Hostmark Oriental Hotel Review

Overall Rating

Large Rooms
Good Staff (except dining room)
Very clean
Hotel well kept

Food bad
Outside frequently smells of sewerage
They water drinks down
All Inclusive isnt all inclusive

Oriental Resort - Sharm El Sheik Egypt


I just couldn't help writing a review on this hotel having just returned from it 2 days ago. Me and my girlfriend stayed All Inclusive for 1 week in a seaside view room.

So.. Where do I start...

Lets start with an item closest to my heart - My stomach! The whole dining experience is poor. Really poor!

Breakfast.. You have a choice of maybe 3 cereals, a collection of cheese, a couple of types of spam and a standard mix of tomatoes, cucumber, and salad type food (peppers, olives, shredded carrot etc..). As for hot items, there are mini sausages, potatoes, omelettes, scrambled eggs, pancakes, and two sorts of set yoghurt. (Oh and loads of different types of bread). They also have red juice and orange juice (tasted like a cordial/concentrate). And I almost forgot, a fantastic collection of pastries.

Sounds good hey? Well the sausages were actually hot dogs, the potatoes were usually inedible, the queue for an omelette could be 5 minutes.. The cereals were ok though! (If you like weird bran flakes that is). Unfortunately there was no fruit.

Lunch... The same salad and appeared back again. This time however, the spam has been chopped and added to the salad. The hot dogs have also been chopped and added to the salad. Other than that, the salad bar is basically as it was at breakfast time. Soup had been added for lunch
(well it was sort of flavoured watery corn flour mix). The hot food bar however had become more exciting. It now usually had rice, another sort of rice, some sort of beef stew, chicken of some sort, a pasta station (a man with a frying pan, and some pasta and some spices and hot dogs). Saut ed vegetables, potatoes and maybe a type of fish. Where the cereals had been, was now a collection of cakes. Now these I liked. Each and every day. They have some great pastry chefs out here! But enough of the good points, I am slagging this place off!

Dinner.. Basically as above (yes the hot dogs were back again). The only difference being the time of day. Great puddings though!

In all, the food was not bad. It was well cooked, and pleasant. Just very boring. No variety. And more like canteen food. In the end we ate out. it just wasn't worth the bother. Breakfast was dire. And generally missed. If you arrived early you got cloth napkins. Later guests got paper. Between starter and main course you must also retain your cutlery. You don't get new ones just because you are changing your plate!

To lift the sprit they did do an Italian night! This meant that staff wore different clothes and we got Pizza slices handed to us on our way in. Other than that the food was the same. Jamaican night was similar except I didn't notice what was special on that night.

Now for the drink! All Inclusive means, beer, wine, basic spirits (local gin, vodka and whisky) and soft drinks. Great! No worries there then. I'll have a diet coke please! No I won't, diet coke isn't all inclusive. It costs money! Only normal drinks are included (And bottled water). Sigh!

Lots of people warned me about brushing my teeth with bottled water. No need here. The oriental has a posh chemical water treatment system. So good, that you can even drink the tap water (cold that is! the hot comes out brownish! ;-) ) . In fact, they use the normal tap water for all their premix drinks like coca-cola and sprite. They also (very naughty this one) water down the white and rose wines with it. (They appear out of plastic bottles from the fridge).
So absolutely no stomach upsets all week. Yipee!

Oh and did I tell you.. The chemicals in the water have a real weird taste and smell. Unfortunately, this appears in all the premix drinks and the 2 wines I have mentioned. Red comes from a wine tap. And that is safe, and is the only alcohol I touched. The coke and sprite tasted awful to me though. The average child probably wouldn't notice. But when you do, you won't want to drink the watered drinks again. As a result I was on bottled water and red wine all week.

So that's the food and drink. If you can skip those parts you will love the place. Very clean. Very well cleaned. Nice rooms, friendly staff. There is even an entertainments team trying to keep you excited (probably in response to earlier complaints). My only real complaints are dining room related. Very bad staff in here and can be hard to find a table to sit at sometimes. Out of ten I rate it as about a 3. It is what I would have expected at a 3* AI resort.

One last point before I finish. it is worth mentioning the one thing that really wound me up. The money grabbing attitude of this place. At meal times, staff wander the dining room with cocktails (like sangria). They ask if you want them. You say 'Yes please!' then they bring a bill for 70 Egypt pounds (about 7 uk pounds) at the end of the meal. This is low! Cocktails are not included. Thus you have to pay for them. They catch a lot of people this way. After
the gym one day, the staff pointed out the Sauna. So we got in, 15 minutes later got out and got a 150 Egypt pound bill (about 15 Uk pounds). By the pool, there is ice cream. If your children want it you have to pay.

So there you have it. Anything I've missed..

Location.. A long way from Sharm. Half an hour in a taxi. Nearest town Naema Bay (good Hard Rock cafe and a decent Sushi bar down there!) is 15 mins. It was a bit too remote for me.

Gym.. Good sized room with no equipment. 2 treadmills, 2 bikes, 4 pieces of resistance equipment and a rack of dumbells. I would call it an exercise room rather than a gym! Equipment was all newish however. It was decent stuff (Cybex) and in very good condition.

Almost forgot. STAY OFF THE GRASS!! If you wonder what that vile smell is.... They water the gardens all day with sewerage. The place stinks. I personally would have had them do it overnight. But not in Egypt! As a result, the gardens are great. The grass is a superb lush green. Just don't let your kids
play on it!!

So my conclusion... If you like your food do not stay here. If food and drink does not make/break your holiday then it is a great place. I am a food man! If All Inclusive matters. Then I would avoid it. Had I never seen the bars or dining rooms I would have loved it. Unfortunately I would not recommend it.

To re-iterate, I would consider it a 4* hotel with a 3* restaurant. It is the worst 5* I have yet stayed in. I have stayed 5* in Turkey and that was superb. Jamaica was very good. Cyprus was very good. Egypt was weak.

If you want good 5* in this area, apparently the Hyatt regency is the place to stay. Next time....


If you have any questions, I occasionally read my hotnail account numptyhead@hotmail.com.

Cheers.

Mad!


P.S. If the taxi from the airport costs you more than 100 Egyptian pounds, you are getting screwed! (I paid 200! and was! ;-)

Members' Comments onnumptyhead's Review

• Allishia123 on 24th May 2005

  Well i have 2 agree with u there! I went there last week and arrived back in the uk 2 days ago! Whereas the actual hotel is spotless and everyone friendly,the food to me and my fiance was very poor-although you cant fault the desserts! I was disappointed as it was a more expensive holiday,than what we'd usually pay and it feels like we were ripped off-if you pay for an all-inclusive you expect a whole lot more range than what we got! i think they tried to cater for everybody (English,Italians,French,Germans,Swiss.ETC) but on a VERY small scale! Oh,and did i mention we both suffered food poisoning (NOT THROUGH THE HOTEL,MAY I POINT OUT)which left us petrified of eating the hotel meat! (not as though there was much choice anyway) The resort itself isnt ideally situated either,not much things to do or see (but i do have to add,we spoke to an English local and he did say that opposite the hotel (where there is just land at the moment) construction work is about to start on a big 'strip' where there will be shops,nightclubs,bars and several different authentic restaurants,ETC)which will liven the area up,the beach is a short little walk from the rooms and may i say the beach is fantastic and the marine life brilliant! I would go back to Sharm El Sheikh,but not Hostmark Oriental Resort! Thanks for reading this,thought i would share my opinion!