This holiday was a special holiday for us, we had just celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary. It was our first holiday after my 50th birthday and finishing chemo & radiotherapy for cancer, which was all during covid (which the hotel was informed about). We spend over £3.5k for a week. We booked a room with a swim up pool. After reading all the hotel had to offer we were excited to go. The flight etc was fine, finding our transfer was also easy. However, it all started to go wrong in the taxi/transfer. The driver got lost a couple of times and then on arrival stopped as said, aren't you going to give me a tip ! If he hadnt asked so abruptly he may have got one. When me arrived at the hotel it was late so there was just one person on reception. They weren't rude but we didn't get a warm welcome as we’ve had at previous hotels. We were taken to our room which appeared fine. But we were convinced the doors and/or windows were open as the outside sound was quite loud. Granted at the time it was only the filter on the pool we could hear, but were swiftly woken at 8am by staff passing to start work (this happened every day) so the room clearly had to insulation/sound proofing at all. The next morning the state of the room could be seen more clearly, there were marks on the walls, the robe had a hole in the sleeve (didnt notice until about day 4). There were no draws and 1 tiny shelf in the bathroom. Housekeeping were good and the room was clean (it was wear & tear on the room) & I have picture's of all these. On the last day we also noted mould looking marks on the duvet cover. As mentioned we booked a swim up pool with terrace. The so called terrace was meant to be grass, but was just dirt that turned to mud when wet. The pool was not exclusive to these rooms (like cabins) there were about 6 of these rooms round one end of the pool (which were all occupied so no point complaining as none free to move us to). However the pool was a public pool (not a big issue but not as suggested). There was no bar or snack service at this pool so had to walk 10 mins to main area, again not what we would expect at a hotel like this). We did have a mini bar but was only stocked with soft drinks & beers (not what we drink) and told would only re-stock twice a day and after this would be charged. So for example if you only drink fanta you can only have 4 small cans a day between 2 then you’ll be charged, although free at the bar 10 minutes away. There is no iron in the room, if you want anything ironing you have to use their laundry service which starts at €5 for a t-shirt. The hotel wasn't over busy but guests were still rude just barging in front of lines. There was lots of choice to eat, but the food was constantly cold, I can honestly say there wasn't one meal I really enjoyed. The staff were pleasant enough but hardly ever smiled and made us feel welcomed. On one occasion there were no spoons, I patiently waited over 5 minutes and none were brought, so I asked a member of staff again, only to be told to go into one of the other restaurants and get one myself. Don't get me wrong I don't expect to be waited on hand & foot, but the attitude & way it was said really shocked me. In one of the coffee bars I wanted a de-cafe coffee made with just milk, I Googled it to help (as respect I’m not in uk and don't want to be ignorant) but still brought me 5 different drinks before someone else came and brought what I wanted. As said I respect I’m not in the uk, but if your a hotel of this rating welcoming guests from the uk you would expect some degree of english, but this didn't seem to be the case with the majority of staff we spoke to. The biggest shock for us was the attitude of the reception staff. They were so rude and were of no help at all. At the end of our stay the male on reception asked if we had a nice stay, I said it was ok but not great and his response was maybe go the the Maldives next time !! not the kind of response we would have expected, didnt even bother to ask or care what the issues were ! The evenings were very boring just music and girls wiggling their bum (very beautiful girls in great costumes) but just swayed from side to side. If we had to sum up this holiday for us, it would be very boring, no fun or laughter. There was no atmosphere at all. On the plus side the On the Beach rep Tony was brilliant, he was so helpful and a lovely man. We also went out for Spar treatments, and that was lovely and so relaxing, although they took a picture of us and edited me massively, it was so bad but funny at the same time we had to buy for the laugh.
Other people may not have issues with the things we did, but for us we would never go back to this hotel and feel we waisted our very hard earned money and both couldn't wait to get home, which given the circumstances of the holiday was extremely disappointing.