Vayamundo Oostende

Positive: The rooms are a decent size. There is a tram stop immediately outside the hotel (otherwise its a 45 minute walk into Ostend). The hotel is on the beachfront (however, as this was a winter trip there was little incentive to wander over and freeze by the sea). Staff are friendly, helpful and multilingual. Swimming pool is a reasonable size and free to use. 7.50 euros to use sauna/steam rooms seems reasonable. Negative: Coaches are forced to park in an unlit street at rear of hotel, contributing to an accident. I was on the first floor and exceptionally loud live music from the lounge area was disturbing me until late. There is no room service and guests have to pay to get towels replaced. This seems quite mean, especially if you are using the swimming pool/sauna. There is a limited range of meal options in the restaurant but evening meals do change daily. Gym has very basic machines and lacks free weights, soft mats and alarm cord. Information in hotel is provided in Dutch and French. On night prior to departure, guests are informed they need to ***** down their own beds. Summary: It was not an amazing experience (but was also not terrible). It's a bit like being in a holiday camp from the 70's or 80's. If your circumstances allow, I recommend looking at alternative accommodation.

It's more like a leisure complex building than a mere hotel. If you have young kids with you, you will be happy, particularly in summer time, in my opinion. Breakfast was quite extensive but there are so many young children running around in the big dining room, so quite noisy and felt restless. The room was spacious, clean, so no problem. It is a bit off position from the central, so you need to have a car or ride on a tram if you want to dine outside the hotel.

They make you stay in the line for half an hour to simply check in, because only one receptionist is available. There are others but they don't check in. I asked the staff, why do we need to wait, they told me it is normal here.

Everything about this place is average - room, food, service etc. It was busy with coach loads of senior citizens who seemed to be having fun. Breakfast took basic to a new level and I felt like I was back at school in the cafeteria. Would I go back - probably not as there is plenty of choice nearby.

I would have given a higher rating if I had not been asked to ***** the bed and leave the bedding outside the door on the day of check out, I thought that was what housekeeping did! Also nothing was done to the room in the five days we were there, the waste bin wasn’t emptied at all. I had to ask for tea, coffee and milk to be replenished and was initially told we’d already had some the day before. Someone came to check what we still had before replenishing it. Other than that the rest of our stay was fine. The food was good and plenty of it and the bar staff were very friendly, especially Maria. The hotel was a bit far out of the main town but easily accessed by tram.