Grand Hotel Bansko - Fitness & SPA

Our stay at Gran Hotel Bansko was extremely disappointing, and I would not recommend this hotel to anyone. The service was appalling, and the staff and management were rude and unhelpful throughout our stay.

The room was nothing like the pictures on their website—cramped and lacking proper ventilation, making it almost impossible to breathe. The shower was a nightmare, with no hot water available in the late afternoon. On New Year’s Eve, we were unable to shower despite calling the receptionist four times. Each time, they assured us it would be fixed in 10 minutes, but instead of being honest, they left us waiting until the morning with no resolution.

The restaurant and bar staff were incredibly rude, unprofessional, and couldn’t communicate in English. To make matters worse, the alcohol served was cheap and of poor quality.

For the price we paid, the overall experience was unacceptable. The service and facilities at Gran Hotel Bansko are far below the standards of any hotel. Room’s dirty, old and smelly.

That hotel is an absolute scam and an overral joke to be honest.We booked a double luxury room,the staff took us to a completely diffrent one,when we said that we want the one from the pictures they gave us another (one idea)better looking one and told us "this is what we have avaliable".
The staff is absolutely everything but not polite even a little bit strange.The restaraunt uses food from the previous day and IS NOT 24/7 ofcourse,i bought a 50g. glass of beluga vodka which i had to pay with the astonishing price of 16 leva (with ultra full inclusive). The spa is absolutely great if i miss the part that the outside cold pool was just under our terrace with guys literally moaning every night.The fitness was okay,and not to forget that the first day i left money in the back pocket of my jeans in my room which on the next day were MISSING :) And last but not least we wanted the room to have a view of the mountain (if possible) we got a nice view of two half-wrecked houses.
0/10 🙂

Today my stay at the hotel ended and I have to say that disappointment is the least I can say! Shame!!!! It deserves rating 0, not even 1!!
1. First of all, the food was terrible! Old, cold and not tasty at all!
2. At night, when we were going to bed, they are reducing or turning off the heating and it was too cold!
3. In addition to us, we witnessed other dissatisfied guests and the hotel management did not want to react and had a very rude and arrogant attitude.
4. At the moment, there are construction work in one part of the hotel and so while you are sitting in the spa or at the pool, craftsmen and construction workers are walking around, violating your privacy, cooling the space and making a lot of noise. They are even working with construction tools by the pool where there are children and other guests, which is beyond any criteria and is absolutely UNSAFE!!!
5. There is no internet in the rooms! No wifi at all!
6. Hygiene is bad everywhere.
7. In offer Ultra All Inclusive, apart from food, nothing is included! If you want to drink coffee from the bar, you have to pay. Coffee in the restaurant and all the drinks were awful.
8. How can there be no path or any access/ramp for a baby stroller or any stroller at all?! The elevator didn't even go to the ground floor, so every day we had to carry a stroller down the stairs in our hands. It's totally unsuitable for babies and small children!!!!
9. What's the point of paying the parking in front of hotel? It says that it is free but they charge it.
10. Staff is rude except 2-3 employees of all hotel.
Very bad experience!!!!
I WOULD NEVER RECOMMEND THIS HOTEL TO ANYONE.

We booked a double room for New Year’s Eve with some friends, and our experience was terrible. On the first day, the electric curtains broke and got stuck in the middle of the window, leaving the room in semi-darkness during the day. This also meant we couldn’t access the balcony anymore. On the evening of December 31st, there was no warm water at all. To make matters worse, the shower didn’t drain, so even attempting a cold shower would’ve flooded the room.

Calling reception was pointless—nobody answered the phone for 30 minutes. The staff we encountered were rude and dismissive. We paid nearly €2,000 for four nights, yet the food resembled cafeteria meals, some of which seemed like leftovers from the previous day. The hotel itself is completely run-down, with rooms that have a musty odor.

I wouldn’t recommend this place to anyone. Save your money and avoid it!

Let’s do things one by one, cause I have mixed feelings about this place, rather negative than positive.
- The spa is nice, nothing to say about it!
- The external swimming pool, too small and you need to cross the street to go to it.
- The room was very nice and spacious, by the view was awful!
- The food was very bad! It was various, but even within this variety there was nothing really to choose from. The desserts looked amazing, but after testing them you change your mind completely, most of them were tasteless and not fresh.
Bottom line, I don’t recommend it. Unless you want to have free access to the pools in Therme, in the neighbouring town.

Rip off!
Dated room, dirty bathroom.
Tasteless food, every day the same….quantity, but NO quality! Overcooked vegetables, overcooked meat….
Staff in the restaurant very unprofessional, grumpy.
Overcrowded spa area, children running around opening the doors of the saunas and steam rooms. Staff is standing and chatting at the reception hall and no one inside the spa area to control or put things in order

Stayed for 5 nights... the room was in terrible condition. Old, smelly, and uncomfortable... I overlooked the bad room because on the first couple of nights, the food was impressive, and the spa area was nice. On the 5th night, I got violent food poisoning like I've never had before. I felt like I was actually going to die. Since I only ate at the hotel, I couldn't have gotten this elsewhere. They do obviously reuse leftover food, and I'm sure based on how the rooms were kept, they don't have good hygiene in the kitchen. I also saw many roaches throughout the hallways and staircase. Overall, it was a terrible experience, and it's sad because this hotel has everything it needs to be great, but they just don't seem to care.

DO NOT RECOMMEND!
Awful value for money in Bulgaria! Felt very much like a scam - a place that wants to SEEM fancy but is not willing or able to.

- We realized late that they gave us a smaller room than we paid for, thinking back it seemed on purpose so beware.
- Not very interesting or sanitary buffet, nothing is cooled and it just stays out for 12+ hours. They very obviously reuse the food they have already served before(🤢)
- The “24 hour” buffet is a joke, outside of big buffet opening hours they just have a bit of snacks downstairs (reused from big buffet), but they stay out all day and are not replaced (no cooling)
- “Free bar” is also a joke, you can’t get a drink without paying, only beer, wine and local liquor that they will serve you neat in a glass and ask you to fill up with tonic from the common machine if you want a ‘drink’ + staff makes it seem like you are cheap for not purchasing outside of the “ultra all inclusive” lol also coffee SUCKS (only common machine coffee included and doesn’t taste like they clean the machines)
- ‘Spa’ is basically just a swimming pool and a few saunas (no info about the so called ‘therme’ water?)
- No extra towel for the spa, but you have to bring your towel down there, so it’s all wet and chlorine-filled, when asking for a fresh one afterwards the receptionist acted like it comes out of his salary.
- Massage was very expensive and not very good (paid extra for a deeper massage but barely felt it) and they scam you to pay extra for cream once you’re in there (if the cream is so ‘healing’ WHY is it not included in the ‘healing massage’?????)
- The staff does the absolute bare minimum, reception was NOT helpful and tried to scam us into paying more for late check-out even though it was included for all their guests (out of season promo) oh yeah their other Therme spa was also included but we were given no info about this either and ended up not going.

Very disappointing. Would never ever go back - you can find way better for the price.