Bonito Ibiza by O Beach

Before anything else, there are two things we believe every potential guest should know. First, the hotel offers guests a 10% discount on their next stay in exchange for leaving a 10/10 rating on Booking.com. This is extremely important context when looking at the hotel’s many seemingly perfect reviews. Please keep this incentive in mind when reading the ratings, as it may make the overall score look considerably better than the actual guest experience. Second, check your restaurant bill very carefully. During our stay, a 10% “tip” was automatically added to our bill without us requesting or agreeing to it. It appeared as a normal line item in Spanish, which could easily be mistaken for a dish or another charge. The bill then included a separate tip line in English. We found this highly misleading and believe guests should be made explicitly aware of this practice before paying. Unfortunately, these were not isolated annoyances. They were part of a much broader experience that left us feeling that this hotel is trying to operate as a luxury five star property while applying a business model based on additional charges, restrictions and rules at every opportunity. Even the check-in experience reflects this approach. Guests are required to provide a €500 security deposit, which we found completely disproportionate for a standard hotel room. Of course, hotels are entitled to protect themselves against damages, but €500 feels excessive, particularly considering that the room and its contents are nowhere near worth this amount to replace. Having such a large amount blocked at check-in creates an unnecessary feeling that guests are being treated as a potential source of additional charges rather than valued customers. For us, this hotel should be three stars rather than five. The rooms themselves also fall well short of what we would expect from a five star property. There is virtually no space in the cupboard for clothes and no proper space for toiletries in the shower. There is no balcony, which we find particularly disappointing for a supposed five star hotel. Then there are the additional charges. €40 for breakfast and €25 for parking are excessive in our opinion, especially considering the overall quality and experience. The hotel gives the impression that everything that could possibly be charged separately will be charged separately. The build quality throughout the hotel also feels surprisingly cheap for a five star property. There are only two small elevators serving the entire main building, while the first elevator you encounter is reserved for staff. At night, the hotel can be extremely noisy because the doors are very thin. During our stay, we experienced at least two false fire alarms per day, which was both disruptive and concerning. The pool experience was another major disappointment. The pool is only available after 11am, there are numerous rules, and guests are required to wear a wristband. Towels can apparently only be exchanged after 10am. At one point, staff told us that the pool area was closed and that they could not provide towels, even though other guests were already in the pool. These kinds of situations create unnecessary conflict between guests and staff. And that is perhaps the most frustrating part. When speaking to individual employees, it becomes clear that many of them are simply enforcing policies imposed by management. They often seem genuinely uncomfortable with the rules and the resulting tension with guests. In our opinion, the fundamental problem is therefore not the individual staff members but the overall management and operating philosophy of the hotel. The whole experience reminded us of a Ryanair business model applied to a five star hotel. To be clear, I actually like the Ryanair model for cheap flights because you know exactly what you are getting. You pay for the basic product and then decide what extras you want. But a five star hotel should be fundamentally different. Many of these things should simply be included in the experience rather than presented as additional charges or surrounded by complicated rules. Our overall impression is that the hotel’s system relies heavily on guests not noticing every charge, rule or condition. When guests do notice and complain, the “customer experience manager” appears willing to reimburse some of the charges. But this creates the impression that the business model is essentially: overcharge where possible, and refund the guests who notice and complain. If not enough guests complain, there is little incentive to change the system. That is particularly problematic when the hotel simultaneously benefits from incentivised 10/10 reviews, because the resulting rating can make it difficult for prospective guests to get an accurate picture of the actual experience. We left the hotel very dissatisfied. There are certainly individual employees who try their best, and they should not be blamed for a system they did not create. But the management and the overall concept of the hotel are, in our opinion, fundamentally incompatible with what we expect from a five star property. Our recommendation: be very careful before booking. Read the less favourable reviews, check every charge on your bill, and do not assume that a five star rating means a five star experience. Based on our stay, we would rate this hotel closer to three stars.

We recently stayed at Bonito Hotel and had a very mixed experience. On the positive side, the welcome drink on arrival was a nice touch, the sea view from our room was lovely, and the room itself was clean with a very comfortable bed. The staff were generally friendly, and the pool DJ created a great atmosphere during the day. Unfortunately, even though it claims to be a 5 star hotel, there were several issues that impacted our stay. The hotel's facilities and services were not explained at check-in, and we never received the promised message when our room was ready. A personal item was removed from our room though subsequently returned after a call to reception. Breakfast was often chaotic, and on one morning there was a power outage during breakfast service, which added to the confusion and disruption. The most frustrating issue occurred when another guest's food and drink were incorrectly charged to our room and this was challenging to resolve even though we were not even in the hotel when the purchase was made. Checkout was a very poor experience, we were initially told the system was down. When we later queried the check out again, we were told there were charges, despite not having charged anything to the room ourselves. When I said this, I was just dismissed by the receptionist, and no effort was made to resolve the matter. This appeared to relate to the fact that they hold your €500 deposit. There’s no urgency and certainly no customer care when dealing with billing disputes. A copy of a signed paper receipt was provided for someone’s beer and salad (I hope you enjoyed it whoever you are) . Operating an antiquated paper based charging system, it appears that anyone can charge to your room and you will remain blissfully unaware until check out. While there are certainly a few good aspects to the hotel, the operational and customer service issues left us disappointed with our stay and for those reasons we would not return. We expected to receive a 5 star service in a 5 star hotel, and on several occasions this fell short. Overall, the hotel has great views, comfortable rooms and some excellent staff, but improvements are needed in communication, organisation and the handling of guest complaints and billing issues.

Absolutely fantastic stay in Ibiza Bonito hotel! From the moment I arrived the staff were incredibly lively, friendly, and accommodating especially Kevin. Made me feel welcome throughout my entire stay. Nothing was ever too much trouble, and their positive energy really added to the experience. The rooms were spotlessly clean beautifully presented and absolutely amazing. Everything felt fresh, comfortable and well looked after making it the perfect place to relax after enjoying everything Ibiza has to offer. Overall, this hotel exceeded our expectations. The combination of wonderful staff, immaculate rooms, and an amazing atmosphere made our stay truly memorable. We would definitely recommend this hotel to anyone visiting Ibiza and can’t wait to stay again next week!

I stayed at Bonito’s for a week in July with my partner, Having been Ibiza many times, I wanted to stay somewhere luxurious so chose to splash out on the Hotel as we was there for a week after winning a trip as a prize I had won from work Pro’s - Aesthetic of communal areas were so lovely. - Pool area was unreal! - The breakfast was delicious, lots to choose and I loved that you could order fresh Matcha’s / Barista Coffee’s included. - We spent a lot of time at the rooftop pool, views were stunning overlooking Ibiza and the hotel, and the staff here were so such a pleasure. - The bell boys made my day, they were 5* and so helpful and polite but also a great chat whilst waiting for taxis. - location and complimentary access to OB Cons - The ROOMS!! We arrived in our room and quickly realised the room standards were not great, plaster crumbling of the walls, dirty curtains, no mirror to get ready?, broken side table and a view of a car park which looked derelict. (This can’t be helped as the hotel can’t control surrounding buildings. I called reception and politely explained / asked for a room move, I was immediately told this is what I had booked and I would need to pay for an upgrade fee of 1,599 euro? After been told to wait in the room, we decided to go to reception after 20 minutes of wondering what’s happening. I spoke with the reception team who again said I cannot move, and need to pay the upgrade fee. I had taken photos to show the team, but they didn’t seem surprised and was very dismissive of my request to move unless I paid. I then proceeded to ask for management and was told ‘he will just say the same thing’. At this point I started to get frustrated, A gent came out and I again explained my reason for a room move, showed pictures etc and again was straight away presented with upgrade fee’s. It got to the point where I needed to explain, I have already paid 2.1k to stay for a week RO rate, booked direct through there own website and was not even offered a basic apology let alone any empathy towards the situation. After some further back and forth the gent said he had another room I could move to, but again doesn’t have a mirror in. 5* hotel, and no mirror for guests to get ready in, this I found really bizarre, but got the impression the hotel wasn’t quite finished which is totally fine but just be honest and understanding with your guests. Eventually moved (2 hours later) and the new room was just as bad if not worse, but there was a mirror by the side of the shower, and the vent kindly brought me another one for the desk. The next room - my partner is 6.5, the room was so small he kept hitting his shoulder of the TV as there wasn’t enough space to even walk passed the end of the bed without knocking your shin or shoulder of the tv. every time we turned the shower on, we had leaks through to the other side of the toilet ( wasn’t sealed ), I plugged the kettle in and it sparked and smoked. We asked for an iron, a steamer arrived an hour later and we needed to keep requesting this daily as the HK team took it back. I asked if I could have a refund to move hotels, and was told I would only be able to get 50% despite the issues. It’s was such a beautiful hotel from the exterior and communal areas but hugely down by the maintenance standard’s of the rooms which were definitely more a 3* and then the service which was a real shame! The overall experience left us both deflated and ruined what was supposed to be a special trip. Tips - read the small print, definitely book a suite as these rooms are more like your average hotel bedrooms size wise

Beautiful hotel venesa and melanie have been brilliant! Everything we have asked for they have gone above and beyond ! So kind and helpful