"This will probably be the most honest review you will read about this hotel.
I would give the Radisson Blu Palace Resort & Thalasso Djerba a generous 7.5/10.
Let me start by saying that this is not a bad hotel. In fact, it has the facilities and potential to be a fantastic one. The hotel itself is beautiful, there are excellent facilities, and there were members of staff who genuinely made our stay better. Unfortunately, the biggest thing letting it down is communication and inconsistency in service.
Communication is quite poor. For example, the Radisson app offers a housekeeping messaging service, which sounds fantastic in theory , except messages simply went unanswered. Reception could also be very slow to answer queries, and communicating anything beyond a straightforward request could become unnecessarily difficult.
A word to the wise: learn some French before you go! While some reception staff speak English, I found that it could sometimes feel like a selection of rehearsed sentences. Once you asked something outside of that familiar wording, communication became much more difficult. French is very widely spoken in Tunisia, and knowing even a little would definitely have made things easier.
However, I absolutely do not want to tar all the staff with the same brush because there were some genuinely lovely people.
Nadia and Islem in Guest Services deserve a special mention. They were the two people I felt genuinely wanted to sort things out rather than simply pass a problem on. Nadia in particular was wonderful. Whenever she saw us, she would ask how we were, always with a smile on her face.
I once had a terrible room-service supper. I hadn’t even gone looking for Nadia to complain about it; it came up through a casual conversation when she asked how things were. She listened, took it seriously and actually did something about it. That sort of service makes a huge difference.
The staff at Ceramique restaurant were another highlight. They were consistently welcoming and attentive, and we always felt comfortable eating there.
Unfortunately, I cannot say the same about our experience at the in-house Italian restaurant, Zafferano. I found the service condescending and patronising, to the point that eating there became uncomfortable. At one point I am fairly certain the manager actually tutted at me. Whether intentional or not, no guest should leave a restaurant feeling as though they were an inconvenience.
There were also other lovely members of staff throughout the hotel — the housekeeping/domestic staff, boutique staff, several members of the pool team and, as mentioned, the Ceramique team. So this certainly isn’t a criticism of everyone working there.
And that’s probably what sums this hotel up for me: inconsistency.
There are some excellent people working here, beautiful surroundings and very good facilities. But at a hotel of this level, you shouldn’t have to find the “right” member of staff before something gets resolved. The standard of service should be consistent across departments.
Would I stay here again?
Maybe.
And I think that says quite a lot. With better communication, more consistent customer service and some improvement in the attitude of certain staff, this could very easily be a hotel I would recommend without hesitation.
As it stands: 7.5/10. Beautiful hotel, great facilities and some wonderful staff , but the service doesn’t always live up to the hotel itself."
