FlyerTalk Forums - Tarcin Forest Resort & Spa Sarajevo

Introduction I would have never thought in a million years that Accor had a McGallery hotel in a mountainous resort less than one hour from Sarajevo. We were on a road trip and I wanted to book a one overnight in Bosnia so I checked what each of the major international hotel chains had to offer. Hyatt and Hilton have nothing at all; Marriott only has a Residence Inn and a Courtyard in Sarajevo and I am not a big fan of those brands. Accor has a Novotel which is only marginally better - instead I was going to book at Swissotel, but that was until McGallery caught my attention. Since we did not intend to visit Sarajevo extensively, I thought it would be easier to stay in the suburbs so I tried Tarcin Forest Resort. It was my first stay at any McGallery brand hotel and I have to say I was quite impressed – I can recommend this hotel and it makes me more inclined to try this brand in other countries in the future. We originally intended to stay only one night and get back on the road but we liked the hotel so much that we extended to stay a couple of nights, which is quite telling. Location The resort is about a 40-minute drive from Sarajevo and sits on expansive grounds suitable for various outdoors activities. Since March is shoulder season then it was mainly hiking at this time of year. The hotel told me that summer is high season for them more so than winter although I would guess cross country skiing would be possible during the cold months. The resort has rooms and suites in the main building along with stand-alone villas scattered elsewhere on the resort. Room In terms of Accor loyalty recognition, I thought either of the following was going to happen: either no upgrade at all because they would have no idea about Platinum upgrades, or a very generous upgrade as they most likely don’t have many elites visiting their resort. I booked one room category above the standard room and to my positive surprise we received an upgrade to the executive suite which is 57 square meters (not counting the balcony) and based on the floor plan it’s pretty much equivalent to two standard rooms combined, the latter being 28 sq m. The suite had a very suitable décor for a forest resort with a wood colored theme throughout and had two full bathrooms which is much more convenient than suites in the vast majority of hotels which only have 1 or 1.5 bath. The floors were fake wood (= vinyl) and so were table tops and counter tops. Also the sliding bathroom doors and the door between the bathroom and living room were somewhat thin and brittle. However from previous experience at W brand hotels, there you also have faux luxury so I was not particularly shocked or outraged at McGallery, in fact given the price tag less of about 100 EUR per night I think this is realistic. I still much rather have fake wood floors rather than carpet floors and I would rather have this kind of room design (wood color) rather than cookie-cutter hotel rooms which all look alike so kudos to them. My observation about faux luxury is mostly out of full disclosure more so than criticism. While having thin doors and possibly thin walls could have been a soundproofing issue, but for our situation it was not at all. Our suite was at the far end of the building therefore no foot traffic in the corridor outside our room, and our only neighbor shared the wall of our living room not our bedroom. That combined with the fact that the neighborhood of the hotel is very quiet (in the middle of nowhere), needless to say we had very quiet nights. Not all features of the room were faux luxury, some aspects were quite nice for example the heated towel racks, the two walk-in showers with excellent water pressure, and some furniture had marble tops. The large balcony wrapped around two sides of the room and had views of the surrounding mountains and you could access it from both the bedroom or the living room. Dining The restaurant was visually attractive and had a large buffet for breakfast, lots of fruits and vegetables and they clearly put emphasis on wellness in this hotel, some options even being organic. The hot dishes were typical western breakfast choices such as scrambled eggs, sausages, etc. however they did have a local dish which changed every day such as Bosnian Pie. The restaurant also had a large terrace outside which would be quite nice during the summer. We ate dinner in the restaurant once and ordered room service once. The prices reflected a captive audience as you cannot go out of the hotel to find restaurants within walking distance, although quality was fairly good. As an interesting note, in pretty much all Muslim destinations we travelled to in the past (Turkey, UAE, Qatar, Jordan, etc.), hotels had alcohol available. However in Tarcin Forest Resort there is no alcohol at all so the Accor Platinum welcome drink vouchers are valid for mocktails or mixed juices. Service Service was not up to par with luxury hotels in different parts of the world but it felt more because they were sometimes clumsy in their service delivery or had communication issues in English, rather than lack of effort. At check-in there was no problem at all and staff at front desk spoke good English. At the restaurant the first dinner our order was jumbled up, we both ordered the same appetizer but they brought us only one, thinking we wanted to share it. We also ordered a side order of grilled veggies but they substituted part of our entrée with those veggies rather than veggies being in addition. It was not a big deal and we did not want to make them feel bad and have them return to the kitchen so we kept quiet. In the morning during breakfast it felt like they did not want to disturb guests so they let plates pile up and only went to clear tables once guests left which is not what most luxury hotels do in other countries. Also if you run out of coffee you had to go in the queue at the machine yourself for a refill as there was no table service. When we ordered room service there was a special dinner that evening in the restaurant which we originally planned on going but we were too tired and changed our mind and wanted to stay in the room. When we called for in-room dining we were originally told they were too busy with the large dinner and that we had to wait until 9pm to order room service, which was a no-go since we wanted to sleep early. After hanging up I got a call back from the director of F&B who apologized and ended up taking my order. They apologized again when delivering food to the room, and I told them it was no big deal and did not want to make them feel bad, but they should have probably been flexible the first time around. One of our orders was incorrect that night as well: they brought the wrong pasta dish (tomato vs pesto), which we also did not bring up especially since their stress level seemed high already. Other Common Areas In addition to activities outdoors, the hotel had a fitness gym, pool table for guest use, and there was a children play room which would be convenient for families coming to the resort for a get-away. Wifi Wifi worked fine during our stay with acceptable speeds of 10 Mbps. Overall Overall this hotel was a pleasant discovery which I can highly recommend. The hardware is new and fresh, design was attractive, food was healthy, the area was peaceful, Platinum recognition was great, and while service is work in progress at least they were very friendly and it was not possible to get upset with staff if mistakes were made.