Grand Hotel Donat Superior, located in Celje, Slovenia, is primarily identified as a casino establishment. However, guest feedback primarily focuses on its extensive hotel and spa facilities. Reviews indicate a mixed experience, with an average rating of approximately 3.6 out of 5 stars, highlighting both strong positives and notable areas for improvement.
👍 The Positives:
- Exceptional Staff & Service: Guests consistently praise the staff for being friendly, helpful, attentive, and professional. One reviewer specifically highlighted an employee, Irena Matjašič Podhraški, for her "individual approach to each client," emphasizing the personalized service.
- Commendable Dining Experience: Both breakfast and dinner choices receive high marks, with reviewers noting good variety and quality. The cakes were also singled out for their excellence.
- Serene Location & Beautiful Surroundings: The hotel is situated in a beautiful, quiet, and peaceful area, perfect for relaxation. Guests appreciated the surrounding parks, playgrounds for children, lovely old buildings, and nearby coffee places. There are also ample opportunities for walking and hiking, contributing to a tranquil environment.
- Wellness & Spa Facilities: The hotel is directly connected to a medical center, mineral-rich water hall, and a spa center. The pool and saunas are generally well-regarded, with warm, clean water in the main pool (29°C) and jacuzzi (34°C).
- Convenient Parking: Guests were appreciative of the availability of free parking, whether in an enclosed lot or directly within the hotel grounds.
- Good Value: One reviewer noted that the hotel offers very good value for money.
👎 The Negatives:
- Outdated Rooms & Uncomfortable Beds: A frequent complaint is that the hotel's rooms are outdated. The beds are often described as "awful," featuring rock-hard and creaky mattresses. Issues like two single beds pushed together leaving a gap were also reported, negatively impacting sleep quality.
- Room Comfort & Noise Issues: Guests experienced discomfort due to a non-functional air conditioning system, making rooms quite hot, especially concerning for summer stays. Furthermore, poor fitting hallway doors allowed light from the hallway to shine into the room and significant noise to leak through, disturbing sleep.
- Sauna Limitations: Despite the hotel's wellness offerings, guests found that saunas were only open for limited hours (typically 4-7 pm), and some saunas were reported as non-functional during their visit.
- Disappointing New Year's Celebration: One detailed review highlighted a particularly poor New Year's dinner. Criticisms included a high price (€80 per person) with no beverages included (not even water), a band that performed poorly and took frequent breaks, and a lack of engaging celebratory activities. The meat dishes were also criticized for bad preparation and an unpleasant, similar taste.
- Small Pool: While the swimming pool was clean and warm, it was considered "pretty small for such a big hotel," potentially leading to overcrowding.
- Lack of In-Room Amenities: Some rooms were noted to be simply equipped, lacking basic amenities such as an iron or a kettle for tea.
Final Verdict
Grand Hotel Donat Superior in Celje presents a dual experience. While its primary classification is a casino, the available guest reviews focus almost entirely on its hotel and spa aspects. The hotel's greatest strengths lie in its exceptionally friendly and professional staff, satisfying dining options, and its location within beautiful, peaceful natural surroundings, making it an appealing choice for a relaxing getaway.
However, potential guests should be prepared for the possibility of outdated rooms, uncomfortable bedding, and issues with air conditioning and sound insulation. The limited operating hours for saunas and past disappointments with special events like New Year's celebrations are also points to consider.
Ultimately, while the Grand Hotel Donat Superior offers a good value for money and a serene environment bolstered by excellent service, those prioritizing modern room amenities or specific wellness facility accessibility might find certain aspects of their stay less than ideal. Guests should weigh these factors when deciding if it's the right choice for their visit to Celje.
Overall hotel was nice, if little outdated. We had breakfast and dinner both of which were good and staff was quite friendly and helpful. We were glad about free parking in enclosed parking lot.As a minus the saunas were only opened between 4-7 pm and the aircon in the room was not working so the rooms were quite hot. I could not quite imagine being there during summer.
Excellent staff, excellent breakfast, very good dinner choices. Rooms are clean, hotel is in solid state. Hotel is directly connected with medical center, mineral rich water hall, shops and spa center. Pool and saunas are excellent. Around the hotel you can also find nice parks and playgrounds for children. Surrounding area was quiet and perfect for resting. Free parking inside hotel grounds was available. Value for money is very good.
Rooms are outdated and the beds are just awful. The matress is rock hard and the beds are creaky. We booked a room with two beds and that is exactly what we got: two beds, pushed together, so there was a gap in between them. I didn't get any sleep.Another problem with the rooms is the hallway doors don't fit the doorframe, so light from the hallway was shining into the room the entire night. You could also hear every sound from the hallway. Never encountered something like this in any other hotel I was in.Saunas: we booked this hotel because it had a lot of different saunas. When we got there we realised saunas are open only from 4pm and two of them didn't work.Location: beautiful surroundings, with the square in front having some lovely old buildings around it and a nice coffee place on the other side. There are beautiful hiking trails around as well. Scenery is peaceful and relaxing.Final thoughts: will definitely come back to Rogaška Slatina, but not this hotel.
The location of the hotel is great, in the beatiful nature. Free parking in the front of the hotel. A lot of possibility for walking and hiking ( unfortunatelly no snow ). The surrounding is very nice and clean. The stuff is very kind.The room is simply equipped, no iron, no cattle for tea but it was very clean. For the couple two separate beds instead of one. The matresses and pillows not very comfortable.The worst part was the new year dinner. The price was 80 euro per person and in that price no beverages at all. Even no water. The band who was playing was awfull performed for 15 minutes and took the break for 10 minutes. No game, no lottery. And it was the pattern for the whole night. They even missed to count down the new year.The variety of the food was on the high level but the preparation of the food was pretty bad, specially for meat. One didn't know which kind of meat was on the table. All had similar unpleasant taste.The cakes were great. The breakfast was also great.The swimming pool was very good, clean warm water 29°degrees in the jacuzzi 34° but the swimming pool is pretty small for such a big hotel.In conclusion: our stay was fine but I would not recommend the hotel for the new year celebration.
I would like to thank and leave a review about the hotel employee - Irena Matjašič Podhraški - individual approach to each client, very attentive and professional! This approach makes our family want to come to the hotel! Thanks a lot!