"I intended to come with partner at the time but then due to his circumstances he could no longer attend so i decided to go on holiday by myself. I arrived at 10pm to a reception who could not understand me and a girl literally google translating what I say on a computer.. anyways so they tell me the room is overbooked and I have to wait 2 hours. I do fully understand how hard it is to do customer service all day and there was a Russian guy yelling at the staff for a good 20 mins in front of me so just kind of said yeah that’s fine and waited because I was tired from being up since 4am that same day. Gets to midnight and they tell me ‘10 minutes’, ‘5 minutes madam’ and that’s fine but it got to about 30 mins later so I call a friend from a hotel I stayed in 3 YEARS AGO because I was beginning to panic and I am by myself, 19 years old and female in a country I don’t know.. I put my friend on FaceTime to speak to the receptionist (who is now a different person because of shift change) and the receptionist tells him it’s because the room keycard is not working not because it’s overbooked.. so someone lied to me and I feel really taken the p*ss of but is all fine they’ll sort it as soon as they can is what they tell my Turkish friend. Anyways this continues, another receptionist now the night porter, re-explaining with no hope having other staff members being called over by receptionists to translate.. it gets to 3am and I am outside the front of the hotel crying on the phone to my mum because nobody at the reception is helping me and I’m knackered.. these girls who spoke German, English and Turkish who were guests at the hotel see me and one of the girls asks what’s going on and helps me and comes with me to the front desk and explains in Turkish. So I have a room by 3.30am not due to any staff members but due to pure luck and the kindness of other guests who had no incentive to help but were just kind people. It’s not even the English of the reception staff that needs to improve, that doesn’t matter there’s some staff who have way less English ability who have 100x the customer service, humour and charismatic ability. It’s the blank face staring back at you when you are trying to explain something you need the receptionist’s help with to be met with no empathy and her speaking Turkish to another staff member that makes you feel unwelcome. After this I was absolutely knackered and starving from travelling all day and having a 4 hour coach journey to hotel which is fine but would be handy if listed when you book the hotel as I was first out the airport onto the bus, had to wait about 45 mins for 36 people (I asked the driver how many were meant to be here after it had been just me and him for 25 mins). Anyways no food after 9pm apart from “dinner” which was a bowl of cucumber and tomato and some plain bread and soup, the soup that had ALL GONE the evening that I had arrived. They also clear the food away the moment it his 9pm so I was 5 mins late one time and there is just bread and soup, disappointing! The soup had all gone again 2 nights after, me and my friend who were starving were trying to see if they had any spare food for us because of this and as we were getting told off for having a look to see if there was anyone to help us with this or anything in the kitchen. We hear this lovely Russian lady who we’d made friends with earlier explaining to another member of staff that she wants soup and she will pay and order soup she just wants soup anyways the poor staff member explaining to me and my friend we can’t do that, said “NO NO, LADY!!” and kind of burst out into laughter and bless her she was drinking from the metal hot pot empty bowl and ladle where the soup was, like bowl over her head.. was the best laugh I’d had the whole night!! The food from the beach cafe was dependent on the chef.. my friend said the pasta was amazing when they went there, me and the same friend go the next day and it was dry a bit sh*t. Right before I left for my transfer I was really hungry, and gave a pizza a go there, that was apparently great the other day.. I actually bring the pizza back to show the state of it to this friend and they were disgusted. I have attached a photo yeah I wasn’t happy, undercooked and just not appetising, didn’t taste very nice either. There were a lot of staff who did not understand and just got mad or angry at you rather than realising the communication barrier and that you are listening I just can’t understand Turkish so I don’t know what you are saying! I went into the pool for evening swim one night anyways, the security staff came up and said stuff in Turkish I just looked a bit confused I think and then he signals an X with his arms and whips out google translate tells me there’s “machines” in the pool, and then chemicals and I realise he’s talking about the chlorine eventually but honestly bless his soul he was very patient with me considering some of the other staff’s irritation and distaste for how an English person would dare to come to the hotel and not know their language. I felt disrespectful to their language and unwelcome due to the staff, the guy with the entirely white tshirt and whiff told me at 3 minutes to 1pm that the bar had shut I told him I work on a bar you shut at closing time like everyother bartender who works there does! He rolls his eyes and then when I am confused and sit on a chair just outside the restaurant doors to have some bread one evening so that I’m not far away from the friends I’m with he yells at me and explains to my friends rather than to me as if I’m not able to comprehend him or if I’m stupid.. and I end up coming over to him ranting about how he left the bar open later for me (which he didn’t) to explain to him directly whilst my friends are there that actually, I was there before close and he’d finished serving me drinks before 1pm bar close, that I wasn’t trying to be disrespectful or rude but I didn’t understand what he wanted me to do when he pointed from the bar and was waving his hands around and then was fustrated he had to show me because of his poor attitude and people skills. It was clear I was not being defiant to rules of the hotel and that I was trying my best to adhere to what was asked but that this was met with frowns and speaking to me indirectly and through my friends instead of to me who had travelled and paid for the holiday by myself. I understand women are viewed as less than men in Turkey but I don’t believe this warranted his behaviour. I paid for a 7 day holiday and I received 4 1/2 days which I understand is something i probably need to discuss and understand from the airline rather than hotel. There were two lovely English couples I met who went on holiday also, one of the couples when leaving were told to change their wristbands.. to children’s wristbands so that they didn’t drink alcohol! Obviously paying for your holiday you don’t pay money for them to treat you like an animal on the last day, but this is AGAIN an issue with management / reception and not the overall experience. I think that the manager needs to work on understanding issues with the hotel from a guests perspective because it is clear from my experience this maybe has not been fully considered. The way I had overheard management yelling at bar staff and restaurant staff was also NOT OKAY, quite frankly made me uncomfortable with the hotel because of the pressure he had put on staff because of pressure on him.. there was a girl who was amazing at Animation who was sweet, kind, bubbly everything you need a great staff member who I was told was fired for being too quiet, this made me really sad because one of the other members of the Animation team clearly only keeps his popularity by getting with the guests. I was sat with two couples and they asked about his wife.. bare in mind I’d seen him kissing the lovely girl who I had come to the night club with the night before and felt awful for her if this was the case.. so just kind of blurted out “Oh you have a wife” he didn’t get the hint so I said “oh okay, I thought I saw you kissing this girl the other night” anyways.. he said oh yeah we’re not that close and all this.. this doesn’t mean he is bad at his job because he is not bad AT ALL, but it is immoral to fire good staff and ignore internal issues.
DESPITE all this, I made some wonderful friends from England, Turkey, Holland, Estonia and Germany and that really made the trip for me!!! Without the kindness of other guests, I don’t know what this trip would be. The most lovely staff I’d met were Dermat (Bartender), Erin (Restaurant) and Omer (Bar, the one who is a little shorter with longer-ish hair than some of the other barmen) .. Dermat always goes above and beyond and is the most funny and genuinely lovely and honest member of staff I had met, Erin was so sweet and always greeted me with a smile, compliments and she made my evening more than once on this holiday, Omer was very good at helping with any questions and great customer service. Dermat, Erin and Omer have honestly made all the other rubbish I had to deal with worth it and have had to put up with my random questions and I don’t feel they are appreciated enough by the company for what they do and how good they are at their jobs at every second of the day.. highly professional and I could not say a single thing wrong about them.
I hope this negative and positive feedback is taken into account for future guests and that their experience is better than mine moving forward.
Thank you please get in contact, should you want further details.
Charlotte Baker"
