Splendid AH

Our family arrived at the hotel at 11 AM today and waited till 2 PM for my room to be ready. While I understand that checkin time is 3 PM, my expectation is that when the hotel takes so long for room to be made ready it really should be. The room had no cooling and both the ACs were faulty. For next 3 hours, the hotel kept doing maintenance of ACs in my room disturbing my privacy. I was told there is no other room available to move me into and I have to manage the night in the same room. I'm hoping I'm shifted to another room tomorrow. The hotel charges so highly per night and this is an absolutely pathetic experience. The weather is hot, I've travelled in from India and accommodated in a room with no functional AC.

View from seaside rooms, dining area and terrace give the place its name. Location is OK, near the lapad and babin kuk areas, walking distance to wonderful pedestrianized streat with great restaurants - Setalista Kralja Zvonimira. A long walk to old city but # 4 bus stops right across from Hotel, and all you do is pay w/credit card. There were several issues with the buses, rude drivers, drivers leaving riders stuck on the sidewalk (locals too, not tourists), skipping stops. But you can also Uber. We did both. Now, the hotel is better named the Hotel Pretty Good and a little tired than the Splendid. Upside? Very patient English speaking staff and a fabulous breakfast. Rooms were OK, not wow, clean, for sure, but could use a little renovation. We were 10 people on an Ebike trip, a couple demanding people, we were confusing because we rented a night at the beginning of the trip and one at the end, and then on our own added extra night at the end, so there was a lot of room switching going on, checking out and checking in again because some of the reservations were through the bike company and some direct. But they did their best to accomodate us. Here's how I feel in summary. If you can get a better hotel with a better location, grab it, but it is going to cost you big time. We stayed in the Villa Orabelle in 2023 and it was a couple hundred a night. Best hotel l've ever stayed in. Now? $700 a night. So if you don't need walking access to the Old City, this place is perfectly fine. Between the Setalista Kralja Zvonimira and Uber/Bus # 4, you have very good access. There are outstanding restaurants there. And the promenade around the Lapad/Babin Kuk is a beautiful walk. So if you should find yourself here, do not despair, it is 4 stars/Good and you will not be troubled. If you need astonishing luxury, posh surroundings and are OK paying extortionate rates, go elsewhere.

Stayed a week with teens in a triple room with balcony and sea view. Amazing view from the balcony! Really clean room, towels were changed daily. The room could have been bigger, it wasn't as shown in the pictures. There's two wings in the hotel and pics of the triple room are from one side and our room was on the other side. On the other hand, our balcony was much bigger and had a sunshade. The hotel, garden and beach were all nice and clean. Beach towels are available from the beach bar at no cost. Locals use the beach as well, it's not reserved for hotel guests only. This side of the bay is more quiet than the other side and has a nice forest hill with a hiking trail behind the hotel. There was a loud construction on the other side of the bay, looks like it's going to take a while still, so that's something to keep in mind if you're planning to just hang at the hotel. For us it wasn't a big problem. The staff at the desk were very friendly and helpful, as were the breakfast buffet personnel, drivers and cleaning staff. Breakfast buffet was good, a lot of choices and fresh fruits. I wouldn't recommend restaurant Tramonto. We had two burgers and calamari, both burgers were raw and cold inside, calamari had (fried) rubber bands still attached. They did give us properly cooked burgers and a different dish instead of the calamari when we asked, but charged us full price. One of the burger eaters still got a food poisoning (I also informed the waiter about it). Luckily there's a lot of better restaurants (like Pino's and Trinity Oriental Fusion) in the area to choose from. Bus #4 runs to the Pile gate (Old town) every 20 mins. In the bus they only accept cash, better to buy single tickets or day passes from kiosk (Tisak) or Libertas stand. Bolt/Uber don't really work, better to use a taxi if you need to be somewhere at a certain time. The overall experience, location etc. would have been worth four stars, but the bad food case and the way the restaurant handled it dropped my review to three stars.