Novotel Goa Dona Sylvia Resort

This hotel has a lot of positives. The staff are all very friendly and helpful, the location is great and just a short walk to the beach, the food on the all inclusive is good. Unfortunately for us, the cons outweighed the pros. Our room(room 3) was filthy. Despite us asking housekeeping several times to come and clean our room and balcony floor, they didn't. The floor was so dirty we had to stand on a towel while we got dressed to avoid our feet and clothes getting dirty. The curtains were mouldy. There were thick cobwebs around the skirting boards and door frames. Our toilet was faulty and we had to call housekeeping every day for 6 days to ask them to come and sort it out. Sometimes they came and fixed it, sometimes they didn't. One night I had to go to use the toilet in the lobby of the hotel at 2am as ours was out of action again. The pool area was also very dirty with old mouldy sunbeds. There are hundreds of crows in the trees and they leave mess all over the floor and sunbeds. As other people have mentioned, the weddings. They are beautiful to watch and, on the whole, the wedding guests are gracious and inviting. However, the weddings are noisy and intrusive and at times there are hundreds of extra people around the hotel. There was a 4 day wedding while we were there and every morning all of the guests would have breakfast by the pool. There is only one toilet by the pool do we were all having to share with them in their wedding finery and us in our wet swimming costumes. Not cool. The conferences are actually worse though and the hotel restaurant can't cope with the extra guests. On 2 occasions we couldn't find a table for breakfast that wasn't full of dirty dishes waiting to be cleared. I need to be clear that I am not in the habit of leaving poor reviews. I don't think i have ever left a review with less than 4 stars but I can't be dishonest. We paid a lot of money through Tui and feel cheated(they have already agreed to refund us some money less than a week after we got home). Goa is beautiful but for the same if not less money, you could have 2 weeks all inclusive in the caribbean with a little bit of luxury. As a final comment. The guests at this hotel are all very elderly. I would say the average age is around 70. Everyone is lovely and friendly and this is not meant in any disrespect to them but if you are expecting a bit of life do not go to this hotel.

All the staff were excellent from reception, restaurant, pool, cleaners, and gardeners etc. Cannot fault then at all. Food was very good with a decent selection each day. The room was spacious, clean, good aircon, and in a quiet location. There was a massive Indian Wedding taking place but we were not bothered with any noise or disruption. The event was fantastic to watch and to experience. The beach is a short walk through the gardens and completely clean. Beware of the sea...there is an undertow. The Indian Airforce entertained with fighters jets occasionally zooming around.This didn’t bother us. We would certainly go back.