"Disgusting!!
I wouldn't normally write a review like this, but this is 100% honest. I am writing this because I have just seen the kitchen staff scooping flies out of the sauces with their gloved hands at lunch. I am absolutely disgusted.
Our first night and day were ruined, and I was left looking for either a new hotel or a flight home.
After arriving at around 9.30pm, we weren't offered any food or drink. We had to ask for some water and were told to wait for the night soup at 11.30pm.
We were put in a room for two people, despite there being three of us. The first room we were taken to had a double bed, again for three of us. We were told to just all sleep in that bed. Absolutely not. We were then taken to another room which was slightly larger, but still only had a double bed. We went to reception and were told our allocated room had an air conditioning issue and that we could move the next day.
At this point we had been travelling for 14 hours.
They brought another bed up with an old stained mattress that the housekeeper tried to hide by flipping over, only to reveal more stains. The room was so small we had to put furniture in the bathroom. We all have bruised shins from trying to navigate the room. There was absolutely no way three people and three beds should have been in that room. The balcony was also little more than a shelf. Literally. Please be careful when booking if a balcony is important to you.
This also seems to be a regular occurrence, with people spending their first night in the wrong room before moving the following day. It's just unnecessary extra stress.
My 67-year-old mother ended up having to sleep on the camp bed while I shared the double bed with my daughter. It made for a very uncomfortable first night.
Why they weren't honest with us at reception about the room situation before sending us to two unsuitable rooms, with no apology, is beyond me. It really left a bad taste.
We went to reception at 9am the following morning, as instructed, and were told to come back at 1pm. We did, and the room was eventually sorted, but our first day and night had already been ruined.
The lift was temperamental. I got stuck in it twice. Just put it out of service and get it fixed. On another occasion it took me to my floor but the doors wouldn't open, so I had to go to a different floor to get out. Bizarre. It was finally taken out of service on day six.
The food was a mixed bag. Breakfast and the snack bar were absolutely fine. We only had lunch in the restaurant twice because, on the second occasion (our second-to-last day), I saw kitchen staff going around scooping flies out of the sauces with their gloved hands before walking away and returning to do the same again. We never ate in the restaurant again after witnessing that.
The evening meal, though... I have been going on all-inclusive holidays for over 20 years, and the evening meal here has put me off ever booking another. People were incredibly rude, which isn't the hotel's fault, but the whole experience was chaos.
What the hotel could do something about is the number of flies and the lack of tables. People were eating on sunbeds while I was hunting around for cutlery. If you wanted a table, you had to run the gauntlet at 7pm. The food itself was abysmal. The queue for chips stretched the full length of the restaurant, and I'm not surprised. We are not fussy eaters by any means, but we really struggled. There wasn't even much typical Turkish food, some dishes were labelled incorrectly, and people were literally fighting over the last of the "good" food.
We also had an unpleasant encounter with a member of the entertainment team. He was handing out pool noodles to lots of people in the pool, not just for an activity but for general use by adults and children alike. My 9-year-old daughter reached up to him for one as he walked past. He gave them to people before and after her but waved one in her face and sharply said, "Do not touch."
She was very upset. To be actively excluded for no apparent reason made her, and us, feel really unwelcome, and she's mentioned it several times since. Make of that what you will, but I know my thoughts, and they remained the same after seeing some of this staff member's other interactions throughout the week. Something that might seem insignificant really did have quite a big impact.
Other than the flies in the restaurant, which seemed to love the plastic chairs and table mats, the hotel was relatively clean. Our room was cleaned every day and the towels were changed daily. However, there were empty spirit bottles and rubbish left on our floor for almost the entire week, only being cleared away on day six.
The pool itself was nice and clean, and staff were constantly cleaning around it throughout the day. The sunbeds, however, are incredibly close together. Unpleasantly so, to be honest. It reminded me of trying to cram three people into a double bed in our tiny first room. There was plenty of shade thanks to the fixed canopy around the pool, and because we were naturally up early we never struggled to get sunbeds. However, I did see people standing around the pool trying to sunbathe because there wasn't enough space in the sun. If you're looking for a relaxing sunbathing holiday, this isn't the place for you. The pool was horrendously overcrowded, although I will say the lifeguards were excellent and very vigilant.
The cats aren't an issue. If you don't like them, just ignore them. I love cats and actually had to go looking for them.
The kids' club was also disgustingly dirty. They offered T-shirt painting every day for €10, but I didn't notice any other organised activities. It's just a grotty little soft play area that smells. I certainly wouldn't count on using it, especially if your children are over about four years old.
The evening entertainment that we saw was perfectly fine and much the same as at other hotels we've visited.
Drinks and bar service were also fine, although we aren't big drinkers.
Most of the staff were friendly. Yes, some looked fed up, but honestly I probably would be too if I worked at this hotel. However, I did have one very strange experience. While helping my daughter in the toilets, one of the cleaners knocked on the cubicle door. It was obvious someone was inside because the lights are motion-sensitive and we'd only been in there a short time. When I answered, she simply asked me for €10. I'd never seen this woman before in my life. Staff asking guests for money is a first for me. She wasn't even asking for a tip.
It's such a shame because this hotel could be lovely, but the room allocation, the evening meals, the chaos in the restaurant, the flies being removed from the sauces, and staff asking guests for money completely overshadowed any positives.
I would never book this hotel again, even if it cost half of what we paid."
