Vila ‘Margarit’ Hotel, Sarande (Saranda), Albania

We spent two hot nights at Vila ‘Margarit’ Hotel In Sarande, Albania.

I really wanted to write a positive review about this hotel because the people who work there were really nice and friendly. But there were too many things not quite right with this place, so I can’t.

We arrived early in the morning, we were taken upstairs to the first floor and shown a room that was occupied. Because they’re were people in the room we didn’t really bother to have a proper look, we just glanced in the door. It looked fine, so we said we’d take it.
We were told to wait for ten minutes downstairs in the outside cafe, restaurant. We sat and ordered a drink.
The people who were in the room came down a few minutes later, then the room was cleaned for us.
I’m not sure if they were paying hotel guests, or family/friends of the manager/owner, but it looked like they were being rushed to leave, so that we could have the room.
It seems the usual check-out time for hotels in Albania is 10am, so maybe they were leaving anyway.

The room was a decent size, with three beds, one double, two single. The double bed was not comfortable, the mattress was thin and lumpy, as were the pillows. There was a fridge in our room. We like to have a fridge, so this was good.
There was a small balcony overlooking the cafe at the front of the hotel. It was possible to see a small bit of the sea across the road, through the trees.
On the day we checked-out, as we sat eating breakfast in the cafe, we watched as several of the palm trees were thinned out, giving a slightly clearer, less obstructed, view of the sea. The staff at the hotel were obviously pleased about this.

The bathroom was a good size. The hot water was hit and miss. The water pressure fluctuated a lot, as did the temperature.
There were several hand towels on the beds when we checked-in, and one bath towel. During our stay the towels were never replaced with fresh clean ones.

Free WiFi was available, but it was almost impossible to get online in our room, and the connection was very slow when we tried to use it sitting downstairs in the cafe. It wasn’t much better than an old dial-up connection.

The hotel had a small kiosk at the front of the hotel, selling drinks, ice-cream, hats, and various other bits and bobs.
One evening we took a small bottle of mineral water from the fridge, handed the lady in the kiosk some money, which she promptly handed back, saying ‘no money, I can give you this’. I told you they were nice people.

We would have enjoyed our stay much more if if wasn’t for the things listed below.
No air-conditioning in our room, just a small electric fan which did little more than waft hot air around the room.
No working TV. There was an old small TV, but we couldn’t watch it because the aerial was busted, it needed to be plugged in to an electric socket, but there was only one wall socket that was within reach, but this was required to power the TV.
No working WiFi.
No shampoo, shower gel etc.
And the hotel was noisy. The dodgem cars across the road played blaring music all day and until late at night. The hotel itself played loud music most of the time too. And it wasn’t even good music.

As I said I did want to write a positive review, but there wasn’t much that was good about this place, apart from the people. They were really nice, but nice does not make for a pleasant hotel stay. Shame.
We would not want to stay at Vila ‘Margarit’ In Sarande, Albania, again.

But who knows, maybe in the future as their profits rise, they will rectify the issues mentioned above. They may install air-conditioning in the room we stayed in, and the other rooms on the same floor. We noticed that the rooms on the top floor did have air-conditioning units.
They may also supply complimentary toiletries, and purchase new mattresses, and new TV’s.
It would only take a few small changes to make Vila ‘Maragarit’ Hotel in Sarande, Albania a very nice place to stay.

Read more at Zoqy