Dubrovnik President Valamar Collection Hotel

“Incredible staff, great hotel”

The Dubrovnik President Valamar hotel is well deserving of its 5 stars. The staff are all amazing, a few stand out as extra special, names mentioned later on, the facilities are excellent and food world class. Be prepared that it isn’t the cheapest place to stay, and alcoholic drinks can be costl... more

The Dubrovnik President Valamar hotel is well deserving of its 5 stars. The staff are all amazing, a few stand out as extra special, names mentioned later on, the facilities are excellent and food world class. Be prepared that it isn’t the cheapest place to stay, and alcoholic drinks can be costly, however much the same can be said of Dubrovnik in general, and you do get what you pay for. The hotel is built on a west facing cliff and sunsets are amazing from just about anywhere. The foyer, reception, money exchange service, concierge and a couple of small shops are on the top, 7th floor which is accessible from the street. The beach is on level 0 and in-between levels are the restaurants, wellness centre, spa, V Level lounge, pools (indoor and outdoor), public balcony, various bars, and rooms. Areas are accessible via the lifts (which require room keys to use) or stairways. If the option of upgrading to V Level is available and if it’s affordable to you, then from experience this is highly recommended for the below reasons: 1.) Primarily, if taking half board, dinner and breakfast at the Momenti restaurant on the 6th floor is free, no need to book, and an extremely pleasant experience. It’s much quieter and more relaxing than the buffet restaurant, the 5 course partial a’La Carte menu is delicious, but most importantly the outstanding personal service and amazing warm welcome you will repeatedly get from the ‘Dream Team’ of Bozena, Domagoj and Gavrilo will keep you wanting to come back for more. 2.) The V Level lounge on the 5th floor is quiet and relaxing. Access requires scanning a room key. It has bubbly hour daily from 17:00 to 18:00 which offers a service of free Prosecco and light, warm snacks; a perfect prelude to dinner at Momenti. 3.) Airport transfers to and from the hotel are included for V Level customers. The car was a luxury vehicle and was easy to arrange through the hotel. 4.) The V Level rooms are in a quieter, separate area of the hotel which has no through access. We had room 6009 which was a great size with a good sea view and reasonable balcony area. 4.) All the small extras provided in the room such as a welcome pack of fresh fruit and flowers, and a bottle of wine were a nice touch. Also included in the V Level room extras package is a beach bag, flip-flops, toiletries, pillow selection, scent selection, and quite useful bottle of water which is replaced daily. 5.) There is a separate check-in for V Level customers, which has a welcome drink and is convenient. However the main reception is large, was always efficient and there were never long queues which we saw while staying at the hotel. 6.) A reserved V Level area exists including cabanas on the hotel’s private beach, with water and snacks available, although there is a drawback to this unfortunately, more about this later though. In summary it’s definitely worthwhile considering the V Level package in our view. There is live music on the 6th floor balcony every night which is pleasant to experience with a drink after sunset. The Valamar app has a useful schedule of activities. The concierge is in the foyer which is available at convenient hours to assist booking excursions. We didn’t use their services, as found it cheaper to organise our own tours, but heard they are very helpful. While the hotel is not a short walking distance to the Dubrovnik old town, there is a bus stop immediately outside the hotel. Bus route 6’s first stop is from the hotel, it runs frequently enough, and its last stop is the gate to the old town, which is very convenient. The busses are free with the Dubrovnik tourist pass, don’t bother using taxis to get into town from the hotel. Also conveniently located, a short walk from the hotel, are a few mini market shops where gifts and food can be purchased if needed. Maro World which has some water slides and trampoline amusements for kids is also in the same vicinity. There are however a couple of areas we noticed which could be improved upon by the hotel management, namely: 1.) It is not possible to add a tip / service charge to any bills, eg extra drinks at the restaurant etc when paying by card or signing a charge to the room bill. This made it annoyingly necessary to have to ensure we carried enough cash to give tips. Some customers may not be able to tip as a result of this limitation. I am sure the staff as well as other customers would appreciate it greatly if the card machines and paperwork for charging items to the room both were upgraded to allow addition of a non-mandatory tip if the service received warrants one. 2.) While the beach does have a cordoned off, separate area for V Level customers only, this was not monitored nor enforced. As a result it was frequently full and there was very obvious disregard for customers who had paid to use this area by those who hadn’t. The hotel could do much better in this regards. Please consider checks on people entering and using this area. Maybe an electronic, automated system could be introduced which requires scanning of room keys to use the area. We were not the only people to notice this issue, and suspect it is a recurring problem. So not really major issues considering the overall massively positive experience at the hotel. I do however hope the hotel management reads and acknowledges these as areas for future improvement. All in all we had an amazing time in Dubrovnik and especially at the hotel, mostly as the result of the incredible staff. Thank you all very much.

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“Good hotel but not a 5 stars”

When you arrive at the lobby, you think you are at a 5 stars hotel but it is not exactly this… The lobby is nice, very spacious. The people at reception very friendly. During the walk to the room qe noticed some leaks at the roof. We got a sea view room but the view was not very good because the ... more

When you arrive at the lobby, you think you are at a 5 stars hotel but it is not exactly this… The lobby is nice, very spacious. The people at reception very friendly. During the walk to the room qe noticed some leaks at the roof. We got a sea view room but the view was not very good because the height of the windows and the garden. The furniture is very old, they put two small beds together to make a double bed, the TV channels does not have many channels in English. The bathroom is ok but needs urgently clean and paint. There are spots of mold. A 5 stars hotel should have a coffee machine in the room, at least I believe so. The breakfast is really good. A lot of options available for all kind of tastes. My suggestion is to open earlier so the guests can have a breakfast before leave the hotel for some early tours. Also, the omelette fryer must be a exchanged, besides the omelette guy does an excellent job, it takes a long time because the fryer is sticking the eggs. The internal pool was supposed to be heated but it is not. We dis not use the sauna but we heard qe could use for free. Checkin and checkout was easy. We used the concierge for a taxi and everything worked just fine. So, the price is for a 5 starts hotel but you get a 3,5 stars as maximum.

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“Only the facilities are 5-star”

Facilities: the hotel breakfast, restaurants, gym, pool and beach are fabulous for a relaxing vacation stay Staff service: most staff members were very responsive, despite the often misalignment of information across staff (eg whether the tap water is drinkable) Room service: totally not stan... more

Facilities: the hotel breakfast, restaurants, gym, pool and beach are fabulous for a relaxing vacation stay Staff service: most staff members were very responsive, despite the often misalignment of information across staff (eg whether the tap water is drinkable) Room service: totally not standardized with different things made up each day (eg sometimes the personal brush relocated); in-room refrigerator was left with remaining drinks from last stay Cleanliness: fair, stains on sofa bed, used forks just relocated from plates to the desk without even taken out from the room Check-out: the official check-out time is 10am but our room’s door was knocked at 9:15am to be reminded of check-out. We were literally waken up by the door knock. I later checked at the reception that it was not a standard practice but no further explanation was ever given.

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“Not quite the five star experience we had hoped for”

Unfortunately we felt that the hotels five star rating was rather flattering and not fully merited. First impressions of the hotel were poor as the reception staff were abrupt and unwelcoming. Other than the location of the restaurant and meal times, we were offered no further information about t... more

Unfortunately we felt that the hotels five star rating was rather flattering and not fully merited. First impressions of the hotel were poor as the reception staff were abrupt and unwelcoming. Other than the location of the restaurant and meal times, we were offered no further information about the hotel. In other five star hotels we have been given a warm welcome, complementary drink, information about the spa and a la carte dining options as well as details of the hotel facilities. None of that here, we were just expected to find anything we needed ourselves. We had the same poor experience on checking out as we were presented with the bill but not asked how our stay had been, wished a pleasant journey etc. The bedrooms were rather dated but comfortable, although the housekeeping service was one of the poorest we have encountered with things regularly being missed. There was a good selection of food in the buffet restaurant for both dinner and breakfast although the food was never particularly hot even shortly after the buffet had opened. The staff were excellent at clearing tables and bringing café lattes to us at breakfast but some elements of the service both in the restaurant and bar were not of a five star standard. Watching the spectacular sunsets and enjoying cocktails on the outside terrace listening to the live music was a very pleasant end to the day. The beach was a great place to relax and during our stay there was never pressure for sunloungers. Wi-Fi was good both in our room and on the beach. We booked this hotel for a special wedding anniversary (not acknowledged in any way by the hotel) but unfortunately it did not provide the luxury experience we had hoped for. Overall the Dubrovnik President felt more like a four star hotel than five.

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