"9 nights at the hotel. A long awaited holiday with friends celebrating 2 birthdays.
I will start with the positives as it is a lovely hotel and majority of staff are great.
Main restaurant, pool bar and beach bar, food great. No complaints at all.
Pool bar and beach bar for drinks outstanding. Thea's coffee shop, lovely sandwiches and cakes. Lobby bar, lovely, calm atmosphere.
The pools were cold but bearable (just), slides alot of fun with the kids. Nice big beach towels that you can change daily and never a problem getting a sun lounger.
Rooms were clean but basic, not really what I have experienced before in a 5* in Turkey but cleanliness is priority so thats fine. Mini bar restocked daily with water and soft drinks. A few mentions for staff who really went above and beyond. I hope this praise will reach them because they really were so hard working.
Main restaurant in the morning and beach bar in the afternoon, Ali- thanks for always looking after us and being so friendly
Pool bar- Yunus, what a guy, great cocktails and works very hard.
Thea's coffee shop of an evening- Mustafa. What an amazing person, so hard working and such a credit to the hotel.
Lobby bar- Berkan. Thanks for always looking after us with cocktails in the evening. So hard working and always so friendly.
We had lovely massages in the spa, would definitely recommend, although I went in a doubles room with my daughter and the lady doing her massage coughed the whole way through which was really off putting.
Now for the negatives, I hate to do this but these things really did have a big impact on our holiday which is such a shame.
Firstly, front of house staff (reception) . The most unhelpful group of people I have come across.
We are a family of 4 - teenage kids aged 17 and 15 and the booking was a 2 bedroom family room. We arrived at the hotel after midnight. We weren't told about any food on offer we were just given a key to a room and we had to carry all our luggage ourselves. Thankfully, our friends had arrived the night before so they gave us a hand. We had been allocated a room with 2 double beds. Not ideal as there was no way we would expect a teenage brother and sister to share. We went to reception to report the problem and were told hotel was at capacity and to come back at midday tomorrow. No problem, that night i shared with my daughter and my husband shared with my son. Went back the following day and was showed another room which was alot smaller, as i had specifically paid for a 2 bedroom family room i declined. I was then shown another room which seemed fine so we took it, again moving all our luggage ourselves. We then went to enjoy the pool. We went out in to Side that night to celebrate a birthday and when we returned that evening our hotel room smelt like kebabs. It was disgusting. We packed all the clothes back up as the smell was lingering on everything. We were woken at 7 the following morning by building work which was really annoying and the smell was 100 times worse. It actually made my daughter vomit it was that bad. Another trip to reception to be told to come back at midday and they would move rooms again. I noticed I was put on to a long list with other people not happy with their rooms. I went back at midday and was shown a nice room but unfortunately, again, it had 2 double beds. I was told to come back in another hour. I returned an hour later to be shown another room with 2 double beds. This then went on for about another 2 hours being shown approx another 6 rooms, all with 2 double beds which were clearly not suitable, i began to wonder why they would have 2 bedroom family rooms with 2 double beds when they are advertised as a double and a twin. I was becoming really annoyed as reception staff were rolling their eyes and were very disinterested that we had paid an absolute fortune for this holiday and we were now on day 3 and still unable to unpack and relax. Finally, at around 3pm, they showed us a room with 2 double beds next to reception, i became upset that this saga was still ongoing. They agreed to take one double bed out and replace it with 2 singles and to come back in another hour. Even then, after all the messing about, we had to take the luggage cart up to our original room, and cart our luggage down to the new room ourselves, which still wasnt ready. All in all, it was an absolute joke. I have never, in the 15 years that I have been coming to Turkey, come across such rude and unhelpful front of house staff. Also, to be told the hotel was at full capacity- I found it very, very hard to believe as everywhere was empty and even one bar area was not yet open.
My second negative was the building work. Building work outside of the hotel is out of their hands but to be sat on my sunlounger around the pool and not even be able to read my book as I cant concentrate because of the constant drilling is not ok. We found out that they are actually building suites in this area overlooking the main pool. It wasnt good at all. All day long, drilling and banging, except for sunday which was lovely and peaceful. Im sure it will look great when it is finished but could is this work not done in the winter months?
My last issue- we were celebrating 2 birthdays and an anniversary during our stay. The first birthday was my friends son who turned 13. Got a lovely cake and bottle of wine. The second birthday which was my friends, she didnt receive any recognition at all. Thats something I've never experienced in any hotel. Her husband spoke to reception staff who said she was on their list but nothing came of it. There's always been a fuss made if there has been a celebration. The anniversary was never mentioned either despite my husband mentioning it. Just really disappointing in my opinion.
So all in all we did (eventually) have a lovely holiday but unfortunately would not return or recommend this hotel."
