"Arrived on Sunday 16th for a 7 night stay, was upgraded to a swim up room which was lovely, it was my 8th or 9th visit to this hotel, and have stayed at Barut/Akra in excess of 20 times.
Weather for the entire stay was lovely, sunshine and between 24c and 28c during the day time.
The first 2 days were pretty good, although service at times was a little slow, especially at the over 16's pool, where the bar was closed, and QR code service was very limited. I think personally considering the exceptional weather this should have remained open.
On day 3 I woke up feeling unwell, at first I put this down to having one too many gins, but when things hadn't improved by lunchtime and my stomach was really poorly I realised it was something far worse. I had ordered a gluten free pizza to be served at the beach and this duly arrived, I managed to eat about 3/4s of it, but it wasn't sitting well at all. I spent the afternoon in my room and didn't even go for dinner.
Thursday morning woke up not feeling great, but decided I should probably eat something, got to breakfast to find that the gluten free bread and toaster had been moved so that they were sat right in the middle of the other bread, inevtiably people were putting non gluten free bread in the toaster, I flagged this to the manager, who had it moved, but there was no way I could use the toaster because of cross contamination, so from then on breakfast for me was mostly hard boiled eggs. I ate a tuna salad at the beach at lunchtime that day.
Thursday night I was booked to eat at Sandal. Warm welcome, was offered gluten free bread on arrival and order the shrimp for a starter, struggled to eat them and when the sea bass came out that I'd ordered I had to leqve as the fishy smell was making me very nauseous.
Friday morning breakfast was 2 hard boiled eggs and a little bit of scrambled egg, also had a small amount of melon, but also struggled with that. Couldn't face coffee.
The manager (who I have known for years) and guest relations were contacting but other than trying to get me to see their doctor, at a cost, and order food they were not being particularly helpful. I did order a plain gluten free burger for lunch, which was comical, the bun was half the size of the burger, burger was chewy and overcooked, so I spat out the piece I tried, the bun was like concrete. Operations manager came to sit with me, and ordered me some plain chicken with vegetables, what arrived was 2 pieces of flattened chicken breast which was highly spiced and vegetables swimming in butter. Obviously didn't eat. And contacted TUI to report that I wasn't feeling well. Report made and they too wanted me to go and see the doctor. Now If I was back home in the UK unless my diarrhea continued for days I wouldn't go to see a doctor, so why would I there? Quick note to add is that I didn't eat anything at all outside from the moment I arrived on Sunday evening.
Ate at Akdeniz Friday night, bit of bread, burrata, lamb chops were gristly and fatty, didn't eat, and managed some of the creme brulee. Another early night though.
Saturday felt worse than ever, boiled eggs for breakfast, lunch was a bit of chopped salad and a few chips. I just wanted to go home, but that wasn't really a likely option as my tummy was worse than ever. Guest relations spent all afternoon messaging and calling my room, in the end I ordered some plain chicken and veg, what arrived was lumpy chicken thigh meat, which seemed to have been fried and a bit of carrot and brocoli. Tried a tiny piece of chicken, it was awful, covered it back up in the foil and put the tray on the patio. Seems at some point in the night some cat (or 20) managed to scratch the foil off and tried it, they left it too.
At 7.50 pm decided to leave the room, went to the pool bar, had a couple of glasses of wine, and watched the woeful evening entertainment, honestly was AWFUL.
All week I encountered noise late at night, and on Sunday morning was woken at 5.24am by drunk people coming back to their rooms, called reception about the noise, nothing happened, so called again and was told to call back in the morning!!!! Yes seriously.
Final morning agreed to have some gluten free pancakes, finally something I cold eat, took an age to eat, but managed to get them down.
Left the hotel at 11.50am, staff sent me off with a packed lunch, gluten free rolls filled, however not seen any gluten free bread like it all week in the hotel so messaged just before I arrived at the airport, they confirmed definitely gluten free but I decided not to take the risk. I ate the boiled eggs instead.
CATS
I really love cats, however the hotel was overrun with them this times, there was one in particular which was apparently a mother cat, who was dangerous, one German lady went to stroke it and it went wild right in front of me and drew blood, 2 or 3 days earlier the same cat bit a British lady, also heard another person was bit. Again I spoke to the manager, who basically said he couldn't do anything, and yet the hotel are feeding and looking after the cats!!!
So here we are 3 days after I got back, still feeling a bit dodgy and very wary about what I eat.
I will never ever visit this hotel chain again, worst week ever for me."
