights, while the heating took more than 6 hours).
We got a discount so we let that pass.
In the second night, where was a huge party in the dining hall, next to our accomodation, at cabin V4.
The bass of the music was to loud that all our windows and furniture was vibrating.
I went to the party and asked them to at least tune it down, so we could sleep, but I got a smug "sorry, No can do :) " from the manager of the dining hall.
The party lasted until past 01:00 at night.
The night was ruined since we got so frustrated prior, that neither of us could sleep properly.
"High prices, cold cabins, little room at the spa, smug and insulting dining hall manager"Read full review
"Rooms with the mountains view, with large balconies, above the hotel main entrance."Read full review
"Do not chose this hotel if you are looking for a relaxed weekend with yiur familly"Read full review
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