"Granada Hotel – Disappointing service, poor kitchen quality, and questionable company policy. For me, definitely not a five-star level!
We spent nine days at the Granada Hotel and I unfortunately have to say that I have rarely been so disappointed by a hotel of this category.
We travel to Turkey as a family about three times a year and know numerous hotels and different quality standards. What we experienced here definitely does not, for me, meet the level that one can expect from a good five-star hotel.
1. Nine days of nearly identical food – a big disappointment!
This point is particularly important to me, because I come from the restaurant industry myself. I am a native Turk, a trained chef, have been working in the restaurant industry for 31 years, and have been running a steakhouse in Germany for 25 years.
So I know very well what I am talking about when it comes to food quality, meat, preparation, and kitchen organization.
During our entire nine vacation days, the same dishes were offered daily at almost all buffet stations. The only recognizable variety was in the evening at one station, where, for example, lamb was served one day, duck the next, and roast chicken on another day.
That was practically the only variety. Otherwise, the selection repeated itself day after day.
The meat quality was particularly disappointing for me.
Due to my many years of professional experience, I had the impression with many meat dishes that very cheap meat quality was being used here. In my professional assessment, this partly corresponded more to second- or third-rate quality than to the standards of a five-star hotel.
Regarding preparation and presentation, I also noticed things that I view extremely critically.
For example, there was döner meat in the evening. The next day, I discovered a very similar meat dish that was offered at the buffet, sautéed with onions and bell peppers. For me, the clear impression arose that leftovers from the previous day were being reprocessed here.
I observed something similar with the roast chicken. When roast chicken was offered in the evening, I found very dry chicken meat at the buffet again the next day. Here, too, I had the impression that unused food was being offered again.
Of course, proper reprocessing of food is not fundamentally objectionable. But in a five-star hotel, I expect freshness, quality, and preparation to be right at all times.
In nine days, I did not see a single truly juicy chicken breast fillet!
The chicken breast was often sliced paper-thin, grilled until very dry, and then sat under the heat lamps for a long time. As a result, the meat lost its last bit of moisture, in my opinion.
At times, it was so dry that you could barely get it down even with tzatziki or another sauce.
For me as a chef, that is particularly disappointing, because preparing a juicy chicken breast fillet is one of the basics of a professional kitchen.
Another example that really left me speechless was a traditional Turkish sweet called Halka Tatlısı. I have known this ring-shaped sweet since my childhood. In this hotel, I actually experienced for the first time that this sweet was offered halved at the buffet.
Of course, that alone is not a quality defect. But in connection with my other observations, it reinforced my impression that the kitchen was working extremely sparingly in many places.
The dessert selection was generally fine in terms of taste. However, almost the same offerings were repeated there every day as well.
My impression after nine days: A very monotonous, not very varied kitchen, where frugality apparently plays a greater role than culinary variety and quality.
We have been spending our vacations in Turkey regularly for many years. I personally have not yet experienced such a boring and disappointing hotel kitchen.
2. No pool service – according to customer service, a deliberate company policy!
There is no regular drink service at the pool. Anyone who wants to drink something must get up themselves, walk several hundred meters to the bar, order their drinks there, and then carry them back themselves.
I found the statement of an employee particularly unbelievable when it came to transporting several drinks. I was actually advised to buy a serving tray myself!
Thereupon, I contacted customer service and asked if the lack of service might be because we were there in the fall and thus outside of the high season.
The answer surprised me very much: It was explained to me that this was a conscious decision by the hotel management. That is the company policy that they decided on some time ago.
When I pointed out that such an approach did not, in my opinion, befit a five-star hotel, I was again told that this was simply company policy.
Additionally, it was explained to me that they did not have the appropriate inline skates for pool service. I also found this justification very strange and difficult to understand.
If a hotel consciously decides not to offer beverage service at the pool, then in my opinion, they should at least be open and transparent about it so that guests know what service they can actually expect.
3. Long queues and staff shortages apparently even in high season
My cousin was at the same hotel in August. According to his stories, the hotel was completely overcrowded at the time and there was far too little service staff.
Even in high season, there were hardly any waiters around in the pool area. Guests had to walk to the bar themselves and sometimes wait a very long time there because numerous people wanted to order drinks at the same time.
Just imagine: You are lying in the sun in extreme heat, want to relax, and constantly have to think about how to get drinks at all.
For me, that has little to do with a relaxing five-star vacation.
4. Negative atmosphere and disputes among employees
What also really irritated me was the atmosphere among the employees.
I have rarely experienced a hotel where employees argue so frequently and openly in front of the guests.
The mood seemed tense and negative at times. As a guest, you notice these situations immediately, which further detracts from the vacation experience.
I would like to explicitly emphasize that I do not automatically see the cause for this in the employees themselves. Rather, the question for me is under what conditions these people have to work and how the work processes are organized.
5. Defective shower head – no reaction from room service for days
Another point that says a lot to me about the attention and the condition of the hotel was our bathroom.
Already on the second or third day of our stay, the hand shower in our shower was torn off or defective. We therefore had to use only the upper, permanently installed rain shower for the rest of the stay.
I deliberately did not report the damage to the reception at first because I wanted to see whether the daily room service would notice such an obvious defect itself and pass it on to the responsible department.
The broken shower head lay visibly on the bathroom floor during the entire remaining days of our vacation.
And what happened? Absolutely nothing!
The damaged shower head was neither removed nor repaired. There was also no discernible reaction whatsoever.
For me, this is another sign of a lack of attention and missing quality control.
Of course, something can break in any hotel. That is not my point of criticism at all. What is decisive is how a hotel deals with such defects.
If a defective shower head lies on the floor for several days and apparently no one reacts to it during the daily room service, I seriously ask myself how the internal controls and the communication between housekeeping and maintenance work.
Here, too, my criticism is not directed personally at the cleaning staff, but at the organization and the managers who must ensure that such defects are recognized and remedied.
Especially from a five-star hotel, I expect that obvious defects do not remain unnoticed for days.
6. My criticism is explicitly NOT directed at the staff, but at the hotel management!
I would like to emphasize that particularly clearly.
If a hotel consciously forgoes certain services, employs too little staff from my point of view, and at the same time apparently pays very close attention to costs in the kitchen, then I see the responsibility primarily with the management and the people who decide on personnel, budgets, and company policy.
The staff ultimately has to work with these decisions and absorb the guests' dissatisfaction.
I consider it unfair to hold the employees responsible for problems whose causes, in my opinion, lie in the management and organization.
Good service begins with good decisions by the managers.
7. More for corporate events than for discerning vacation guests
My personal impression is that this hotel is more geared toward large corporate events, conferences, congresses, and groups than toward individual vacation guests who value personal service, good food, and genuine hospitality.
In my experience, the hotel definitely does not meet the service standard that I know from good five-star hotels in Germany.
This is not about excessive luxury or special requests. It is about basic hospitality, quality, attentiveness, and reasonable organization.
My final conclusion
After a nine-day stay, I am very disappointed with this hotel.
The monotonous cuisine, the weak meat quality from my professional perspective, the lack of pool service, the statements from customer service, the partially tense atmosphere among the staff, and the defect in our bathroom that went unnoticed for several days create an overall picture for me that does not fit a five-star claim.
As a trained chef with 31 years of gastronomy experience and 25 years as a steakhouse operator, I know that good service and good food do not necessarily have to be expensive. The decisive factors are the right organization, professional skill, and the will to offer guests quality.
My negative review is therefore explicitly directed at the management and those responsible for personnel planning, kitchen budget, quality control, and company policy – not at the staff.
For anyone expecting a relaxing family vacation with varied food, good meat quality, personal service, and genuine Turkish hospitality, I unfortunately cannot recommend this hotel based on my experiences.
Five stars should not only be on the hotel sign, but also be noticeable in the food, service, cleanliness, maintenance, and interaction with guests."
