кошмар-кошмар nightmare-nightmare

I apologize in advance for the verbosity, but I was too impressed, I advise you to read to the end.
We rested in Bansko from 03.03. 2012 to 03.10. 2012, the second year in a row. Last year we lived in Strazhite, 4 stars, absolutely justified, there were no complaints about the hotel, staff and food, the impressions were strictly positive, 5 points out of 5. This year, when choosing, they were guided by the same star rating and proximity to the ski lift, and, unfortunately in vain - at a price. As a result, they chose Emerald, allegedly the same 4 *, 50 meters from the gondola, SPA and other delights. We ordered two standard doubles with meals.
When settling in, one room turned into a studio, a fairly large area, with an additional sofa and a bunk bed (apparently designed for 5 people, although such a company would be crowded there, since the bunks are in a small corridor), which did not upset us at all. But the second room turned out to be some kind of closet under the stairs, with an area of ​ ​ ​ ​ about 10 meters, in which there was even nowhere to put things. Judging by the location and appearance, it was originally a utility room, which is from redneck, I can’t use another term, and it absolutely fits the entire hotel as a whole, it was converted into a room, and even for two. After a small scandal at the reception, they promised to move the next day, which they did, at least thanks for that. Again, there were no standard rooms, so they gave us a second studio.

The furniture in the rooms is poor, quite worn out, the same applies to the bathroom. I was touched by the savings on double-glazed windows, which work only in the open-close mode, there is no ventilation mode, respectively, which, at near-zero temperatures outside and a child in the room, is annoying. In general, I was pleased with the kitchen and a large number of utensils and appliances, which is undoubtedly convenient. There was even a toaster, which, however, did not work, but only smelled of burning.
In the supposedly SPA hotel, bathrobes are not given to residents, the locker room is located in the spa center itself, where, for some reason, it is wildly cold, although the hotel heats up very well. Due to the lack of bathrobes, naked wet children run around the hotel, who, of course, are too lazy to change clothes in the locker room. By the way, regarding the SPA, it looks like a mockery, especially the pool, which looks more like a very large bathroom and is "decorated" in the form of an aquarium, in which people are tightly packed, like sprats in a jar, which exacerbates the resemblance to an aquarium. We looked in once - there was no desire to visit, even for a child.
Regarding the staff, I will join the previously published reviews, all the time there was a feeling that you owe them something and distract them from something important with your appeals, most do not really speak either Russian or English, they explained themselves on the fingers. Only the maids made a pleasant impression, although I was surprised that in a "4-star" hotel rooms are cleaned only on request, and not every day. Towels were changed every other day, bedding - twice a week. There was a standard folder for hotels in the room, however, when it became necessary to call the internal phone, it turned out that in this folder, apart from endless advertising of the hotel restaurant, massage services, etc. , there is no information on how to call. Thus, in order to call the reception, I had to go there and ask how, in fact, to do it.
"Restaurant". Only in quotation marks. At the entrance to this establishment, you are met by a gloomy man who needs to be told the room number, which he checks against the lists, in case you came to eat for free. This happens both in the morning and in the evening, and for a week he did not bother to remember anyone from our company. This is wildly annoying, because you always get the feeling that you owe someone and do something wrong. The tables were cleaned at random, and the number of appliances (salt-pepper-oil-vinegar) was about half the number of tables, and therefore they had to be hunted, I can’t pick another word.

Food - a meager choice and for the most part - none. If I were in Bulgaria for the first time, I would have an extremely wrong impression of Bulgarian cuisine. Returning to the issue of zhlobstvo at the Emerald Hotel, many of the dishes that were still edible were sorted out very quickly and did not appear in a new way, so we never tried something, but only watched the leftovers. Drinks for breakfast, this is generally a separate article. The choice was offered water and again water tinted with something purple. Of the "hot" - a coffee machine with a standard set, it also gave out "hot water", in which it was not possible to brew anything, since its temperature did not exceed, at best, 50-60 degrees. We put up with the lack of tea last year, since it is not customary to drink tea in Bulgaria, instead they drink herbal mixtures, which is also not bad, although, given the huge number of Russian and British tourists, it would be possible to buy tea in bags. On the positive side of the food - there were quite a lot of sweets - cakes, pastries, cookies, everything was fresh and tasty.
Regarding the territory of the hotel and nature. . . In this part of Bansko there is still a massive development, and absolutely chaotic. One gets the feeling that there was no planning, and no one thought about the convenience of pedestrians. The distance of 50 meters to the ski lift indicated in the hotel description is absolutely justified if measured with a ruler on the map. In reality, I had to go around the hotel around, then make my way along an icy path, 50 cm wide, which was "kindly" left during the construction of neighboring buildings, and only then it was possible to safely count not 50, of course, but about 100 meters. There is no need to talk about nature here, we enjoyed it in the mountains, and from the window it was possible, with an outstretched hand, to bury ourselves in the windows of a neighboring hotel. Very romantic.
And finally, two words about the Internet. Yes, we were prepared in advance that it is free only at the reception, but in the room you have to pay for it. But, at an absolutely outrageous price (10 leva - 1 day, 35 - 5 days (about 5 and 18 euros respectively)) I expected that I would get a normal connection. The connection in the room was disgusting, constantly disconnected, the data transfer rate was minimal. It was possible to talk on Skype every other time, it was sometimes heard, and, God forbid, also turn on the video when calling, then generally write was gone. At the reception, the connection was better, but there, naturally, people were constantly swarming, and since the division into smoking and non-smoking zones was conditional, it was impossible to stay in the lobby for a long time, even though I myself smoke.
The absolute disregard of the staff ended at the moment of our departure. Hearing that we were leaving, the receptionist began to squeal to us "wait, wait, " and into the radio - our numbers, so that they urgently checked if we had taken out their furniture and TV. An attempt to charge us for water from the minibar was not successful, as no one touched it. Judging by the quickly fading interest after our refusal, it was something from the series "what is" it worked out "? - well, that means it didn't work out". . .

And further. The entrance to the ski storage room is located separately from the central one and is not closed from the outside. Perhaps they didn’t have precedents yet, but considering that right in the ski center, while I was changing my shoes, they changed my sticks to older ones, I wouldn’t count on universal decency.
Summary. Three stars is the maximum that the EMERALD hotel can have, I would give 2.5. My feet won't be there anymore.
I would advise you to consider it if you are not going to eat at the hotel, but will cook yourself or eat in mehans, or you do not mind the money and you are extremely unpretentious about food. The presence of a kitchen and the spaciousness of the rooms may partially justify the shortcomings of the hotel, but it seems to me that any apart-hotel that does not claim such stardom will provide you with the same conditions, but for more reasonable money.