David
A Truly Dismal Hotel Stay, I wouldn't rate the hotel a one star never mind a three star.
Our recent stay at this hotel was, without exaggeration, the worst accommodation experience I have ever had. From the moment we arrived, it was clear this was not going to be a pleasant trip.
Upon arrival, our room wasn't ready, forcing us to spend our first night in a completely different hotel. This inconvenient start set the tone for the rest of the week.
The problems continued when we finally got into our allocated room. The crockery was disgustingly dirty, still bearing food residue from previous guests – a clear sign of poor hygiene standards. The state of the bathroom and kitchen areas was equally appalling; both were grimy and clearly hadn't been properly cleaned.
Basic amenities were either missing, no toaster or microwave for self catering, extras which should have been part of the holiday costs came at an outrageous extra cost. There was no safe in the room, and to have air conditioning, we were charged an additional £50 for just one room, WiFi was £5 for each guest for 7 nights, so for a family of 4 it would be £20 a week for wifi. This felt like a deliberate attempt to nickel-and-dime guests, but sadly the whole of marmaris is about extracting the maximum amount of money out of you whilst giving very little in return.
The cleaning service, or lack thereof, was a major issue. The cleaners never changed our towels, forcing me to buy washing powder to clean them myself. In a seven-day stay, the bedding was only changed once. When the cleaner did eventually show up, all they did was empty the kitchen bin; no surfaces were wiped down whatsoever.
The staff's primary focus seemed to be on extracting more money from guests. They were constantly pushing for guests to spend on food and drinks, rather than providing decent service. This extended to the hotel's facilities. The garden was dreadful, and the pool was tiny with no lifeguard in attendance, raising serious safety concerns.
In my experience and honest opinion, Every negative review you might have read about this place is, unfortunately, accurate. This hotel is a complete letdown and I strongly advise anyone considering this hotel to give their head a shake.
Dianne Keys
A 2 week holiday here. Apartment was fine though a little shabby. Cooking facilities limited to a 2 ring electric hotplate with one stew pan and a type of frying pan, plus electric kettle.
Daily clean consisted of the bathroom and kitchen bins being emptied and a wet mop run round the floor.
We ate once here and it was good but preferred to eat out in different restaurants. Staff are attentive though they do push for you to eat, drink and stay at the complex for entertainment every day. Unfortunately they can be rude or downright ignore you if you choose to spend your money elsewhere.
Freddie is most helpful and will bend over backwards to try and sort any problems.
Wayne Walker
I think the one liner to sum it up is..... You have to buy your own toilet paper. This is something I've never experienced on holiday.
It was meant to be self catering but only cooking facilities were a kettle and small counter top hob. We were a family of 5 but there was not 5 of anything. There wasn't even A knife good enough to cut some bread and there was a single bowl (with kids..... Cereal would be the easy go to breakfast).
Though not everywhere supplies shower gel and if they do not always great so we brought our own, I was shocked by the lack of hand soap
There was also no cleaning equipment in the kitchenette. No dish cloths, no tea towels, no washing up liquid, no dust pan and brush and the cleaners barely cleaned. I have no issues keeping it clean and tidy after myself but I'm not buying kitchen cleaning equipment to do it.
The extra beds in the sitting room were pretty uncomfortable, consistenting of a futon where can really feel the gap across the bed where it folded up, a sofa bed where you could feel gap where that folded up straight down the middle, and camp bed which just wasnt comfortable
Also..... Possibly my fault for missing small print but arriving and finding out I need to pay £50 a week for air con..... Then to find out it was only in one of the two rooms so the living room/kitchen/second bedroom was very warm, not sure why can't have two units . Also £5 a week per device for WiFi (4 phones, plus a kids tablet and my wife finished all the books downloaded on her Kindle so needed that on for a morning is 6 devices so £30 a week for wi fi only in one place, we opted for €40 for our full stay for a portable hot spot). Even had to pay for a safe box, maybe same everywhere in Marmaris but just used to having a safe in the room free to use.
We didn't eat or drink there much as we wanted more local authentic food, and we're put off on the first night, ordering a couple of beers and wines and finding out the wine was over €7.30!!! We live in Dublin, renowned for being one of (if not the) most expensive place in Europe to drink and can find cheaper wine than that and having the hard sell of their half board and Sunday roast after seeing the very western menu we mostly ate in more local places but if you've come to Turkey for Sunday roast, pizza, chips and burgers, then maybe it's for you (they do have a few kebabs on the menu too)
The pool was grand, it was just a pool but seemed to be enough deck chairs etc out, I think only criticism here is not of the hotel but more the clientele.... We left 4 towels, 4 goggles and arm bands by the pool went for lunch, ended up doing some other activities and forgot about them. The staff when cleaning up move the stuff to one side to be collected, 2 of the towels and 2 of the goggles went missing, and don't think it's a coincidence it was the newer and better looking ones.
The staff were OVERLY friendly, but as we weren't really eating or drinking in there less so with us, but that was fine by us, but we did here from locals that the staff can be rude if you're not eating and drinking in there most nights, but we found them fine.
Think last thing was just all the odd signs about rules, some rules are standard hotel rules (pay for any damages, but if you're going to have signs about it I expect nothing in the room to be broken and if it is fixed to a good standard which was not the case), then stuff like damaging the sheets (with makeup or henna) and not leaving towels on the floor (even though we had a single towel rack half hanging off the wall)
Location was good, especially as come out and turn left up the hill to find the more local traditional restaurants to eat in
Leanne O'Shea Mackay
What an amazing place to stay !!! Ive stayed here a few times over the last couple of years cant fault the place at all !!
Staff are super amazing to be honest i was surprised how professional and kind they were especially with some very rude and difficult guests when i was there !! On the couples first night the young lady was so drunk and in such a state after constant auguring and clearly had too many drinks she fell over on way to toilet at least 4 times i had to help-her get there and back as they are mainly male staff there i offered the young girl to help her upstairs to bed as was worried she fall up or down stairs the staff offered her water and she refused until i sat with her calmly and manage to make upstairs the boys staff were very concerned but very professional whilst being spoken too in a very rude way !!! The next day the couple were still very rude n had a terrible attitude towards staff .Even thou this was happening i still invited them to join my table and hoped we could cheer them up as all they was doing was squabbling and making other guests uncomfortable ….for rest of their time there i hardly seen them and when did was quite rude to staff i think the hotel handled situ with professional attitudes and still worried if the young lady was ok !!! Apart from that drama the staff and hotel is just full of fun and games cleaning staff are fantastic and the manger freddie are great treat u like family unfortunately he not been around much of late due to family commitments but his full team of staff are very attentive to all guests like family and 80% of guests are repeat customers says it all !! Never a bad day at the villa sol !! Please give them a try !
James O'Shea
I dont even know where to start with this review so I'll start from the moment I arrived.
Arrived at 5am, the night worker was kind enough to let us smoke before checking us in, it had been a LONG day. Checked in smoothly and went to the room.
The room is a little apartment, it has a kitchen, living area, bedroom, bathroom and the best part, a balcony. Very spacious indeed.
Was made to feel very welcome by the staff in the morning when everything started opening up, it's the first time seeing us so they had to make a great impression, right?
Had a semi decent full English, sausages weren't as advertised and the beans had been watered down for some strange reason, the wife had bacon on toast, couldn't go wrong with that.
We stayed within the area of our hotel the first day due to jetlag etc. Had a few drinks, which led to a couple more and we got quite merry and had a little argument... lack of sleep, no food, HOT weather and some booze WILL do that to you. So a little rough first night I would say.
This is where the service and everything else went down hill FAST!...
Woke up the next morning and we could feel the mood towards us had changed, MASSIVELY! They would say good morning, ask how we are, what we're doing today etc, because they have to, not because they wanted to and believe me, me and the wife FELT that. We could see the staff having fun with other guests, laughing and joking with them but when it came to us, there was nothing, no smiles, no happiness... nothing but a blank stare. We ended up just going out because we didn't feel welcome enough to stay within the hotel grounds.
The bedsheets get changed every 3 days, which is kinda gross considering its a VERY HOT country and the sweat was insane everyday/night. I get its a 2 star hotel but cmon, clean sheets daily isn't that hard to accomplish.
I was also sleeping next to tiny bugs most of the week which they didn't care to sort out.
We had ordered food one time there to try and get over the discomfort we felt but that made it worse. So I got the Lasagne and the wife got a pizza, a whole pizza...and I'm talking 8 slices of pizza to which the wife couldn't finish. The owner, Freddie, come and collected the plates and asked "why no finish" to which she said "too much, very nice, but too much" he told his young worker this in turkish which led to himself AND the young lad laughing at my wife because she didn't finish it. We were already feeling uncomfortable but that was the nail in the coffin and because we felt so uncomfortable I couldn't stand up and say anything which I fully regret not doing at the time. My wife didn't want to step foot back in there at all, and I dont blame her.
Towards the end of our stay things just got worse. The staff stopped saying good morning, stopped asking how we were, stopped being friendly towards us all together because, im assuming, the owner had told them todo so. It got to the point of them pushing our chairs into the tables AS we're getting up out of them, not even giving us a chance to stand properly. Then our transfer came... and when other transfers came to pick up guests the staff and Freddie himself would say goodbye, check to make sure its the right one etc. But when our transfer came, I personally asked Freddie "is this our transfer" to which he said "I don't know, go check" which was very rude considering how he's treated other guests. Not one staff member was there to help with bags like they have done with other guests, not one staff member said goodbye to us and the owner practically smiled and waved us off.
Safe to say that Freddie and his staff at the "Grand" Villa Sol aren't very nice people if you're not spending money and paying their wages at their hotel.
I have to say though, Michael and Hadie tried their best to include us and make us feel welcome but as per the bosses instructions they weren't allowed and we felt that they were trying to make us feel comfortable and it's a shame to see them being dragged down to the owners level of pettiness.
Won't ever be returning to this hotel.
My Booking
