Crystal Sunset - Pearl Collection

"This is my 7th time in Turkey, and it is the first time I have ever encountered such a poor hotel. The rooms are heavily outdated, mattresses are sagging (causing back pain), and the bedding is dirty despite being changed. There is a recurring sewage smell and constant cigarette smoke throughout the property without any non-smoking zones. The staff heavily favors local guests, and hygiene standards are low. We strongly advise against staying here. 2. Zalety hotelu (Pros) • Check-in: Fast and friendly welcome upon arrival.  • Minibar: Regularly restocked every day.  • Location: Great walking path right by the beach leading directly to the Old Town of Side.  3. Wady hotelu (Cons) • Bars & Drinks: Long waiting times for foreign tourists, while local guests are treated as VIPs and served out of turn. • Gözleme Snack Bar: Total lack of organization – local guests order a dozen portions at once, completely ignoring the queue. • Other Issues: Crowded pool area, dirty beach, chaos and unclean tableware in the restaurant, uncomfortable mattresses, and sewage odor."

"What a great time!!! Onur, absolutely fantastic, so helpful and friendly! Especially with my girlfriend Anna, looking to book trips. Loved the personal conversations he had with us at the table talking about football (Liverpool) and films and TV series… The bar team were fantastic throughout.. The lobby bar was brilliant particularly.. . Karim, Hussain, and the gent who always wore the apron behind the bar (never got his name, but always shuck his hand) all looked after us. Would highly recommend!! Would definitely consider going here again next year.. Regards, Ben, from Liverpool."

"We had an absolutely brilliant stay at Crystal Sunset Hotel & Spa and genuinely cannot understand some of the 1-star reviews we read before coming. Our experience was completely different and we honestly have no complaints about the hotel. Firstly, a special mention has to go to Onur, the Guest Relations Manager, who was extremely helpful. We realised after arriving that our TUI rep didn’t actually visit the hotel, and we wanted some help arranging excursions. Onur was fantastic, took the time to help us and made everything so easy. Another huge thank you to Hussain and Karim in the lobby bar. They were incredibly attentive throughout our stay, but more than that, we genuinely enjoyed chatting to them and getting to know them. There was also another gentleman serving in the lobby bar whose name we unfortunately didn’t get – he always wore an apron – who gave fantastic service and made some amazing cocktails! All of them were such lovely people to have met and even patiently put up with us practising the little bits of Turkish we’d learnt 😂 The pool and beach areas were lovely. We spent most of our time around the adult pool or at the beach and had absolutely no complaints. The main pool did have to be closed for a period on a couple of afternoons due to what we can only assume were children having toilet accidents in the pool. From what we could see, the hotel staff were extremely attentive and dealt with the issue quickly and properly. This is obviously not something we would blame the hotel for, particularly when there is signage displayed around the pool areas regarding the use of swim nappies. Unfortunately, there is only so much the hotel can do if guests choose not to follow the rules. Our room was lovely and cleaned every day, and the minibar was regularly restocked with a good variety of drinks and other items. Cleaning times varied slightly from day to day, but this didn’t bother us in the slightest – we don’t go on holiday to sit in the room all day! We also had absolutely no problems with the food. We ate in the main restaurant several times at different times of day and always found plenty to choose from. The pool and beach snack bars were perfectly adequate when we just wanted something quick in the afternoon. We also tried the Mediterranean and Oriental à la carte restaurants, and both were lovely. It was nice to have something a little different during the holiday. For drinks, the lobby bar was definitely our favourite. It had a fantastic selection of drinks and cocktails, great service and the option to sit outside, so we naturally ended up spending quite a bit of time there! If we had to mention one downside, it would actually be the behaviour of some of the other guests, rather than anything to do with the hotel. We witnessed people being extremely rude to both staff and other guests at times, which was disappointing to see. It did make us wonder when reading some of the very negative reviews whether attitude and the way people speak to staff might sometimes play a part in the experience they receive. Every member of staff we personally dealt with was friendly, helpful and hardworking. The location is fantastic too. The hotel’s beach bus runs roughly every 15 minutes and takes around two minutes to get down to the beach. From there, you can walk all along the beachfront into Side Old Town, with plenty of bars, restaurants and shops along the way. It took us around 45 minutes – although that did include a cocktail stop! 😂🍹 Overall, we had a fantastic holiday. Lovely hotel, great facilities, good food and drinks, brilliant location and, most importantly, some genuinely wonderful staff who helped make our stay memorable. We would absolutely return and couldn’t recommend Crystal Sunset Hotel & Spa more highly. ❤️🇹🇷"