"We,ve stayed in this hotel in September 2026.
It could be a relatively good hotel, but there were 2 things which are totally unacceptable for me.
To make cleare all the circumstances – our reservation was made through a travel agent from my country, it was for 3 persons – me, my husband and our 13 year old son, for 10 nights in the palace part of this hotel in a deluxe sea view room (that was the highest level of room type the travel agent offered).
As the hotels web offers also suite type rooms, which are bigger, than the deluxe rooms, I,ve contacted them with a request for upgrade to a suite and early check-in (as I knew that we will be arriving early). I did not want it for free, I wanted to pay for these services, and wanted to do it in advance, to have everything arranged and no stress on arrival. On the plus side – the communication from the reception was very quick, but saying only that either the upgrade or the early check-in is possible to arrange only upon arrival, and that the upgrade, if possible at all, would be at a cost 1000,-EUR. Honestly it seemed a bit much for me, especially, when I learned from an email, the the upgrade price to a suite room is the same from a deluxe sea view room as from a deluxe garden view room (I think if You pay extra for sea view than in case of an upgrade it should be discounted from the upgrade price). Anyway although I,ve contacted the hotel more than 2 months before our arrival, I was willing to pay for the asked services, that was not made available and apart from the mentiond 1000,-EUR no other alternative was offered.
Now the 2 issues which make me give the lowest rating:
- As I,ve mentioned before, we were arriving in the hotel early (around 7 am), a staff member took our bags and led us to the reception NOT THROUGH THE MAIN ENTRANCE but THROUGH A SIDE WALK INTO A STAFF STORAGE ROOM and from there to the reception. Now we are talking about a hotel which is supposed to be 5*. No guest of a 5* hotel is supposed to even see these storage places. No way, any guest to a 5* hotel should be taken to the reception upon arrival through these storage rooms on a side walk and not the main entrance.
To be honest, this hotel does not have a really nice reception area, no wow affect, no nice views, the only thing which is nice and something different, is the „drawbridge“ above a decorative pool in front of the entrance. But they did not use this entrance in our case. This is a total red flag and absolute no way !!!!
- The second issue is connected with my request for upgrade. I,ve mentiond our communication by emial at the reception, there was no sign of it in their reservation system. So I explained it again, finally I was offered a room the reception clerk called a „family suite“ for 500,-EUR. I knew that the palace part of the hotel does not have among their room types nothing called family suite (they have deluxe rooms with different views, two interconnecting family rooms, superior suite with sea view and emir and presidential suites). So I asked if it is the two interconnecting rooms, he said no it is a family suite. So I was taken to this room to see if I agree, and as I knew the hotel layout, already as we were on the buggy I told the person that the building we are going in is not the palace part but the sands part, he very convincingly said no, no it is the palace. Back at the reception the clerk told the same very, very persuasively – no it is not the Sands part it is in the Palace section. Well that was a lie!!! And that is my second problem. Why on earth do they have to lie in a 5* hotel. The room I was offered and I accepted and paid the 500,-EUR price for the upgrade - was the Sands section,s Junior suite beach front. Which was a nice room very well located, really beach front and basically near to everything and although we were accommodated in the Sands section we could use all the services of the palace. So I had no problem with this actually. In fact If I was offered this alternative beforhand I would be happy to pay for it in advance and avoid all the stress upon arrivial. The problem I have is tha fact, that 2 members of the reception team lied to me. By the way, later on I asked 3 different staff members which rooms (as for the numbers) belong to Palace – all of them confirmed room numbers starting with 5 and 6 are the palace, room numbers starting 4 (which we had) are the Sands. And also when I switched on the TV tha hotel,s information channel it welcommed me at the sands. So why on earth they had to lie???
I really want to be honest and objective. We were satisfied with our room, which we actually could accommodate at around 9:30 am so after all we had and earlier check-in. Our room was always perfectly cleaned, thanks to Ahmed Aysam who took care of our room and made nice bed decorations every day. Also would like to meniton Shehab a waiter on the beach, who was superb.
The food was OK, we had no stomach problems. I did not really like the wibe of the Alfredo restaurant, it feels a bit like a school canteen. And I don,t understand the reservation system for dinner to the Lagoon restaurant – you have to make a table reservation to a buffet restaurant, it is really strange. The drinks were hit and miss.
As for the beach, we like to snorchel, so we were OK with getting to the water walking the jetty. By the way the left jetty was open only 1 day because of the weather (but sometimes it seemed that if in the morning it was too choppy they did not open the whole day even if the wind changed by the afternoon). But although this hotel has a really big section of the beach there is no space for going in the water for a swim from the beach or going to snorchel from the beach (just from the jetty), what is very limiting for people who would just like to be in the water, swim a bit and just laze in the sea. The hotel next to the pickalbatros, which has a very short beach section turning toward the marina, does have a digged out sandy entrance to the sea where they can access the sea and even go snorkeling right from the beach. I think it would be really good to have a digged out section also in your hotel,s beach – especially for the kids but also for adults and the elderly. The corals in the shallow waters are dead anyway.
So to end this review, we had a relatively nice holiday apart from the stressfull first day. But nothing special, and nothing for what I would recommend this hotel or come back."
