Ystad Saltsjöbad

We were there on a nice August Saturday to have some lunch and enjoy the beach view and a seaside walk. The Ceasarsallad is perfect and very good prices compared to other places. It can be a bit difficult to fin a parking spot nearby, but if you do it is worth the trip. Perfect service and a nice surrounding indoors and outdoors. We choose to dine outdoors this time. The bar indoors is very inviting. This time we did not stay at the actual spa but merely had a nice lunch.

Like many other guests, we have been her before, years back, and loved it - but were disappointed this time around. It seems to us that this hotel suffers from too much success and has grown arrogant. At every little turn, they charge extra. That is never a good sign and in our experience, everything tends to go downhill from this point. The nice things - some of them - are still here, of course: the location is beautiful, the rooms are fresh, clean, and very pretty and the common areas like restaurants etc are also as a rule lovely, with thought out designs and that Hyannisport feel to it all. BUT - and that is a very big but - the service is not up to scratch. From the booking experience to the checkning in, it was downright terrible at times. They have devised a kind of time slot scheme for their guests that is just awful. They herd and hector their guests around as if we were cattle. Wait here, pay there, the room is not ready kind of thing. We had to pay a considerable amount to check in at three in the afternoon, which is late-ish in any hotel in the world. Notwithstanding paying a lot for spa treatment (mediocre) and access to the pool (seriously overcrowded) and access to our expensive room (paid extra to get in!), nothing worked smoothly. One - and only one! - nice receptionist tried to help us to get to our room but was scolded by a colleague. You wait! Room is not ready. (Turned out the one nice staff member was new at his job, Figures. At least he wanted to help, but of course it did not work.) There's not that many rooms and they are soo tiny! Many of them are empty between 10.00 am and 17.00 pm (because of the extra charge to check in at 15.00 or stay until 11.00, you see). How on earth it can be this impossible to get access to the room I will never know. We had to sit and wait alongside with dozens of other unfortunate guests, all of us surrounded by tons of baggage. It felt like sitting in a train station where every train had broken down. At breakfast, it was so crowded we could hardly eat. There must have been multitudes in there. Checking out, the same: multitudes, stress, constant mix ups. Not very nice staff. And why? Beause of the appalling slot system. All of the guests had to access and vacate at certain time slots. So, of course most of the guests hurried like crazy to get some breakfast before checking out - it was either that or pay extra. In a well run hotel you will get access to your room when it's ready. It will not take hours to clean a tiny room (yes, the rooms at Ystad Saltsjöbad have always been very small). And, most importantly - the staff will be accommodating and not act like annoyed head masters towards the customers. The restaurant is beautiful. The food at dinner and breakfast is very good, mostly. But again, the service is not good. This is the kind of place where the rules are more important than the guests. And, again, the breakfast was so overcrowded because of the rigorous check-out

It was our second time and we were looking forward to coming back. We were dissapointed. Not entirely though. The climate of the rooms, Salt restaurant with excellent food and long walks along the beaches with pine trees. Amazing. And food was tip top. But spa, which is probably the main reason all come here, is no longer a place to relax. No tranquility. No relax. No quiet. It is becoming more like Ibiza where guest walk with their drinks to hot tubs, sauna and pools. The music is too loud and even guests are very loud. Absolutely no classical spa atmosphere. If you do not know what I mean here please try to go to the japanese onsen. Well, I have nothing against it if only those who look for relax get this opportunity for the money they pay. Or alerted before they cash in. Even the upper floor with the open fire in the centre was loud as some guests could not accept that the other were looking for a few moments of quiet. If it is the direction of this nice place, well it is good to know. We will start to look for a new place then.