"Serious Hygiene and Maintenance Concerns – Saved Only by an Outstanding Guest Relations Manager
As experienced travellers who have stayed in hotels all over the world, we understand that a five-star rating can vary significantly from country to country. We don’t expect perfection, and we can overlook cosmetic issues if a hotel is clean, safe and well managed.
Unfortunately, that wasn’t our experience at Concorde Green Park Palace.
Our holiday didn’t get off to a good start. On arrival, our room wasn’t ready and, when we were eventually shown to it, it had not been cleaned properly.
The hotel itself is clearly showing its age. The décor feels dated, there were stained carpets and flooring in several hallways, and the flooring inside some of the lifts was peeling and badly worn. These are cosmetic issues, but they don’t reflect the standard expected of a five-star hotel.
From the outside, the hotel certainly gives the impression of being a five-star resort. Unfortunately, once inside, it did not feel like a five-star experience to us. In our opinion, the condition of the facilities, the level of maintenance and the overall guest experience were more in keeping with a three- to four-star hotel.
Throughout our stay it often felt as though the hotel was significantly understaffed. The staff who were on duty worked incredibly hard and were always polite and friendly, but there simply didn’t seem to be enough of them to maintain the standards guests would reasonably expect.
This was evident in several areas. On more than one morning there were no breakfast plates available for around 20 minutes, leaving guests waiting. We also noticed rotten fruit left on display at breakfast, which was disappointing.
To be fair, the quality and variety of the lunch and dinner food was generally very good, with plenty of choice to suit different tastes and dietary requirements. Credit should be given to the chefs, who clearly worked hard to provide a varied selection. Unfortunately, this was often let down by the crockery available during service. On several occasions we found dirty or chipped plates in circulation, which detracted from what was otherwise an enjoyable dining experience.
Housekeeping and maintenance also appeared stretched. During our stay, shattered glass was left in one of the hotel hallways despite guests, including children, regularly walking through the area. We reported it to staff on Wednesday, yet when we checked out on Friday, the broken glass was still scattered across the hallway floor leading from the lifts to our room. This should have been treated as an immediate safety hazard, and we simply could not understand how it could remain there for days after being reported.
Another disappointment was the gym. Whilst it has a reasonable selection of equipment, it was noticeably dirty during our stay and there were no sanitising wipes or cleaning products available for guests to clean equipment after use. In today’s environment, this should be a basic expectation.
Our biggest concern, however, was the hotel’s handling of hygiene around the swimming pool. On our second day, a child fouled the pool. We immediately reported it to a manager and were assured it had been dealt with and that the pool would be closed for two hours. Neither happened. The contamination remained visible and, when we raised the issue again, our concerns were ignored. We also witnessed a lady question why the pool had not been closed and properly treated. Rather than addressing her concerns, the pool attendant dismissed her, which did little to inspire confidence that the matter was being taken seriously.
Just two days later there were another two separate incidents where children fouled the pool. Although the contamination was removed with a net, the pool remained open and guests continued swimming. At no point did we see the pool closed for the period you would reasonably expect following a faecal contamination incident. As a result, we chose not to use the pool again for the remainder of our holiday.
To round off an already disappointing week, we booked a horse-riding excursion through the hotel. During the excursion, one of the handlers directed a racist slur at my wife, calling her the N-word. We were both completely shocked and deeply upset. As we were in a remote location, surrounded by people we didn’t know, we didn’t feel it was safe or appropriate to challenge the individual at the time.
By the time we returned to the hotel, so many other issues had arisen during our stay that we chose not to report this incident to reception. Looking back, we perhaps should have done, but after everything else we had experienced, we had little confidence that our concerns would be dealt with effectively.
By the time we spoke with Almira from Guest Relations, we had become so disappointed with our stay that we were seriously considering checking out early and moving to another hotel.
Almira took the time to listen to every concern without being dismissive, showed genuine empathy and professionalism, and immediately did everything she could to put things right. She arranged a complimentary room upgrade to a lovely room and kindly organised two complimentary massages. Her exceptional customer service completely changed the direction of our holiday.
Without Almira’s intervention, we would have left the hotel and stayed elsewhere. She is an outstanding ambassador for Concorde Green Park Palace and a real credit to the hotel.
Overall, we don’t write reviews lightly. We travel extensively and appreciate that five-star standards vary from country to country. We don’t expect perfection, but we do expect reasonable standards of cleanliness, safety and honesty when concerns are raised.
The biggest disappointment wasn’t simply that things went wrong—it was how many of those issues were handled. This hotel has the potential to be much better, but it needs investment in maintenance, housekeeping and staffing. More importantly, management need to ensure that hygiene and guest safety are treated as absolute priorities.
This would have been a one-star review had it not been for Almira’s hard work, professionalism and genuine determination to resolve our concerns. The two-star rating we have given is entirely because of her efforts.
We are genuinely sorry to say that we will never return to Concorde Green Park Palace, but we sincerely wish Almira every success in her career. She deserves to work for a hotel that matches the high standards of customer service that she delivers every single day.
Thank you, Almira, for doing everything you could to rescue what had become an extremely disappointing holiday."
