IN Gallery Hotel & Spa

We were very excited about the trip. The pictures online looked very nice. When we checked in, there was a nice young woman at the reception. We felt comfortable at first.

However, the whole experience took a very different turn during our stay. We had a room with a view of the cathedral. The view was simply unique. The room was spacious, but it smelled very strongly of smoke. Both my husband and I had real breathing problems.

We went outside for some fresh air. When we returned, we reported the issue to a staff member, and even though there were only a maximum of three rooms occupied in the entire hotel, he said that the hotel was fully booked and he couldn't move us to another room. He justified it by saying that smoking was allowed in the bar downstairs and the smell was coming up through the stairwell. He showed no understanding of our situation and suggested that we should turn on the air conditioning. However, it was too cold for that. There was a blanket in the room, but it was not covered.

The next day, we both woke up with swollen eyes and stuffy noses. Now, a young girl was at the reception. We explained our situation and our health issues related to it. She seemed to be aware of it and asked us snippily what we wanted/expected and if our goal was to change rooms.

She showed us another room, annoyed, and made a derogatory remark about us to the cleaning staff. "These guests don't like their current room. Apparently, it smells like smoke."

Ultimately, we changed rooms; it smelled less like smoke, but there was still a strong odor in the air. Due to the experience we had with the staff, we decided not to say anything further.

We were out for a long time, came back, and went to bed. Fortunately, we „only“ had two nights in this hotel. We wouldn't have been able to endure any more nights, mainly for health reasons.

The lighting in the stairwell and hallways was much too dark. The shower and toilet area in the rooms was also quite dark. The lighting didn't help much. In our first room, not everything had been cleared away from the previous guests, and the towels were dirty and looked used.

What can be noted positively is the delicious breakfast with a fantastic view!

I scheduled a deep therapeutic massage plus a face massage. When I got there they suggested I combine it to one hour. I said okay but I did not get a deep therapeutic massage instead I got an extremely light oily one. Very disappointing. The facial massage was okay but I did not get what I was expecting at all. So I did not get what I thought I was paying for. The facilities are nice and the staff friendly but I'm not sure why they have different massages listed if they will not give you what you pay for. I've had other massages in Saranda and Tirana and they provided what was listed so I am not sure what is going on here.