"We stayed at Annabella Diamond Hotel for nine days with our 7-year-old daughter during our first holiday in Turkey. Overall, our experience was mixed.
There are definitely positives. The beach is beautiful, the location is very good, and once we received the room we had actually booked, the sea view was lovely. Several members of staff were friendly and helpful, and the hotel manager eventually resolved our room problem and offered compensation.
Unfortunately, there were also too many issues for us to give a higher rating.
We had specifically booked and paid for a sea-view room through TUI but were initially given a room facing a very busy main road. The traffic noise was significant, and we had to spend our first night there before receiving the correct room the following morning.
Cleanliness in some common areas could also be improved. Used plates, glasses and food sometimes remained in the corridors for many hours. Around the pool, abandoned cups and spilled sweet drinks attracted insects.
We were particularly concerned about the children’s areas. Despite a no-smoking sign, we saw guests smoking around the children’s pool. There were also cats around the hotel grounds, which normally did not bother us, but unfortunately there was cat faeces in the children’s playground/sandbox. Our daughter stepped in it while playing.
The Kids Club offered relatively few varied free activities. Some activities, such as painting T-shirts or bags, required an additional payment.
One evening also left us uncomfortable as parents. Directly after the children’s mini-disco, while many children were still standing close to the stage, a Turkish cultural/history programme began. A video showed historical battle scenes, including soldiers, firearms and cannons. We fully understand that the intention was to present Turkish history and culture, and we are not criticising Turkish history itself. However, we felt that showing war-related imagery immediately after a programme for young children was not an ideal transition for a family hotel.
We also witnessed some unpleasant behaviour by individual guests. For example, we saw two guests smoking cigarettes while standing in the sea and then throwing their cigarette butts into the water. We also noticed litter and smoking in inappropriate areas on other occasions. This is obviously not something that can be attributed to a country or nationality, and we are not generalising about Turkish people or Turkey. However, we felt the hotel could have enforced its rules more consistently in such situations.
The food was generally acceptable and we could always find something to eat, but organisation at the freshly prepared stations could be better, with sometimes long queues.
More seriously, we found small stones in salads on several occasions. Unfortunately, my husband bit down on one and a small piece of his tooth chipped off. For us, this raises a genuine concern about food preparation and quality control.
We also had an unpleasant experience with a taxi arranged through the hotel for a short trip to Sealanya. We had asked reception about the price beforehand but were told to ask the driver. Once the journey had already started, we were told it would cost €25 each way. In the end, we paid €50 for a return journey of less than approximately 15 km in total. Our main criticism is not simply the price, but the lack of transparent information beforehand.
Overall, there is a lot to like about Annabella Diamond Hotel, especially the beach, location and sea view. We also appreciate that the room issue was eventually resolved.
However, taken together, the issues with cleanliness and hygiene, supervision of children’s areas, food preparation, entertainment, rule enforcement, service organisation and the taxi experience affected our holiday considerably.
We can understand why many families enjoy this hotel, particularly because of its beautiful beach and location. Based on our own nine-day stay, however, we expected a more consistent standard of cleanliness, organisation and service from a hotel of this category."