Royal Star Beach Resort

We booked this hotel as an all inclusive package. My mistake not to check the hotel upfront before booking.

I will start with the good things. Staff is very helpful, no bad things to say. The swimming pool is very nice and the umbrellas at the beach area as well.

That's about it.

Here comes the story.

When entering the lobby, my mood dropped to zero. If this is a 4 star hotel, then what is Hilton?

The reception was a place decorated with very dusty Christmas balls. I wander why nobody is seeing all the dust?

We got a very old key handed over. Made me think not so positive about the room. And so it was. We could hardly open our door. Had to push and pull to make our key turn in the lock.

The room was on the top floor. All in the middle of debris. No soap in the dispensers.

We arrived at 5am in the morning and cleaning service was banging the door at 9am. Weird service not to be aware of us arriving this early. No hanger was available to give notice to the cleaning staff.

Wifi is a laugh. Only available within 5m range of the reception. You can by Wifi everywhere (insane for a 4 star hotel) for 20$ for 6 days. But they don't tell you there is no wifi available. They make you spend the money first. So, no wifi available at all. Buy a SIM at the airport or an eSIM. You are better off.

The hotel has all small independent services trying to sell their stuff. It's pretty annoying having these people coming and ask for things to buy multiple times every single day. It's an all-in! I don't want to be bothered.

It's a no go for me as a recommendation.

Worst hotel I’ve ever stayed in. We stayed in a sea view room but it was more like a pool view room. We were supposed to stay there for 9 nights but we actually ended up leaving 2 days earlier. When we went to check out at reception the receptionist went into a discussion/ argument with us about why we were leaving also.

The room was old and dirty, cleaner only cleaned the room 2 times in a week period, we had to request toilet roll and fresh towels almost every day.

We had mould in the shower, no cold water only lukewarm, toilet didn’t flush properly either. Hair dryer also not working at all.
Light switches also damaged and not working properly, air conditioning doesn’t change tempo or temperature, blows dust out as it hasn’t been cleaned since it was installed most likely, we and my partner both got really sick from the air conditioning and had to go to the pharmacy to get medicine.
There were no toiletries in the shower and the shower wouldn’t drain fast enough either.

The cleaner kept coming to our room knocking on the door and just walking in at random days of the day, didn’t speak English. You cannot lock the hotel door from inside so we had to put a chair against the door to stop the cleaner from coming in.

Beds by the cleaner were not made properly, we had to remake them ourselves. Bed sheets filthy with stains all over them. Pillows hard and mattress old and disgusting. Floor also wasn’t cleaned at all.

Couldn’t get any rest here, they played loud music at random times throughout the day and night.

The food was also terrible, we ate the same thing each day and we actually lost a bit of weight there. Plates, glasses, cutlery also dirty and most of the time you have to wait on these things to be cleaned. The staff in the buffet area are quickly taking away your glasses and plates even when you’re not fully finished.

You also need to pay for wifi in your room which is 20 euro for 7 days, when we got there they “didn’t have a 7 day pass available” so we could only buy a 3 day pass and the WiFi then only works on 1 persons phone then. WiFi in the lobby also pretty slow.

The people from the hotel were really annoying when you were at the beach. Asking if you want tours and then quoting 100 euro for 2 people for snorkelling at one of the islands. We went outside the hotel and to a small street on the right side where we got the same tour for 15 euro per person.. the tours from this hotel are a big scam so don’t book with them, go outside the hotel!!!!

Be careful at the beach directly outside the hotel, there’s big rocks there and loads of sea urchins, there’s no signs or anything to say that. I would recommend going to the beach from the Empire hotel which is a 2 min walk.

The worker who was serving drinks was normally friendly but he refused to give my partner 2 drinks (one for me, one for my partner) because there was only 2 glasses left and there was a young lady standing behind my partner, the worker kept pointing at the girl, and not wanting to give the drinks to my partner. Eventually he gave them when my partner asked him what exactly was the problem..

On our last night (before we left early) at about 22:15 we were both sleeping as we had to leave early the next day. We were woken up by hard door knocks, someone standing outside our room with a piece of cake shouting “cake, cake”. My partner wasn’t wearing clothes and had to run to the door to hold it closed as they were just trying to open it and come in even when we said no.

The people outside of the hotel also are really annoying and try to rip you off so make sure you shop around before committing to anything with these people.

Even after this there are so many other small things, I really don’t understand where they got the 4 stars from.

Hygiene and cleanliness is non-existent here. Staff are rude and unprofessional. The food wasn't too bad, but not a lot of choice and they use old food rather than cooking new food for example the cereal and the pastries. The restaurant is also in a school canteen style area. There is an absolutely awful smell of grease if you don’t sit far from the buffet area and staff are very quick to take your food and drinks (even if not finished) but not to clean up.

A waiter became friendly and helpful towards me (I've experienced this before) but what I didn't expect and never encountered was he then asked for money before I left!

The entertainment at night isn't too bad. The cocktails were quite nice but the hot chocolate horrendous and coffee very average.

Customer service here is also non-existent.

The only thing that kept me going here was the weather and the people that I met.

My room also was a state with a lot of mould and broken aspects to it.

The reply to this will be 'Sorry, and please give us another chance' but in actual fact the staff really don't care.

I thought I was getting a great deal here with the money I paid but unfortunately the price was reflective of the experience I had.