Avoid at all costs
mei 2023
| Sergei M
The worst experience i've ever had. The time i am writing this review is 11th night and i booked 14 nights. Just a little warning, this will be very, very long review explaining my solo traveller experience at the Sunny Days El Palacio hotel. To be clear the reviews from the last year are not relevant at all to this date, i will explain why it is like that, later in the review.
So i arrived to the hotel may 2 at 4am. Check- in went good and i got a key. Luggage was taken by service men and delivered to room while explaining where is everything. I come in the room. Sheets were used, towels were black from sand and it was really dirty (didn't care so much, just wanted to sleep for few hours). The safe did not work. In the morning i went to reception and told that i have a problem with the safe and it is not working. Receptionist says he will send someone right away to fix it and i believed him and went to the room to wait for the fix. After 1 hour nobody came. I call reception and after 5 minutes somebody comes and fixes the safe, the battery was dead (notice i had to ask 2 times before anything happened, this is important and i will explain later, why). They changed to the "new" battery but it did low battery alarm straight away. No worries, still working at the 11th night.
Next day i go to the beach and a salesman booked a Egyptian Hammam for me with scrub and massage (it should be good and usually people don't get reaction, as i did). After 1 hour of the service i started to feel burn all over my body approximately at 8pm and had to call a doctor to my room at 3am because i felt like i am in the oven and somebody is using a torch on my whole body. Doctor diagnosed me with severe allergic reaction and we went to the clinic and i got intravenous therapy with alot of medications. I felt better and i could sleep. In the morning i can see alot of "burning" like spots all over my body and i couldn't walk or put any clothes on, without severe pain. I was lucky i had insurance so i got painkillers and some other medicine for the allergic reaction. Recommendation for everyone to have insurance, just for cases like this. The pain went off after 3 days but at the time of writing (11 night in) i still have "burning like" red spots on my legs. Do not use the Hammam if you have sensitive skin.
The next day my door was not closing, the lock was broken so i couldn't leave my room. I called reception about my problem and they tell me immidiately somebody will come and fix the lock. Afer 1 hour 30 minutes nobody arrived, so i call again and after 30 minutes nobdy came. I call again a little bit frustrated and they promise somebody will come. After 5 minutes somebody came and fix the lock. Notice that this is the second time i need help and only get service after i request several times from the reception.
The same day i ran out of toilet paper, since i had really bad food poisoning. I had diarhhea and toiletpaper was not available, just a roll that is half full or full, depending how you have been using it. Cleaner changes the roll or gives new roll only when you ran out of toilet paper totally. I call reception that i need toilet paper and again i was promised that somebody will bring it right away, i believed. Again i wait 30 minutes and nobody came. I have to call again reception and after 5 minutes somebody came. Notice thid is 3rd time i have to call multiple times to get any service!!!! At this point i think maybe i am just a little bit unlucky and these kind of things happen.
Now about the cleaning. At first days i thought about needing a cleaning only every 2 days so i leave a tip of 50 egypt pounds for the cleaner after every clean. Two times the cleaning was good when i left the tip. Next time i thought i wll ask to clean every day. The first day cleaning was good (i didnt leave tip this time). I thought i will leave tip every 3 days. The second day the cleaning was bad. The 3rd time the cleaner didn't show up at all and i guess he didnt like i didnt leave him a tip as usual. I called reception at 3.30 pm and asked what is the usual time to clean and can somebody come to make up the room. The receptionist told me yes, somebody will come right away. After 1 hour NOBODY came AGAIN and i had to call AGAIN to the reception and after 5 minutes somebody came. Notice, this is 4th time i had to call to reception MULTIPLE times before anything happened. The cleaner had attitude and and when i asked to give me extra toilet paper he says it is a PROBLEM!!! HE SAYS THAT ONLY ONE ROLL PER PERSON PER DAY. IMAGINE!!!!! I got really angry and told him straight up that he personally haven't changed my toilet paper roll in 2 days and i have called reception to get paper. I was really mad and told him that he must give me extra paper and do hes job properly to which he stayed quiet and i left the room. He left me afterall with 2 paper rolls, since he knew he was wrong in the situation.
If you think this is not enough stress for 1 person that is travelling alone, don't hold your breath. I have more information to tell you about the hotel you should NEVER go to. The holiday for which i really saved alot of money and was hoping the reviews were up to date. No they are not and i will explain why in later stage. Read the latest reviews and see the low rating comments, they have all similiar problems.
The salesman are too pushy. There is a story behind, but i won't explain all the details because they are not relevant to this review. But basically i was going to order a Diving Open Water Course from the hotel Diving company. Salesman was great but was making too much contact when i clearly indicated and told that i will make a decission on specific date at which date i will dive. Anyways there were some problems and misunderstanding and i got trust issues so i wanted to talk to the instructor itself and we agreed to next day at 5pm. At around 3pm my hotel room phone rings and the salesman CALLS ME TO MY ROOM to ask if i can come now to speak with the instrucor to which i said no, i want to go swimming now. He replies to me ok, maybe you want to talk to him on the phone to which i again reply NO, i want to go swimming and that we agreed to 5pm. This made me so unconfortable and stressed that salesman calling to my freaking room that i straight up booked with another diving company online that i was looking at before my visit here. I paid online and went to tell the salesman the deal is off. I would have bought it if he was so pushy. Stress level at peak.
Anyways the salespeople are friendly but if you are too friendly to them, they won't leave you alone. For me it was okay to talk to them, since i work in sales myself and was travelling alone.
Well now you have heard my story, but imagine that this is not everything...
Today is my 11th night and i have 2 boat trips to which i go from 8am to 5pm. In this hotel you have 1 hotel restaurant (buffe), one italian restaurant and fish restaurant. You are allowed to visit one time Italian and 1 time fish restaurant on your visit here. Today i went to the reception to ask for a booking to the Italian restaurant. He says the booking has to be done at 9am to 2pm. I explain him that i have a boat trip and i am unable to book at those time to which he replies you have to book after the next day. I explain him that i am leaving soon and have 2 next days on the boat and will be unable to reserve to which he comments "nothing i can do, sir". Imagine this kind of service in a "4.5 star hotel". I start to get frustrated again and told him that you have to make it work, what you mean i have to book it at specific time if you understand i am not at the hotel and leaving soon. Then he asks manager. He comes back and says tomorrow he will check. I ask him to book also after tomorrow to the second restaurant to which he replies "sir, i am making exception for you and you must come tomorrow to see if you are booked for the one of the restaurants". IMAGINE, that i cannot book at the reception outside of their made up times of which i have never been told of.
Tomorrow i will see if they did reserve me a restaurant...
About the food: one word: BAD. If you like meat or fish, this place is not for you.
The room: Get earplugs. Noise from the club is huge, refrigirator works very noicy and AC is noicy (i keep it off at night). The room decoration is like from a horror movie, very old. I am solo traveller and got a room with two seperate beds, not king bed which is really weird.
The sea and beach. If there is something i loved about this place is the lagoon and the corrals that you can look at and the beautiful fishes. The main reason i came to Egypt is corrals, sea, fishes to look at and the beach. It is perfect at the hotel, but it is available the same or better at other hotels too.
Internet: non exictend. Speed in 64kb/s and works in lobby for free. Buy a sim-card at Orange in the airport, the shop at hotel sells 10x overpriced sim-cards.
Serviceman in buffe restaurant are very friendly and the two beach towel changing guys called Mohammed are super funny and one of them talks 5 languages.
I promised to tell you at the start of the review why the rating are not relevant from last year experience. Today i was diving and met a couple that were at this hotel. I explained what i have experienced and they were totally shocked. Everything has changed. For example the "special" restaurants were free for every day and not just one time for vacation. They served coca cola from bottles but now they serve from machine. And by the way the machine cola tastes nothing close to coca cola, tastes like coke mixed with sink water.
To conclude this review i have totally be honest and give a friendly warning to not visit this hotel ever. Just add some more money and book little bit more expensive hotel to really enjoy your time and not be stressed out.
I still have holiday left in this hotel but i am thankfull to god that for the last days i am out of here for my trips outside.
P.s.
Today is actually the day i am at my home country and sending this review now, so my vacation is over. I was scared to send the review while i stay here, because they could of made my holiday more horror because of review(this is so exactly explained that they will know who i am) and i thought if something else will happen in my last days i will update and give even more information.
Of course there happened. Safe was broken again, guess, how many times i had to call to reception, yes, 2 times. The restaurant was reserved for me, the food is THE SAME as in regular buffe restaurant, just with fancy names. This is a troll!!!
This hotel really made my holiday a horror and i truly want to warn everybody to not visit this hotel, even if it looks cheap for 4.5 stars. This is nothing close to 4.5 stars, it is maximum 2 stars all inclusive hotel...
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