Ostuni Rosa Marina Resort

As a resort, it might be rated good 3 stars. There are different categories of rooms, and when booking you do not clearly know which one you will get. Ours was small without any view. The beach is in 10 minute's walk, there is a kind of train every 30 minutes. The beach is nice, but they are starting VERY LOUD music every morning, so it might be suited for the special kind of folk only. Breakfast is good, but to have decent lunch or dinner you should visit the wonderful beach restaurant in Rodos.

Overall really enjoyed my trip here but a few major problems that were headaches. If the resort is able to address some of these it could be a truly amazing place.

Pros:
-Absolutely beautiful location with awesome beach and nice area to walk on either side. Multiple pools that were really nice as well (though I spent more time on the beach)
-Very nice clean comfortable rooms
-Yummy food with lots of options
-Very close to the beach, the people complaining about the distance to the beach are insane it is a 3-5 minute walk or you can take the train if you really want. There is also a bar/coffee/washroom at the beach!

Cons:
-One very big problem, I have a nut allergy and it was extremely hard to navigate that here. Before travelling to Italy I had an Italian friend write out a card explaining that I have a nut allergy (because I don't ever want to go somewhere and expect people to speak my language) but only 1 of the servers cared about this. I reminded wait staff at every meal that I had the allergy but have several incidents where I was served a dish that contained nuts with 5 minutes of asked and receiving assurance there was no nuts. I had to argue with the staff several times asking them to please check that the dish was nut free (on 3 occasions it was not), this was very embarrassing and I don't ever want to be this person!
-The "Aqua Gym" group are very aggressive, if you are down at the beach you are not just encouraged to join whatever activity they are running, they will approach you multiple times/hour again and again, I started leaving the beach when they were coming to avoid harassment
-As others have noted staff at the front desk are very rude, I thought this may have been a language barrier (fair enough my Italian is terrible) but I met a group of Italian guests while there that also complained about how rude they were. They were completely unwilling to help guide you at all or answer questions.
-Wifi does not work in rooms, this was not very important to me but something to note
-You are charged for a towel which seemed very odd to me (just to borrow a towel not to take or anything)

If the T in TUI’s rating stands for terrible then it is about right for this hotel.

First the good point; the rooms are very clean.

Otherwise:

The hotel is totally unsuitable for those, like me, who have mobility issues. There are no lifts except for one which goes to the lower pool level and that had broken down. Even with a ground floor room it is impossible to access many parts of the ground floor with making long detours.

No information in the room about the hotel not even a “Do Not Disturb” sign.
Most of the published activities were unavailable. The wellness/fitness centre was closed and the hotel was unable to organize any excursions quoting lack of demand.

The restaurant was terrible. At breakfast the “hot” dishes were barely lukewarm and other basic items unavailable at time. The fresh juice dispenser was a joke – more like water than juice. Dinner even worse with very limited choice, almost inedible and vastly overpriced at 35 euros per head.

The location is isolated with the nearest town, Ostuni, some 10km away with a round trip taxi costing 45 euros. It was still worth it to enjoy a decent meal and not much more than the hotel dinner cost,

The hotel seems to prefer to cater for large coach parties and corporate functions with corresponding noisy disruption for other guests.

Although it was still mid to late September the whole atmosphere suggested an end of season lethargy with staff, generally, not really interested in guests’ enjoyment.

This is the first time I’m leaving an “avoid at all costs” review - please do NOT book the Ostuni Rosa Marina Resort under any circumstance. Ever. In twenty years of extensively traveling for work and leisure, I’ve never had a worse experience. The low points were: impatient, downright arrogant staff, rooms that had zero sound insulation, dirty pool, services that did not work e.g. gym, shower, wifi. Our experience was so bad that booking.com, at their cost, reimbursed the entire stay without asking twice (the Rosa Marina must be a known problem). So please, do yourself a favor and book another place: just down the street you can book the “Hotel del Levante” or the “Canne Bianche”, you’ll be happy!

Arriving at 1,30 pm while asking for the room they kindly replied that check in was at 5pm because previous customer was having late check out at 1pm. Therefore, the previous customer had a long staying at the hotel while we should leave on Monday by 10 am. Just few comments at the reception, justifying we'll do our best to guarantee 5pm available room to you and your wife..I'm really surprised with this kind of behaviour. If you guarantee late check out to a customer, you are sure, the room is not going to be used the day after or you had a confirmation from the arriving customer she/he will be quite late. Ready to clarify with hotels' management if needed