Regnum Carya

"We spent 12 days at Regnum Carya in mid-June, travelling with our eight-year-old son. Before arriving, we were genuinely excited because we expected a truly top-tier hotel. Unfortunately, from the very first minutes, we felt like unwanted guests. We arrived at around 6:00 a.m. We fully understood that our room might not be ready so early. The problem was not the lack of an available room, but the complete lack of hospitality. Two visibly tired employees were sitting at reception. There was no welcome, no interest and no basic information. Nobody explained where we could rest or how to find our way around such a large resort. We carried our suitcases to reception ourselves and then moved them to the luggage storage area without any assistance. We were not even offered a glass of water. One of the receptionists, a dark-haired man, had a blazer visibly covered in dandruff. In a five-star hotel, this looked extremely unprofessional and remains one of my strongest memories of our “welcome”. Only after we went downstairs by ourselves did a member of the bar staff approach us and offer us water and juice. He was the first person who treated us like guests. However, we still had no idea where we were supposed to wait, so my wife ended up sleeping for approximately two hours on sofas in the restaurant area. When I asked reception to show us the lounge intended for arriving guests waiting for their rooms, the receptionist initially tried to dismiss my request. Only after I insisted were we finally taken there. We had previously been told that the lounge was full. When we entered, there was only one family inside and plenty of empty space. We had simply been misled and forced to wait in much worse conditions for no valid reason. We were told that our room would be available at around 1:00 p.m., but we did not receive it until 2:30 p.m. The room itself was clearly dated and worn. Water escaped from the shower area whenever it was used. Signs of wear and various damaged elements were also visible around reception and in other public areas. The new section of the hotel looks impressive, but the older parts clearly require renovation and much better maintenance. I reported all of these issues to a manager. He apologised but again claimed that there had been no space in the waiting lounge. When I told him that I had personally seen the almost empty room, he was unable to explain the contradiction. As compensation, we were promised a reservation at an à la carte restaurant. Despite several reminders, this reservation never materialised. After some time, the Guest Relations representative stopped replying to my messages. Toward the end of our stay, he either avoided us or simply repeated that the matter had been passed to “a higher level”. We received no explanation, no solution and no meaningful compensation before leaving. We also noticed two very different standards of service. Guests staying in the villas appeared to receive considerably more attention, while guests in standard rooms were often ignored. At this price level, treating guests as “more and less important” is unacceptable. In previous years, Regnum Carya provided its guests with complimentary admission to The Land of Legends. This benefit has now been removed. A manager told us quite openly that the hotel has so many guests that it no longer needs to offer it. That comment says a great deal about the hotel’s current philosophy: prices remain extremely high, while benefits are gradually removed because the hotel believes it will attract enough customers anyway. On the final day, during a hotel-organised football activity, another child punched our eight-year-old son in the back of the head. The coaches did not notice the incident and only reacted after I reported it. I contacted the hotel in writing and received a response three days later. It contained no specific information about how the incident had been investigated or what action would be taken to improve children’s safety. Our holiday was ultimately saved by the wonderful people we met during our stay. We also spoke with several long-standing guests who had visited Regnum Carya 20 or even 30 times. Everyone we spoke to agreed that the hotel’s standards have declined significantly. The prices remain luxurious, but the service no longer does. We can compare Regnum Carya with Maxx Royal, Cullinan, Lujo, XO, Voyage and Gloria Serenity. At every one of those hotels, we experienced far greater care, attention and respect as guests. Regnum Carya can still make an impressive visual first impression, particularly because of its newer section. Unfortunately, beautiful facilities cannot replace professional service and genuine hospitality. Mistakes can happen at any hotel. What matters is how they are handled. In our case, promises were made, never fulfilled and eventually we were simply ignored. Considering the current price-to-quality ratio, we cannot recommend Regnum Carya. We have never felt so unwelcome at a hotel of this supposed standard. It was a very expensive and deeply disappointing experience."

"This was our 3rd time at Regnum Carya and although I’m sure it won’t be our last it just doesn’t feel as premium and effortless as it was the first couple of times. It is still a strong 8 or 9out of 10 but something felt a bit less amazing this time. This time we went with my 76 year old parents who had never been before and I emailed well in advance (5 months) asking for the pool rooms (not part of the main hotel) to be next to each other - when I asked upon checking in I was told this hadn’t happened but were were on the same row, which is ok but not quite what I had anticipated. There are no flowers on checking in anymore which is a real shame - I remember on our first visit being delighted by such a gesture. The new Aqua park is amazing, and the kids absolutely adored it, we spent every afternoon there in the week we stayed and ours boys (8 & 3) couldn’t get enough of it, the investment really shows and everything is clean, new and well thought out. My only niggle with this is that it was so good my kids refused to go to the beach or look at the Crown’s pools! The bucket and space remained untouched! I a massive supporter of the hotel insisting all children under 4 wear swimming nappies at the risk of a €10k fine - and the kids club have free swimming nappies so there is no excuse not to comply. My 3 year old is fully potty trained but I was happy to do it ‘just in case’ of an accident. The food was great as always, we dined at the American diner at the Crown one night which was lovely, and one night we went to the Brazilian restaurant at Carya - both excellent and would highly recommend. We usually go in October and so the significantly higher occupancy rate in May/June was a surprise but all fine - the hotel is massive so there were always sunbeds or tables to sit at. The pools at the ‘pearl pool rooms’ which are like small little villas as freezing cold - totally unusable - even for paddling in. Which is a massive shame as if they were slightly heated we would have used them a lot. It feels a bit superfluous to have a pool which can’t be used but it’s nice to have the outside space vs a balcony I can’t put my finger on what it is that made this holiday less incredible than previous years but I’m sure first timers would love it - it’s still an amazing place and I’m sure we will go back."

"We had the most gorgeous stay at Regnum Carya for our honeymoon with our 2 young children in July. Initially, there were some issues with the room, we booked Jade room however our room had no bath and space for our children to sleep. We raised this and were moved to a room that suited our young family more. The buffet was fantastic, as were the à la cartes. Our favourite was Nikos for the experience & Sandal for the beautiful beach views. The gym was fantastic and the beach was beautiful. There is nothing that has not been thought of to make this a truly luxury hotel. Our children loved the water parks and the children’s entertainment was the best we had seen. We loved that we were also to use some facilities at the crown and used their pools some days alongside the food options there too. We would love to come back next year. I wanted to give a special shout out to staff, every single member of staff we encountered went above and beyond - the service was outstanding. We especially loved Kubra at breakfast, Edem in the El Tapeo, Hatice our cleaner & Atlan in Tartine. My only negative is that both my children have food allergies and although everything was clearly labelled, everything contained milk - even the rice at the buffet! There were no vegan desert options apart from fruit. There was sorbet in one of the patisseries but sorbet or ice lollies were not available in a lot of the other parts of the hotel including none at the water park & none at the restaurants apart from the Italian. Having sorbet and calipppo ice lollies available everywhere would improve the experience for a lot of children with lactose allergies. That being said, we could watsapp the hotel every morning and request special fresh food for our children every day for food which was fantastic and the restaurant manager went above and beyond to accommodate our children including vegan cheese on fresh pizza & oat milk and yoghurt for our baby, but having this readily available without having to ask every morning would have been much more flexible! I know this doesn’t apply to everyone but when you are travelling with people with food allergies this is a big thing. How the staff managed this makes me still give the hotel a five star and we can’t wait to return but please consider the above !"