"Just returned from two weeks at Paloma Pasha, and we had a pretty decent experience overall.
The Good:
-The hotel itself has some fantastic views, and is very well looked after a cared for. The hotel grounds are near spotless, the beach and pool areas are clean and well maintained, and the hotel buildings are all well appointed and photogenic.
-The drinks selection and quality was always great. Everything from the cocktails and beer, to the mocktails and milkshakes, it was always tasty with a lot of variety compared to other hotels we've stayed at in Turkey.
-The beach area itself is fantastic, especially for those who aren't confident with swimming. There were always plenty of sunbeds, and the sea never came above our shoulders, and is also sandy throughout. And even when the weather turned sour during our second week, the temperature was still decent.
-The indoor pool was also good. It was heated when we were there and never overcrowded, while the free spa areas were also good; the steam room and hammam in particular being good.
-The Wabi Sabi a la carte restaurant was very good, with a lot of choice at a high level of quality.
-The Guest Relations service on Whatsapp was always good too. Whatever question or issue we had, it was always taken care of quickly and professionally.
-The Wi-Fi was always good and kept connected throughout the hotel.
-The Quentine snack restaurant was always good too. The pizzas, pasta and burgers were fantastic.
The meh:
-While the pool was large and never crowded, parts of the pool area are starting to look worse for wear, with broken tiles, loose grates and broken showers all about, and the pool was constantly freezing while we were there too.
-The pier area, while relaxing and pleasing on the eye, it is very windy, the wood is starting to splinter - leading to one of our party getting injured, and as I will come onto later, the atmosphere here is hampered by certain guests.
-While we loved the cats for the most part, and understand the part they play in keeping the hotel pest free, having them jump up to get food while eating in the restaurants just isn't nice.
-While the room was mainly good, it did have quite a few issues. The spacious nature of the room, with all of it's storage space, good views, fantastic shower and comfortable beds, was kind of cancelled out by issues such as lights not working throughout the room, the TV being temperamental (and having very few English channels), the shower window leaking, the air-conditioning breaking twice, the sound-proofing being poor and the balcony door not locking at all - a "5 star" hotel costing as much as this should not have this many issues.
-The main restaurant and food in general was also a mixed bag. While the food was good for the most part, the selection in the main restaurant was often lacking. Breakfast was good, albeit the same each day, lunch in the main restaurant was reasonably good but towards the end of our trip, the same food was offered 4 nights in a row... Some dishes were also bizarre. Serving fish boiled in berries and beef tongue is just not appetising at a 5 star all inclusive. Food also ran out frequently too as kitchen staff seemed too busy to replenish dishes by being on their phones all the time, while desserts seemed to be served entirely on a first come first served basis. Additionally, the restaurant is far too small for a hotel of this size. While evening dinner runs from 18:30-21:00, coming down anytime before 20:00 is impossible as there are no tables available whatsoever. The Quentine a la carte was also meh. The menu seemed quite limited and the food itself wasn't anything to shout about. The bistro was a similar story. A lot of the food on the menu was never available and the patisserie was nothing more than a small selection of biscuits.
-The local and surrounding area is also okay. While the dolmus to Kusadasi for 4 euros each is convenient for shopping and boat trips, its hour-1.5 hour duration could put some people off, while getting the dolmus the opposite way takes you to Seferihisar, which I would avoid entirely; it blatantly isn't a tourist town, especially given the uncomfortable looks we kept getting from locals as we walked around. If you don't want to go to either of these places, there is a dolmus to Selcuk and Doganbey, and a wide range of taxis available to all sorts of destinations, but as always in Turkey, these are horrendously expensive (300 euros for a round trip to Izmir). The town of Ozdere is also okay. There is a small selection of shops and restaurants here selling all manner of things, but nothing overly special. As a result of this, there is virtually nothing to do outside of the hotel, and very little to do in the hotel if bad weather hits.
-The app is also hit and miss. While it was useful to keep track of the events at the hotel and check restaurant and bar menus, it didn't work at all to book restaurants (thankfully, the guest relations helped with this).
-The tennis court was also alright. The court is widely available and rackets + balls are available at reception, but if you don't want to play in the blistering midday heat, its 10 euros for an hour.
The Bad:
-The staff here were not overly good. As with many hotels throughout Turkey, German guests make up the majority here, and as a result of this, staff do seem to give them preferential treatment. For example, when we arrived and checked out of the hotel, our welcome/goodbye was tepid at best, yet when German guests arrived, they were greeted happily. Furthermore, this treatment spread to the restaurant. German guests were always served first with a smile and they were found tables first, while we were sometimes left waiting up to 20 minutes just for drinks. In addition to this, a lot of the staff only spoke poor levels of English, which led to requests at reception being fruitless and drinks orders being wrong countless times. Staff also rarely looked happy, looked overworked and some seemed unable to do their jobs that well, struggling with the coffee machine and not knowing how to make cocktails from their own menu occasionally. Musa was the exception to this however. He always made time for us and always reminded us about his love for Galatasaray. While it's possible to overlook these issues, two areas of contention really worried/concerned us. Firstly, the security at the hotel was essentially non-existent. While there are multiple security offices around the hotel perimeter, these security staff were either always smoking, on their phones, or chatting obliviously to notice what guests were coming and going; while we were asked to wear wristbands at the hotel, we were not once asked to show these, or for our room number to prove we were actually staying at the hotel, leading to a woman who obviously wasn't a guest at the hotel just wandering in at one point, using the pool area and sunbeds entirely free of charge - obviously this particular instance wasn't overly dangerous, it could quite easily be if this isn't improved. Secondly, as I have already mentioned, cats are everywhere throughout the hotel, which was rarely an issue for us, but seeing a staff member randomly grab of of these cats around the neck and throw it to the ground forcibly was absolutely shocking and completely unacceptable.
-As previously mentioned, German guests are the majority here and they did occasionally ruin the atmosphere here. For example, manner are completely non-existent for these guests; they'll push past you, and push their plates into your back at dinner time and completely take over areas such as the pier and games room so that other guests either don't feel welcome or are told to leave by these very guests, hardly helping to create a relaxing holiday environment.
Conclusion:
While we absolutely enjoyed this holiday and hotel, compared to other places we've been to in Turkey, it is definitely lacking. The beauty of the hotel and beach area is what really drew us into this hotel, and alongside the drinks offerings, cleanliness, and laughs we had, it was an enjoyable holiday, but certain areas such as the staff in particular really need improving for this hotel to be a properly good experience."