Travel Charme Strandhotel Bansin

We spent seven days with the family, two kids seven and nine, in early June. The kids loved the place, in particular the indoor swimming pool since the weather was still very cold. There was also a pleasant children's club, although our children were a bit too old to go there every day. Also, it is a bit hard to reach going up and down through a long corridor. The beach is just across the promenade and invites for endless walks and ball games. For adults there is a good spa and sauna to relax after a day around on the island Usedom. They also have activities like Pilates. The rooms are spacious, bright and very clean, including the bathrooms. What is a bit irritating is the plastic cover on the mattress underneath the linen that makes you sweat at night: useful for small children though. The food is very good with a changing buffet, in particular offering different varieties of fish. They also offer decent a la carte food. Since the problem with hot buffet food is that it is nice only for half an hour, and we usually were late, we turned to ordering the main course a la carte from the kitchen. Like that we enjoyed the dinner. The bar was nice and the kids loved the non-alcoholic drinks along with our aperitif. Also, when the waiters in the restaurant learned about the birthday of our daughter, they had the table very nicely decorated. The interior design of the hotel feels a bit dated (and we heard that they plan to do some works). We felt in particular that there is no place that invites you to hang-out at night, or even during the day. The fire-place, the natural centre of any lounge, is oddly located in a corridor and was not lit despite the cold temperatures. The furniture in the bar area is strangely put such that you may end up sitting back to back with other guests. Also, the spa could offer drinks or tea and be made more atmospheric with little things like candles. Service is not consistently good, at times waiters lack attention - since it is a buffet they just bother to clear the tables not looking for guests that may want assistance. Another thing that was strange to us was the early times of all the fitness classes, much too early for us to take part. Still, the place is probably better than many others and we would recommend it to other people, in particular when traveling with smaller children.

We stayed at this hotel for 4 days over the Easter break. The location is very nice, right by a sandy beach and a long beach promenade. The hotel has good facilities for families with young children. Our room (which was a familiy room) was large with a lot of cupboard and drawer space. We did think however that the service in many respects did not reach the level of a 5 or even a 4 start hotel. Service was very often not forthcoming and friendly as we have exprienced in other hotels of a similar level and price category. in particular, we found that reception staff were not helpful or forthcoming with information on the hotel and the facilities unless specifcally asked. For instance on arrival we weren't given any information on facilities and opening times as we have experienced in other similar hotels. At dinner time, when a table was reserved for us in the restaurant, we had to ask on each occasion to be provided with two highchairs or cushions for the seats. It made us feel uncomfortable having to ask for this thereby causing disruption around us when highchairs should have bee at our table before our arrival. We feel that significant improvement is required to the service and the attitude of the staff to make this hotel truly a 4/5 star hotel and justify the price tag of a stay. Note that non-German speakers (like my husband) may find it hard to make themselves understood. In terms of the childcare (which the hotel advertises it provides in the form of the kids club), the hotel advertises this to be from 2 years old. In reality, we found the childcare arrangements not to be adpated to very young children. If children were happy to stay at the kids' club there were carers there to look after them and a selection of toys. However, no effort was made to make the very young children feel welcome when they first arrived at the club each time. This we felt made the childcare arrangements not appropriate for such young children. To us there was a marked discrepancy between what the hotel advertised on its website and other promotional materials and what the staff on the ground actually practised. They also had a policy of not changing children's nappy and would call parents to do the nappy change. Naturally, after a nappy change our two year olds were not happy for us to leave again and staff would ask us to take them with us. The pool and sauna area is exceptionally clean (as is the rest of the htoel) but the pool is quite small for the size of the hotel and considering that it is shared between everyone (one pool only - it's also advertised as being the hotel's spa pool) and no tea or other refreshments are served in the sauna area. As a spa it was disappointing and during school holidays in particular the pool and surrounding deck chair area is probably usually crowded with children. We enjoyed being able to borrow bikes and buggies and the promenade and beach is ideal for walks and bike rides with young children. Food was good and we would recommend the dinner buffet. Overall an enjoyable experience but not the standard we expected on the basis of the info contained on the hotel's website and the price tag. We would recommend the hotel to people with young children but would point out these downsides.