Hotel Marinela Sofia

Alright hotel. Strange decorations. It used to be a Sofia classic, built by a famous Japanese architect. They still kept tye nice Japanese garden. The restaurants are nice too. Breakfast was adequate, thought not copious. Close to the metro, nice views.

Terrible service, very dirty rooms! Only the location is good!

Only place we will stay in Sofia

This hotel has definitely seen better days. I wish I had taken a picture, but I somehow didn't. The carpet in our room actually had, what looked like, body fluid stains on the carpet. Where do you see such things any more (at least a supposedly 5* hotels?) And the beds were "springy"--by that, I mean, you could actually feel the springs on your body! It would by funny if it weren't uncomfortable. And the service is atrocious. I failed to register the name of the lady at the front-desk, but she acted as if she was doing us a favor by deigning to talk to us. Any requests (e.g., a iron for the clothes) were met with frosty indignation (how dare we disturb here with such outrageous demands?!). And finally, the price for getting laundry was truly outrageous. My bad that I didn't pay attention to the prices, but the price for doing 1 big bag of laundry--I am not kidding--came to $120 (USD)! So, all in all, I'd give this hotel a super wide berth. BUT that said, the hotel does have some redeeming features. First off, it has one of the best gyms I have ever seen in a hotel. It's almost as if a great gym decided to build a hotel around it. (The rest of the hotel does seem like some body builders--with little idea of what goes into a 5* hotel--built it!) The hotel also has a nice Italian restaurant (I believe it's called Burrata). The food was actually quite good there. And the spa (and masseuses) were great--at least the ones we got. Still, I wouldn't ever stay at this place again. Well, may be I would if they gave me $200 each night of my stay. Plus free food.

One of the worst hotels we have ever stayed in. Location and interior and grounds superb. Loved the peacocks in the ground. BUT it is all about the look downstairs and the service is abysmal. Air con broken so rooms were baking hot. The manager gave us a portable air con device but the next day a burly maintenance man came to our room and took it out and snarled the word "reception" at us and left us with no air con again. Filthy carpets. Rooms were not cleaned. Fridge did not work properly. Hardly any staff in the bar so 30 minute wait for service. Staff were rude. There is clearly an undertone of older men paying for younger ladies services. We had a wedding in the hotel one evening and we were not served drinks because we were not in the party. Very rude. Do not waste your money staying here.

Really disappointing air con switched off at owners request for whole hotel. Staff rude, beds really uncomfortable. Manager would not come down to reception to be spoken too. Bar staff shortage so you have to wait 45mins for a drink. The peacocks and swans were a lovely touch in the garden however the children being able to chase them and pluck the feathers I didn’t like. Would I return ‘No’. Rooms are not cleaned everyday. My duvet cover was dirty. We had to wait 9x hours for clean towels and bottles of water.