Our experience at Panorama Hotel in Sidari has been extremely disappointing, especially considering the amount guests pay for an all-inclusive holiday.
The mattresses are extremely uncomfortable. We could not sleep properly on our first night and immediately raised the issue with the hotel. We were told that the hotel was already aware of the problem. They have now offered us a mattress topper as a possible solution, which we appreciate as an attempt to help, but we have not yet used it, so we cannot comment on whether it will actually improve the situation.
The food has also been a serious concern. Breakfast starts at 7:00am, and at around 7:10am the hot food was already cold. Lunch starts at 12:30pm, and at approximately 12:35pm the food was again cold. We raised this directly with the restaurant manager. There was no apology; we were simply told that she was going to speak with the chef. Around five minutes later, she took her purse and left the restaurant without giving us any explanation or coming back to us.
We then went to reception specifically to ask to speak with the resort manager. This was where we found the response particularly disappointing. The receptionist refused to arrange for us to speak with the resort manager, telling us that she did not know when he would be back. Instead, she insisted that we tell her what the problem was and that, according to the resort’s policy, we had to deal with her. We were trying to escalate a genuine complaint and speak directly to the person responsible for the resort, but we were not given that opportunity.
As for the food itself, this is a matter of personal taste, but we have found that all of the dishes have an extremely strong cinnamon flavour. Cinnamon seems to dominate the food, to the point that we cannot properly taste the other flavours. If you love cinnamon in absolutely everything, you may be very happy here. Unfortunately, this is not what we expected from an all-inclusive restaurant.
What makes this even more upsetting for me personally is that I recommended this hotel to my family and asked them to join us. They have not arrived yet, and I am already feeling sorry that I encouraged them to come here. I genuinely wanted them to enjoy the holiday with us, and it is disappointing to be in this position before they have even arrived.
The location itself is lovely, and we have met some nice people, which makes the situation even more frustrating. However, a beautiful location cannot make up for uncomfortable accommodation, repeatedly cold food and an unhelpful approach when guests try to raise legitimate concerns.
When people pay significant amounts for an all-inclusive holiday, they should be able to expect basic standards and, importantly, to be listened to when something is not right. At the moment, our experience does not reflect the standard we expected from this resort.