Nice hotel but vastly overpriced
I stayed here in early August 2020 with my partner and infant son. The hotel is located 5 minutes drive from the beach (in a hotel-provided shuttle) and 50-60 minutes from Cagliari Airport.
In short: the location and natural features of the area are stunning. The beach and sea are perfect, and many staff were very well intentioned and engaging. Rooms were comfortable and some of the provisions for children were good. Coronavirus measures were reasonable and well adhered to. However, it is a real stretch to consider this a 5* property, and it represented appalling value for money.
In depth:
Location: About an hour from Cagliari Airport and 5 minutes to the private beach by regular hotel-provided shuttles, the location is good. Rooms afford a nice view of the lagoon (home to migratory flamingos) or the sea. The only shortcoming here is that you are not particularly close to any large towns, so your shopping, dining and exploration is confined to the resort.
Rooms: We had a deluxe room with a sea view. The bed was sizeable and comfortable and the bathroom was well apportioned. The terrace was very large and had a nice view of the lagoon and sea. There are no tea/coffee facilities in the room, which was disappointing. The only way to get a hot drink in the room is to request it from room service, which is very expensive. The baby facilities provided in the room were very welcome.
Service: Staff were often well-intentioned and happy to get to know us. Reception staff in particular were very, very helpful and kind to us, so our thanks go to them. Many staff members engaged with our young son and took the time to learn his name, which was lovely. However, we did have some problems with the limited English of some staff. The fact that some staff didn't speak English well is not a problem, and we didn't expect widespread English. However, more than once when we spoke to a member of staff who didn't speak English, they would simply walk away and disengage from the conversation. This was exceptionally rude and unhelpful - it surely would not be difficult to find a colleague who spoke better English and ask them to take over.
Pools: Pools were relatively small but definitely big enough. Children were welcome and there was a really nice, relaxed atmosphere around them.
Food/Drink - Here is the real sticking point, both on quality and cost, the Chia Laguna was very poor. We were half-board. Breakfast was fine - no complaints, it's a buffet breakfast, it's hot and there is good variety.
Dinner runs strictly between 7:30 and 9:30. There is no alternative for food outside those times beyond room service (which is charged). We were only eligible to eat at one restaurant - La Terrazza. The menu comprised the same four main courses every day, with 1 "special" on rotation. Some dishes reminded me of school dinners, such was their lack of seasoning or creativity. We could book into another restaurant, which ran a buffet. Although it was hard to get a booking, we did get a table once in the week. There was more variety, but the food was often cold and of the same low quality. Room service was very expensive and even lower quality. The hotel website advertises more restaurants, such as a pizzeria in the piazza. These restaurants were not open, presumably due to COVID-19. That's understandable, but that could have been communicated to us, rather than letting us find out when we got there.
On cost, for reference, a salmon and cream cheese sandwich by the Bioquam pool costs 20 EUR. A 33cl bottle of local beer costs 6 EUR (it is 1.50EUR at the local shop). A "chef's speciality pasta" of pasta and tomato sauce that could have come out of a tin was similarly about 20 EUR. The cheapest red on the wine list was about 45 EUR, and the same bottle was for sale in the local shop for 8 EUR. Bottled water for the table at a meal is 4 EUR (that there is a cost is not communicated until you receive your bill).
A word of advice - do not book your transfer taxi from the hotel. They quoted 110 EUR to reach Cagliari Airport. This can be done for 70 EUR by any third party.
I understand that hotels mark up products to turn a profit. That is perfectly normal, and I expect the mark-up to increase in 5* hotels, but the degree of extortion practised by this hotel is ludicrous. Journey to any town nearby and you will find nice restaurants offering you better food for a quarter of the price. Literally everything that can be sold in this hotel is charged way beyond a reasonable markup price.
Communication: This was a real challenge for us, not because we had limited Italian, but because the hotel made no particular effort to communicate with any guests. It is standard practise to provide a welcome booklet or package, detailing the opening and closing ours of amenities, the location of specific facilities, local areas of interest, etc. Chia Laguna does not provide this. We had no idea that a large portion of hotel amenities were closed due to COVID-19.
We had a small child with us, and therefore had to manage meal time to coincide with bedtime and naps. The Chia Laguna website says that they have a pizzeria in the piazza which opens at 7pm. There was no indication that this was not the case, so we went to the piazza for 7pm. It took 45 minutes to locate a member of staff who could confirm that the pizzeria was not open. They could not clarify whether it would open later in the day or in the week. As it transpired, it was closed for the duration. By the time we had learned this, our son was too tired and had to be put to bed, so we missed dinner. On more than one occasion, between the lack of communication and the strict dining times, we did not eat dinner.
Another communication failure was surrounding the Bioquam Pool, reserved for guests of the Chia Laguna. We had left our child with a babysitter for an hour whilst we had a swim. There are signs that say children cannot swim in the pool - absolutely fine. Our childminder returned with our son fast asleep in his pram, whilst we dried off on the sun loungers. We were immediately told by the lifeguard that we had to leave, as children were not allowed in the pool. We pointed out that he was asleep and unlikely to take a dip, but that didn't matter - our sleeping 1 year old son could not be anywhere near the pool. That seems odd to me, but I would not have objected this was communicated to us at any point prior to the event.
Chia Laguna is not a bad hotel or resort by any means. There are really lovely features. However the cost of staying and eating there is not reflected in the service or the quality. One could enjoy much better service and food in an equally beautiful location for a quarter of the price almost anywhere else in Europe.
The hotel is astonishingly poor value for money, and their display of Chanel products and showcase of fine jewellery in the lobby does little to dispel the appearance that its quality is just a veneer.
I would not return and would advise all holiday makers to consider better value options.
550 reviews
Chia Laguna Hotel Village
Grand Relais dei Nuraghi
Hotel La Rocca Resort & Spa
Baia Dei Mori Beachclub
Chia Laguna Hotel Baia
Abi d'Oru Resort
L'Ea Bianca Luxury Resort
