Name: Vila Bisera
Address: Lagadin 6000 Ohrid,Lagadin, Lagadin, Lagadin, Lagadin, 6000, Macedonia
Rating: 9

Air conditioning

Smoke-free property

Heating

Garden

Terrace

General

Non-smoking rooms

Fridge

Family room

Hairdryer

Flat-screen TV

Shower/Bathtub

Shower

Linens

Rooms

Ironing

Laundry

Services and amenities

Common kitchen

Poolside bar

Meals

Free Wi-Fi

Internet

Airport transportation

Transfer services

Transfer

English

Italian

Languages Spoken

Library

Bike rental

Barbecue grill(s)

Hiking

Fishing

Sun Deck

Ping-Pong

Recreation

Free parking

Parking

Swimming pool

Spa tub

Beach/pool towels

Next to the beach

Pool and beach

Diving

Cycling

Fitness facilities

Sports

Family/Kid Friendly

Kids

Pets Not Allowed

Pets

Location

At the hotel

Room amenities

Ohrid St. Paul the Apostle Airport

Vila Bisera

Lagadin

child-bed

child-bed-fee

external-private-bathroom

private-bathroom

shared-bathroom

10-beds

11-beds

12-beds

13-beds

14-beds

15-beds

16-beds

17-beds

18-beds

19-beds

2-beds

20-beds

21-beds

22-beds

23-beds

24-beds

25-beds

26-beds

27-beds

28-beds

29-beds

3-beds

30-beds

31-beds

32-beds

33-beds

34-beds

35-beds

36-beds

37-beds

38-beds

39-beds

4-beds

40-beds

5-beds

6-beds

7-beds

8-beds

9-beds

king-bed

queen-bed

limited-time

lounge

treatment

no-window

bay-view

bosphorus-view

canal-view

city-view

courtyard-view

garden-view

golf-view

harbour-view

inland-view

lake-view

land-view

mountain-view

ocean-front

ocean-view

oceanside

panoramic-view

park-view

partial-ocean-view

partial-sea-view

partial-view

pool-view

river-view

sea-front

sea-view

street-view

sunrise-view

sunset-view

water-view

with-view

annex

basement

main-building

1-bedroom

2-bedrooms

3-bedrooms

4-bedrooms

5-bedrooms

6-bedrooms

not-guaranteed

wired-internet-access

smoking

sauna

duplex

safe

mini-bar

breakfast-for-1

breakfast-for-2

pets-allowed

wi-fi

kitchen

So we arrived hadn't checked in as yet! Photos are a little more than anticipated. We asked to see where the rooms are. Went and had a look way to far with a family of 6 and all our suitcases with approximately 200 stairs.
With teens they wanted to be closer to the atmosphere as this was situated a little out.
So we decided to make the decision not to check in and policy for cancellation was to pay for one night for each room. Woke up to find they had helped themselves to the full amount $2981.00 out of our account. Rang them told us oh well it was to short notice! 
Rang booking.com to help me get my money back to our inconvenience we now have to wait 10-15 days to get our money back.
Not happy! What gives them the right to help themselves to our account and bypass the cancellation policy

The property decided to withdrawl money without our consent

We started our vacation chilling out and wanted no crowds, nice room, beautiful view and the nature experience of the lake. We were happy with this choice.
Highlights: 
- Nice, small pools and mostly we had one to ourselves. 
- Friendly, helpful staff
- Nice breakfast except for the eggs (watery and messy unless you are very early). But the rest of it was a great four star spread. 
- lovely room, the air condition works, but is Kind of noisy. Amazing view from the balcony. 
- Quiet by the pool. This one is a personal preference - i really dont like that most places put on loud music. It bothered me a great deal that the radio was put on loudly at breakfast aswell, drowning out the forest sounds and the quiet lake. But good luck finding a place in Ohrid that keeps the place quiet. The pools at this hotel was quiet. That was nice. 
Drawbacks: 
- There was no decent place for dining in the small village. The hotel serves breakfast only, and the two restaurant options nearby were not good. 
- There was a steep walk down to the lake and there was no pier or easy place to walk into the deep water for swimming. Other places has a place to walk into the deep of the lake without hurting your feet on the rocks. That would have been better. 
- the wifi was not strong

There was also construction works going on, and I really wanted to get away from that. If I go again I will try to find an even more secluded place right by the lake, preferably beyond bay of bones. I kayaked down that way and it was so beautiful. More pristine. For culture I stayed some days in the old town in Ohrid.

Great stay with minor drawbacks

Yes, “scam” is a harsh description. But a scam is defined by somebody deliberately misleading somebody else by presenting an offering as being better than it really is. That is the case here.

Thus the beautiful pictures of Vila Bisera presented on Booking.com and elsewhere are NOT representative of the property, the rooms or the view – far from.

The property does not have the style or quality conveyed by the pictures. In reality it is a hodgepodge of buildings and structures added to the original construction over the past 3-5 decades. It appears that a lot of the construction have not (entirely) been carried out by professional craftsmen, as there are several errors, practical and aesthetic issues. In general, some structures and in dire need of maintenance, while others are left half finished. All in all, the quality is mediocre. In addition, the stunning views in the promotional pictures are not representative of reality. We certainly had a view of Lake Ohrid from our balcony and the pool areas, but it was as much a view of the parking lot, rooftops, antennas, trees and wires.

A few examples of annoying details in addition to the general issues:

- Our shower cabin was leaking water onto the bathroom floor due to a construction error.
- There was a terrible smell in our room particularly on the first night – perhaps emitted by the air condition unit?
- The promised high-speed internet did not work most of the time.
- There was not a single channel on our TV.
- Some poor neglected cats are roaming the property. One of them was living on our balcony, sleeping in the furniture and pooping on the floor.
- The pools are not heated, and they were quite dirty – probably in part due to dust and debris from ongoing construction at Vila Bisera.

In addition to the pictures being grossly misleading so are the raving reviews on various platforms and the score of 9 out of 10 on Booking.com.

We noticed that reviewers, who supposedly are of our own nationality, have names that are not common in our country. The strange names combined with reviews so much out of step with reality raises a suspicion of fake reviews. We call upon Booking.com and other platforms to ensure genuine reviews, so that travellers can retain confidence in the various platforms.

On the positive side, the breakfast was OK and the staff was kind and helpful.

Conclusion: avoid Vila Bisera if you want to avoid being disappointed. There are many better alternatives around Lake Ohrid.

PS: Our pictures are also not representative. We post them just to show that the promotional photos are misleading.

Vila Bisera is a scam!

Absolutely adored this hotel and Lake Orhid! It is a little out of Orhid but we loved the total peace. The hotel is just stunning and the views and the room. Staff were lovely especially the lovely chef. can't wait to return! Only thing is this hotel would not suit anybody with walking difficulties as it is up a steep hill and there are stairs so you have to be relatively fit!

Total paradise!

Loved this hotel, the check in was so friendly, there were a number of services available and I was able to book a masseuse to come to the room. The room itself was so gorgeous, really spacious and with a balcony hot tub. Absolutely adored my visit

Amazing visit

Amazing room, super friendly staff, extraordinary breakfast. Had  enjoyable, relaxing 4 days there. Our expectations were exceeded. We’ll definitely return probably in the same room with sauna and lake view - was very nice to see the sunset while chilling in sauna :)

Fantastic stay <3

The setting of this hotel is outstanding, part way up a hillside overlooking Lake Ohrid. At the same time, it is only about a 5-minute walk down to the beach, minimarket, and various restaurants. There seemed to be sufficient free parking outside the hotel, although a little tight in places. It was a little busier than we expected, but not excessively so. Our room was beautiful with great views from our balcony. It was spacious, airy, with plenty of light streaming in, clean and very comfortable. We had one of the best showers we’ve experienced in Macedonia. Facilities included free Wifi, TV with plenty of English programming, and a mini-fridge to keep the drinks cold. Our only complaint was the lack of hooks in the room, especially the bathroom where there was no place to hang towels up to dry. The hotel offered decent quality bikes for rent although a little expensive. The included breakfast was excellent with a great variety of fruit and hot dishes to choose from – and the setting out by the pool was wonderful. All the staff we interacted with were good. Overall we had a great stay and would definitely recommend this place to other travelers.

Outstanding views, great breakfast.

We stayed there 4 nights for a holiday as a base to tour the Ohrid Lake area.
Despite the fact that we booked a lake view room, our room was facing the forest, and we had to go on the balcony to have a partial lake view (see our pics). We complained at the reception where we were told that our room was classified "lake view" and they did not have any other availability. 
The building we were in was brand new and barely finished, with construction works still going on. Noise insulation was very bad.
The staff was trying, but not very nice or helpful (they tried to clear our plates several times while we were still eating, didn't say hello when meeting us and were really really loud all the time....). It seemed like the only thing they were worried about was to get a bad review. The cleaning crew was shouting while cleaning the rooms next to ours or even the surroundings of the swimming pool at 8am on our first morning here.
The swimming pool was most often full of noisy people, which meant that we did not stay next to the swimming pool and barely on our balcony - because of the noise - so wondering why we paid for a lake view room when we were looking at a forest. Also, the towels we got the second day should be thrown away with the threads hanging out of them....

Maybe our experience would have been entirely different off-season. But we don't appreciate feeling cheated when booking a room at the price of a 5 star hotel and ending up with neither what we booked for nor the quality of a 5 star place.

Also, keep in mind that you are going to exercise while staying there, we counted 135 stairs between the parking lot and our room...

Finally besides breakfast there is no food at the place and you have to go to the village downstairs where the options are not really a ton...

A taste of paradise?

We absolutely  loved this Vila Bisera. The room was nice and clean. We had the jacuzzi on the balcony with Ohrid Lake view. It was stunning. The staff was very friendly. Breakfast is absolutely delicious. Especially the omelet. The road to get there is a little bit tiny, but that's normal for that area. Highly recommend! 

Beautiful vila! 

The hotel is in very quiet area on a hill side. The area is very quiet and the staff is extremely friendly. The room was very clean and spacious. We had everything we needed. There is a plenty of parking spots. The views are amazing. The only flaw is, that there are no showers at upper pool, this would come in handy. The breakfast is very rich and everyone will find something to satisfy their palette…we loved our stay and we hope to come back again.

Vila Bisera

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