Pula airport hotel?

I have been to Pula airport this June to pick up a friend who did arrive there. It’s a small airport with limited infrastructure and no hotel nearby.
Travel-time by car to Pula old-town is about 10 to 15 minutes. We stayed in a tourist hotel on Verudela peninsula about 20 min away from Pula airport.

According to airport homepage there are taxis available and there is a bus to town at 23:30.
My recommendation would be to use the filter functions of booking.com to find accommodations with 24hours reception and optionally an airport shuttle. Always let your accommodation confirm your late arrival and ask them for their recommendation about shuttle or taxi service at night.

Thanks, Paul 636. I had checked booking.com for a hotel near the airport but I had not thought to see if I could filter it for a 24 hour reception, which I will do. Since it is a small airport do you think it's reasonable that we could pick up our checked bags and be at the bus departure point in 30 minutes? Or does this sound too iffy?

It might be possible, but I wouldn't count on it.

At small airports I find that the luggage comes out quickly and the buses are normally timed to aircraft arrivals. If you don't waste time I would think you should make the bus assuming all the other stuff goes well.

As a plan B and possibly plan A, I would take a taxi at that time of the night - just figure out ahead of time what the cost is going to be and confirm with the taxi driver before you get in. In general, when arriving that late, I would not want to be dropped off by a bus in the middle of a deserted town unless my hotel was very near by.

Thanks again, Paul 636. And thank you, Arnold. A very good point