Barracuda - Sarande

We spent six great days in this hotel. very clean rooms, friendly staff (speaking English and Italian) and fresh and tasty eating. the pool with cleaned salt water and beach services have added value to our positive feedback. highly recommended.

This hotel has a lot of potential. A large saltwater swimming pool decorates the exterior area and by the ocean you can find a rock cliff beach with sunbeds. The staff is very helpful and they are always nearby. The restay is also commendable. However, guests may find problems with payment as the hotel at this moment ONLY TAKES CASH. This is a simple fix which is beneficial to everyone. Taxes are good for society. Other areas of improvement may or may not include problems with air conditioning and moisture on ground level rooms. I must also mention the high level of cleanliness of this hotel and the quality of the breakfast. Don't be mistaken, this is a good hotel.

Beautiful setting but we wouldn't stay here again. THE GOOD: There's a really nice and well kept saltwater pool and access to the sea, including seaside lounges. The rooms have plenty of outlets and strong wifi. The daily room cleaning is very thorough and everything always looks new. The on site restaurant has good food at very reasonable prices. Aldo, the staff member in charge of the pool bar and restaurant, was very helpful and friendly. The breakfast was also nice and they offer omelettes to order. THE BAD: We had a lot of issues with the air conditioning. It is centralized but each room has individual temperature control, however, the hotel would turn off the entire system all the time. We woke up sweating on multiple nights. If we went back to the room during the day the A/C would inevitably not be working. We had to ask the front desk multiple times per day to turn it back on. Once it was on it was rather weak and took a while to reach its lowest temperature of 24 degrees.This was incredibly infuriating for a hotel that claims to have A/C. When we inquired about laundry services no one was able to answer our questions: what are the rates? Do they charge by item or by weight? How long does it take? Do they use a dryer or hang dry the laundry? It ended up taking 2 days and one shirt came back with holes in it. It cost 20 Euros but they only charged 15 because of the ruined shirt. We're happy to pay extra for comfort but that's not what we received at this hotel. The issue with the A/C was a huge inconvenience and having to regularly ask for it to be turned on made our stay much less comfortable. The cost of laundry was shocking relative to the country. If we come back to Sarande, we will be finding somewhere else to stay. Additional Notes (not good or bad): A beach towel costs 0.50 Euros per day. The pool, bar AND restaurant are seasonal so are closed for part of the year. You have to return your room key to the front desk every time you leave your room. There's a token system for the breakfast and lounge chairs, which they explained to us on our first day but never implemented until our last day.

I have no words and speeches on how the management treats guests. A bad experience which shows that management has issues. Anyways here are some features of the hotel. Access to water is through a platform and slippery stairs, not at all comfortable for kids or those who do not know how to swim but want to get into the water. Too many stairs! From one deck to another to get from reception area to the sea. It isn't a natural beach, but it has been adopted with concrete borders. Likewise rooms above 2nd floor are accessible only from main road sidewalks, and from the beach you have to take stairs, then by a curved uphill path, NO STAIRS, while cars share the same way with you. NOT comfortable for elderly and kids, a real fatigue under the hot sunny day. Umbrella and 2 sunbeds are included in room price, but awkwardly enough if you visit someone you have to pay extra, regardless of already paid umbrella. Swimming pool is filled with sea water, at least one good feature of the hotel. I agree with many reviewers that pool borders are very sharp and by the end of the day you figure out that kids are scratched in arms and finger tips are burning. Food is good, a bit pricey, but ok for that range of hotel. Under covid-19 protocol breakfast was served by waiters, not using masks!!! And it took quite long to be served, every morning. Although we complained few times no more than two waiters served during breakfast. Bad management. Pool price 600Lek 5Euro /person. I honestly do not recommend this hotel as there are many other nearby with better access to water and restaurant and reception area, also with a more responsive management. I give 2 stars because staff was friendly and understandable of customers complaint and rooms have a beautiful sea view.

We had reserved an apartment for four persons, we had been promised seaview and a lot space, but when we arrived our mood changed rapidly. The apartment weren 't an apartment... It was a big room with a door in the middle, there were only room for the beds, not to move around or anything. We weren 't close to the pool or the breakfast area, so everything was disappointing. When we talked with the reception they said well, you are right, but what can we do? The offered a small discount, but that was not our goal, we wanted what we had been promised, so we checked out at once, we had no plans of staying there another second. To be fair it wasn 't the receptionist fault, but just be aware, the pictures they show is from there best rooms, and I agree they look good, but there are a big change you will get a place far away from the pool, beach and restaurant with no view in a small and uncomfortable room.