Vlora International

We stayed at Vlora International Hotel for a week in July and were unfortunately disappointed. We arrived in the middle of the night and immediately noticed that the hotel looked nothing like the pictures online. Luckily, we were greeted by friendly and helpful staff at the front desk, which was a nice start. The room appeared modern at first glance but was poorly maintained. The air conditioning didn’t work in one of the rooms, making it unbearably hot. The bed was full of sand for some reason, and the sheets were stained with brown marks. I ended up sleeping on the sofa bed instead. Overall, the room was dirty and had several issues. The view was “fine,” but currently it’s facing an active construction site. Every morning we were woken up by loud noises that felt like an earthquake – this happened all day, every day. If you’re thinking of booking here, wait a few years until the construction is finished. Breakfast was very basic, with little variety, and wasn’t restocked properly. Honestly, it was one of the saddest hotel breakfasts I’ve seen. We also thought the hotel had an outdoor pool based on what we saw online, but it turned out to be an indoor pool that we were only allowed to use once during the whole week. Apparently, it had to be emptied and was then just left unused. There’s just a treadmill in the pool room – not exactly what I’d call a fitness room. The location is okay – about a 10–15 minute walk to the beach, and 5–10 minutes from restaurants and shops. The town is somewhat cozy, but traffic is chaotic and cars drive wherever they want. Be careful as a pedestrian. The parking area shown in the booking photos no longer exists – it has been replaced by a small park with sand and dried-up trees. There were also lots of stray dogs outside; we counted eight right in front of the hotel one day. The bathroom was alright but the shower was dirty. They did provide shampoo and soap, but towels were a constant issue. Housekeeping took away the used towels but didn’t leave any clean ones. We had to track down the staff multiple times to ask for new towels. There’s a fridge in the room, but it was frozen over on the inside and very dirty. All in all, the hotel is cheap, and the stay was okay, but I wouldn’t recommend it at the moment. Maybe in a few years, if they improve the conditions and finish construction, it could have potential. But for now, it’s not worth it.