Skylark Aluma Hotel & Resort

The hotel itself is very well presented. Quirky decor, which may not be to everyone’s taste. Staff are really helpful and friendly. Cannot fault them at all. Rooms compact but well equipped. The pool is small and gets very busy, but is clean and well maintained. Bar and restaurant are nice Breakfast has a good selection, and never seems too busy. Biggest issue is the view from the rooms, as it’s basically the side of a derelict building. So the balcony isn’t worth using. The location isn’t close to that many places, it’s certainly not lined with restaurants, shops and bars. Can be dodgy after dark, have basically avoided leaving hotel later on foot. I hope the area continues to improve as they are clearly trying.

A difficult one to score. We chose this for the central location and pool; a criterion of ours to have a dip after a hot day. If you want a dip at 4pm before dinner, after a day in the city, this is not the hotel for you. The pool is small and is essentially one where just sit around the edge. No room for anyone, and no sun loungers free. This seems to be a common theme on other reviews, so wish we’d taken them seriously. Perhaps at peak times the hotel can incorporate a booking system for the pool area? Other comments: Breakfast - first class, an extensive and generous range of delicious treats. Very impressive! Service - all staff exceptionally friendly and helpful. Rooms - very small but everything you need for a couple of days in the city. You might struggle if you have more than one big case though. We found the rooms very comfortable. Location - as others say, it’s rough. There were people doing injections with needles outside. But right next to a tube line and very central, so we ironically found it odd but suitable (in a group of 4).

Overall a pretty decent hotel. Friendly staff and good breakfast. Housekeeping is really not good. The room overall was pretty clean on the day of arrival. But there were no real efforts to keep the room clean by housekeeping staff. We had to ask for new towels on multiple occasions, the housekeeping was unpredictable (there was no real telling on when they would clean the room). We asked for new bedsheets multiple times and even left a note, but after 7 days we left with the same bedsheets as we got on the day of arrival. The shower appeared clean but all week there was a hairpin on the floor that was not ours, not a single time during housekeeping did that get noticed by them. Housekeeping staff was friendly, but the services were not 4 star hotel worthy.