"Having visited the Arum's sister hotel the Barut Acanthus in March, spending 16 nights in a side sea Penthouse, and being in receipt of excellent service, especially from the guest relations team, dining and bar staff, we wanted to see how the Arum Barut compared. We wondered if such excellent service may have been partly due to being Penthouse guests, so we booked a direct sea view room at the Arum for 14 nights.
Firstly, we discovered our 5th floor (we requested high room) wasn't even a sea view from the bed but a partial slither of sea view from far left side of room near the window. However the better seaview existed only from the balcony. We were somewhat disappointed and after a week asked if they had an actual direct sea view room from inside the room and from the bed. Between the lovely Irena on guest relations and the pleasant and efficient Ibrahim on reception, we were given a much better sea view room which we were much happier with. As a bonus we were also still able to keep our conscientious and cheerful cleaner Ayşegül, who did a beautiful job of decorating our bed with hearts swans and flowers for our wedding anniversary.
The hotel is gleamingly clean everywhere including the many outside toilet blocks. The gardens are well maintained and beautifully presented. Both hardworking teams are always busy maintaining them throughout the day.
The cheerful and efficient catering staff never seem to have a break from cooking and presenting the almost constantly available food throughout the day and night. It's continually topped up and the serving areas are regularly cleaned. The food is freshly made and the omelette to order is good. They have a good selection of lactose free milk and gluten free cereal and other bits, and a great salad bar and and fruit selection.
The bar staff were great and there was a large variety of branded drinks. Personally I loved the homemade lemonade which wasn't too sweet and very refreshing after a good game of Bocce on the nearby hotel section of beach with the quiet natured animator Tolga. We would like to say a big thanks to the efficient and pleasant Mustafa at the pool bar, along with his hardworking colleagues. The beach bar, headed by the friendly and talented cocktail maker Alper and his team keep you hydrated with a ready smile too. A special mention and thanks to the following waiters who served us well: Serkan, the lovely Derya, Hatice, Gazi, Cansu, Kağan, Sercan, Sallih, Cuma, Emre, Hasan Şen and Irem. Also Hasan, Ahmet and the Akaysa A la Carte team. Thanks also to Ali and colleagues in the Sakura A la Carte. Who all served us well and decorated our table for our wedding anniversary meals.
The mostly hardworking & friendly buffet dining team were always supported by Bekir the Food and Beverage Manager who set a fine example of humility and consciousness by helping to clear tables, observing what guests and tables needed and giving his trainee colleagues quiet instructions in a pleasant and professional manner. It was nice to see the team smile and show respect for each other. He also politely conversed with guests around the hotel, along with his colleague Emre Erdem, the nice Room Division and Guest Manager. Emre likewise conversed with all of the hotel guests on a daily basis. We were surprised that they even briefly participated in a game of bocce one afternoon and Emre came out to say goodbye to us as we.were waiting for our airport transfer coach. Most hotel supervisors and managers we have observed elsewhere usually spend their time standing against a wall looking serious or just talking to eachother, occasionally issuing some instruction to dining staff and ignoring guests. Certainly not adopting the Barut Hotels philosophy and fine example of 'Happy staff, happy guests'. The lovely guest relations ladies Irena, Çağla & Meltham certainly try their best to help guests remain happy.
The only slight negative with the Arum and the Acanthus, is the evening entertainment. It was too repetitve. Every night the singing groups all seemed to have the same, mostly English pop song playlist. The music was nice but a variety of music genres and maybe good tribute acts would have been better. The 3pm Karaoke session would have likely been more successful if it was held in the evening, not during darts! The arena stage dance groups were also very much the same and the pool bar group were singing at the same time as the arena dance show, so you heard both lots of music clashing. It was also a shame that unlike many hotels, the animators disappear at approx 4.15pm. The animation team were pleasant and we enjoyed darts with Baris and Archery with the multingual Sefa. Unfortunately the darts session overlaps with Archery. Session timings could be better scheduled so guests could go from one activity to the other. Assel was nice too and she sometimes sat with us and chatted a little in the afternoon after darts. Ali was great with the youngsters. He did activities with the 8-1 2 year olds. The kids foam pool party with blow up animals was a sight to behold!
All in the staff, gardens and food were good enough to make us want to return."
