Hotel berhampiran Durres Sea View, Daerah Durrës

Loved our 5 day stay at the Epidamn. The hotel used to be the French embassy and its decor inside reflects this. The staff make this wonderful boutique hotel amazing. Everyone is super friendly, speaks great English, works super hard and will go the extra mile to help you out. The girls on reception often booked restaurants for us by calling them. Special shout out to the ladies that cleaned our room. Amazingly spotless and tidy. Thanks to Albi in the restaurant for looking after us at breakfasts, lunch and dinner. He was a true professional. He knew about drinks, the food, and worked so fast, efficient but with a personal touch. He wouldn’t be out of place in a 5* restaurant in London. Antonella for helping us park the car when we arrived jet lagged having been awake since 3am. She was very patient with us and was a great help. She also told another restaurant to give us a good table and they did! Also for getting our cases to the 5th floor upon arrival. The bed was super comfortable. The breakfasts are amazing. Especially the 2 eggs with avocados and sausages. Also the pancakes. Dinner / lunch was fantastic - we eat there a lot over the 5 days cause we loved it so much. Parking around the back is convenient.

Great hotel for the price. Plenty of sunbeds and the pool is immaculate. The breakfast is cold but plentiful and you can’t complain too much for the price - plenty of bread and sometimes strawberries. The only problem is the location, as you do need to get a taxi into Durres or walk over a used train track and through some litter over a bridge to get to the beach. It was fine for us, but would be - struggle for people with mobility issues. All in all, we had a wonderful week and would return to the hotel if we got another great deal.

As requested by receptionists I post the review- unfortunately it cannot be positive. We arrived on Thursday afternoon (SEP 8 2022). First of all we were disappointed by impolite service in the restaurant that we used twice- for the lunch and for the dinner. During the lunch we were served by the waitress (black pony-tailed hair) who was impolite, impatient and angry. She was confusing the price of house wine several times- once she was saying the price of 800 LEK, shortly after the price increased to 8000 LEK, then 800 LEK again and suddenly she showed her disapproval that we dare to ask of the price of house wine as ”it is so cheap as 80 EUR”. Maybe 80 EUR for the house wine is cheap for the well-paid waitress but we do not consider it to be adequate price. During the evening we were lucky not to be served by Her. Restaurant manager came, took the order and professionally delivered pastas and drinks we ordered. Then nightmare started again as angry, stressed and tired (the same) waitress came and stated that ”she does not know if / and what kind of/dessert is left and we can go to the other bar and ask them”. Seriously? You have desserts in the menu and when I ordered panna cotta and tiramisu I must go to different place to ask it it is still available? This is not a treatment I would expect in a cheap meat shop, not in an aspiring 4 star hotel. This situation forced me to write the review. Hotel itself is pathetic with urgent need of maintanence- in our room nr 101 shower hand holder was falling apart whenever I was trying to move it, fridge did not produce any cold, water did not drain from the bidet and shower gel was so small that was not enogh to take even one shower, for one person. Plenty of insects in the outside pool, water needs impovement too. There is plenty cheaper hotels literally a few steps away where price- quality ratio will be much more honest. And perhaps their staff will not treat the guests as intruders who dare to ask for the price of ”house wine that is that cheap as 80 EUR”. Atmosphere in Best Western Ark at Rinas Airport is dense and the staff treats the guests condescendingly. There are jumping around the people who come for a dinner well-dressed (pretending to be much posh than they really are) serving them free shots whereas ignoring the people who come in casual clothes and telling to go for the desserts elsewhere. It is really strange that from all the guests ordering from the same menu only some get special treatment, even free shots and the others are not even served properly. The staff should definitely improve English. For us Best Western proved again that they are below standards or their much better competitors.