Iberostar Daiquiri Hotel, Cayo Guillermo Cuba. 4 stars.

Awfull BeastMajor

“Great location, poor hotel”
Not my normal choice of hotel, but thought I'd give it a go, I'm disappointed that I did. First the positives: the room was clean and the air con was quiet and powerful. The location is great, Cayo Guillermo and Playa Pilar are outstanding, with great opportunities to cycle and walk around if you so choose (I had a great time exploring the sand dunes and mangroves - found a little beach with no one on it to go for a swim). The not so positives: the walls are paper thin, expect to get to know your neighbours intimately. Also the curtains are mainly for show, meaning the room floods with light just after dawn. The fridge was antiquated and very noisy and only restocked with a bottle of water every 2nd day. The hotel is a appallingly run. It took them three days and god knows how many complaints to fix the toilet that constantly ran, replace the batteries in my TV remote and provide me with anything other than hand towels. Moreover the staff on reception were generally unhelpful and mostly rude. Despite advertising wifi on their website, they do not have wifi, excuses for this ran from: "we have it installed, but it doesn't work" (probably accurate) to "we had a guest who was allergic to wifi, so we had to turn it off and no one knows how to get it back". I eventually spoke to the hotel manager who was lovely and got everything sorted for me, she's obviously trying her best despite obvious operational and staff issues.

Awfull Ridcully0

“Don't, just.......don't”
Before booking this break both my wife and I read all ( and I mean all the reviews ), some good, some not so good and some bad. we drew the conclusion that overall the place should probably be similar to the Melia next door. It isn't. I should add that last year we had booked the Daquiri but were told by Thomas Cook that the hotel was closed for refurbishment and we would be staying next door at the Melia Guillermo. So after a long flight with less than helpful cabin crew, we arrive at the hotel. The reception staff are very friendly and very efficient with checking completed in a matter of minutes, then off to the room we had been assigned. This was initially a non refurbished room but after seeing it we were back in reception wanting to move it was that dirty and run down. After contacting the manager for authorisation we were given a refurbished "superior" room on the top floor. Ok so far, so you can imagine the surprise on finding a cockroach in the bathroom one night after returning from the bar, TOP floor remember, pics are available for anyone doubting me. Onto the buffet. If the food was from one of the 'open kitchen' stations, then it was hot, well cooked and actually quite good, however, the vegetables to accompany it were usually 'lukewarm to cold'. The menu was very repetitive, we didn't bother with the speciality restaurants as we didn't see the 'mexican' open any night while we were there, neither of us are fond of Italian food and the creole restaurant was on the beach and full of mosquitoes every time you went in during the day to get a drink, speaking of which, on the coach from the airport, Jungle George who is a nice fella and a good rep tells everyone to only drink the bottled water Not tap water, so every time you get a drink the barman in the beach bar which doubles as the creole restaurant would wash the thermal mugs proffered him under the tap even after being asked not to do this. Nightime bar by reception, ALL the staff in there are FANTASTIC and can't do too much for you. The cleaners who look after the sleeping blocks are likewise. Ours in the Baracoa block went out of her way to look after us every day. Listen to all the people who warn about the mosquitoes, these boys don't take prisoners so make sure you take more DEET repellant than you think you may need because if you run out and rely on the locally produced stuff, in a day or two you WILL look like you have measles, chickenpox and the plague all at the same time, If when eating in the buffet you notice little black lumps or balls on the table, it's not the staff. These are coming out of the a/c ducts overhead. Check EVERY pat of butter before you spread it on the bread as 99% of them are rancid upon opening. Apart from that enjoy yourselves