Let me start off by saying that I’m still residing in the hotel at the time of writing this review. I was waiting for a few things to pan out(or not) to see how this review was going to go.
We were welcomed and led to our room on the ground floor. The room looked nice and seemed clean but had a moldy musty basement like smell, a smell which was prevalent in the closets, so much so that we couldn’t unpack into the closets. We waited a whole day to see if the smell will go away with the ventilation working, but it didn’t, and we had to move rooms, which the staff was kind enough to give us.
We moved to a new room, which luckily smelled really nice and we were happy with it at first, only to find out a bit later that the air conditioning does not work. We asked reception to fix it in the morning. They said they will. We came back to the room in the afternoon, and it didn’t work, we asked the reception about it, and they had no idea what was going on, and asked me to keep the AC on because maybe they fixed it in the morning. I kept it on and it didn’t work.
I came to reception again in the evening and they sent a maintenance guy up to fix it. He climbed up, did something and “5 minutes and it will be ok”. Nothing changed.
Tomorrow morning I went to reception again to complain, they said they will send someone to fix it. Again same scenario like the day before. We come in the afternoon, AC still broken, they send another maintenance guy up, he does some work. Says: Give it 30 minutes to an hour for the water to circulate, and it will work. 2 hours later, still no AC, and this is at the time of writing this review. I will update the AC situation with the latest as I will not give up on this.
Negatives apart from that:
-Low quality meats and cheeses at breakfast.
-Instant coffee only.
-90% of staff is not hospitable, some are downright rude.
-Poor wi-fi
An extra negative is the one “A la carte” dinner that you get as an all inclusive customer.
The a la carte is that you get to choose between the main course being the fish, chicken or beef. The appetizers are set by them, and deserts as well.
We went for the beef and we’re surprised to find that the food was all exactly the same as it was offered in the buffet downstairs. So, simply don’t do the “a la carte” dinner as you’ll have a much bigger choice downstairs in the buffet restaurant.
Positives:
-Waiter called Nabeel.
-Guy on the beach setting up sunbeds
-Wonderful beach
-Fantastic pool area
-Well equipped gym
-Location really close to the center and the Medina
-Lunch and dinner food selection
Summary: While the hotel might have amenities on paper, of a 5 star hotel, it does not have the service of one. So adjust your expectations before you come here.
We’re really not picky travelers, and are enjoying our stay here. But both me and my partner feel that having a working AC in the room is a must for a room in a 5 star hotel, and if the AC situation does get resolved in the end, I will change my review.
Update: We moved to our third room of the stay and were notified that the AC was fixed. It wasn’t, and the lowest temperature you could get in the room was 25 degrees.
I will keep this as a 3 star review.