December 3, 2021
The Hotel Iceberg in Balchik, Bulgaria, has been receiving negative but fair reviews for years. Some of those reviews are disappearing, as if the owners of the hotel were phoning the review web sites and kindly asking to take down the negative reviews or something. Here I found some of the reviews still online as of December 2021. I will reproduce them here before they’re taken down from there as well.
Date of stay: August 2018
Trip type: Traveled as a couple
Room Tip: Stay elsewhere.
I am reticent to write negative reviews, but in the interest of other travellers I feel I must offer this advice: Do not plan a stay at the Iceberg.
There are some comic aspects to the hotel (such as the jungly overgrown tennis court “available for paying guests”), but these are overshadowed by the unacceptable: The lack of electricity in the corridors (in the middle of the day we had to use our phone light to even find the lock in our door), the dingy sheets and blanket and stained “satinesque” pillows (when looking in the bedroom my immediate reaction was that I would not be able to sleep in that bed), the AC remote that the owner had to smack on a chest of drawers to make work (and then the geriatric performance of the AC itself).
The deal-breaker for us (we checked out after one hour!), however, was the condition of the bathroom upon arriving: It had clearly not been cleaned. And when I lifted the toilet seat to use the facilities I literally stepped backwards in shock: Seat and bowl absolutely sprayed with the previous visitor’s feces.
We immediately vacated the property and found a room in a resort up the coast.
Simply: Do not go.
Date of stay: September 2016
Trip type: Traveled as a couple
OMG just don’t. Absolutely filthy. Room we booked wasn’t available as there was no hot water in the other building. Receptionist was fine but she showed us two dirty old rooms. Beds - well honestly we have all put better in a skip. Would I ever stay their ? Not a bloody chance. Hanging if is. I guess the guests we saw loved it - or were forced to make the most of it - so you can’t please everyone all of the time but us never ever here. Sorry but it’s true and I don’t know why booking dot com or TripAdvisor keep stuff like this on when reviews are generally so poor.
Date of stay: July 2016
Trip type: Traveled with family
Challenging stay. The location on the sites is wrong and is a hell of finding it. Is actually near the Ahilea hotel. Limited services, very poor breakfast new building but poorly maintained. For a night is ok but not for more.
Date of stay: August 2016
Trip type: Traveled with friends
Bad service and very dirty. The only decent thing about this place is the view. When we arrived our room was not cleaned and the garbage of the previous customers was still there, including dirty towels, also no toilet paper was available. No one came to clean our room even though we’ve been here for four days, not to mention the room was dirty in the first place. The smell in the bathroom is unbearable and you can’t flush the toilet properly. None of the staff know English and mostly refuse to help. The breakfast is damn awful and my friend got food poisoning from that old damn salami. I get it that it’s a small price but I think that knowing some English is mandatory, as is the cleaning of the room. Unacceptable and will not come back.
Horrible!Don’t you ever go there! We booked two rooms for one night.I read the reviews but I was kind of optimistic and I said to myself that it would be ok for one night. When I entered one of the rooms I couldn’t believe it! There were spider webs all over: under the beds, on the walls, damp on the walls in the bathroom and in the room too, the toilet filthy and the sheets very dirty, they hadn’t been probably changed at all, they hadn’t used a vacuum cleaner and a mop for ages, I believe. I told the administrator that it was too dirty and asked her to clean it but she said it was clean. We chose to leave because it was practically impossible to sleep there with a ten year old child,being afraid not to cathc a disease.
Great location but very dirty. The hotel has 2 buildings: one with reception and double rooms and the other one with studios. The location is perfect: sea in front and gardens from Maria’s palace on right. It has a pool with free sunbeds and also a tennis court. They have a restaurant also but I don’t recommended. The breakfast was included but was very poor - no coffee, no butter, no fruits, no yogurt, just one slice of cheese, one half of tomato, one piece of cucumber and two slices of old salami. The main problem was the lack of proper cleaning of the room. So, the hotel is dirty and outdated but the location and the great terrace (on studio) are unbeatable.
A terrible night. The hotel was very dirty the staff did not know english french german only bulgarian.The hotel stinks and the breakfast was terrible.In the room we have found spiders and a lot of insects.They change the towels once in three days.
I can vouch for 98% of the negative comments here. I got food poisoning and was rushed to a hospital 30 kms away on an ambulance. Nobody spoke English, at the hotel or at the hospital.
If you’ve been to that hotel and want your review to be posted on a neutral venue and to be kept there, email me.
Email me at gasconheart@sdf.org.