Hurghada, Iberotel Makadi Saraya Resort

I had an extremely bad experience in Saraya Makadi after spending 7 days from 8/8/09 to 8/15/09. The bad experience includes the following:

1. I reserved a two bed room royal suite, which was anything but royal. There were no TV's in the bedrooms, there was only one phone in the entire suite, also, the suite kitchenette looked like a kitchenette in a one star camp.

2. The service provided by the reception desk was less than poor. Anytime, I needed something, I had to make more than one call. For example, I tried to book a van for the return trip to Hurgada airport. But the reception desk did not do anything, later I discovered that there a car rental company outside the hotel and I went there and made the reservations myself. On another occasion, I need a change for a 100 pounds bill, the person at the desk called the bell-captain and said get me a change for this. Few minutes later the bell-captain came and said he could not find any change and he cannot waste any more time on this because there is a bus load of people has just arrived.

3. On arrival, I did not like the fact that the reserved suite was on the second floor and there was no elevator so I returned to the lobby and asked the duty manager to arrange for a ground floor suite. Politely he did that, but, he forgot that it was more than one hour since my arrival together with my two children, wife, and the nanny, during which time not a drop of water was given to us and you know how warm Hurgadah in August I have been to several 5 stars hotels and most great you on arrival with juice and water tray, fresh wet towels, and this complimentary service continues until the rooms are ready.

4. On departure day, it took the reception desk more than 20 minutes to prepare the bill, why, because they were waiting for some assistance to provide information on the mini-bar. After 15 minutes, again, the duty manager decided to print the bill and asked politely that I will agree to any additional charges on the mini-bar. I have never seen such poor performance on check out, usually in 5 stars hotels it takes less than 5 minutes to check your bill and make payment.

5. The first day on arrival and after settling in the suite. I ordered for my family pasta from one of the hotel restaurants (Nino's), 40 minutes later and on-time the food was delivered, but, unfortunately, it was spoiled and had bad taste and strong smell. I returned the food and the restaurant tried to apologies by sending pizza, but, I had lost my appetite and I returned the entire meal.

6. The hotel provided two kids club facilities, one for German speaking children (on a special location next to the pool and that allowed the kids to check the club activities and if they liked they can stay and if not they can go and play in the pool) and one for international children and was located far from the pool, which made to difficult for little children to check on the activities. Definitely, I was offended by having a German only kids club, it reminded me with blacks segregation in the US or Jews discrimination in Nazi Germany. I think such choice is bad and left my little girl with bad feeling about not being allowed to join the German kids club, after all what do they do in a kids club. The idea of segregation is bad and outdated. I am sure that German children will learn more if they mix with children of other nationality. Also, the required level of language to handle 6-12 years old kids is rather simple.

7. I was extremely upset about the fact that the breakfast and dinner buffets were limited to very few choices. Later I knew the fact that this happens because the majority of the hotel residents are part of special group reservations (all inclusive and at rates 10%-30% the rate of a regular customer, which I have paid). Therefore, the hotel provided minimal services for everyone, which might be the correct thing to do for the customers who have paid low rates, but, extremely poor performance and practice for a customer who paid a full rate.

8. When I made my reservation, I have been told that the hotel is 5 stars. Accordingly, the first thing I asked about when I arrived "do you have a room service" and I was shocked when I was told there is no room service. This is new to me from a 5 stars hotel.

9. There are several restaurants in the hotel, which I have tried all, unfortunately, the food quality was very poor. I ordered a turkey breast that tasted like hard rubber, on another day my grilled salmon was so dry and close to being burned, and I have been served spoiled pasta twice during the trip. The first time on arrival and the second time on the last day before travelling.

10. The living room in the royal suite had an extremely uncomfortable coach and one chair. This really puzzled me because usually a two bed room suite will have 4-5 occupants. So, we ended up putting the plastic chairs from the balcony and there were only 2 chairs.

11. I was told by the travel agent that this is a beach front hotel. So, the first day my children wanted to go to the beach and we realized that the beach is about 10 minutes walk and the sun was really hot, we asked the reception if they have a golf cart to take us there and the answer was negative. In we went there once and for the rest of the holiday we kept to the swimming pool. On another day I bought tickets for a glass boat trip to view nearby reefs. The person who sold me the ticket did not tell me that the marina where the boat is located is 30 minutes walking distance. At the end of the boat trip and after shouting to the ticketing personal near the boat marina I was told that I should have been picked up by a speed boat from the beach near my hotel (5 minutes walk) and speed boat would bring us to the glass boat marina across the bay.

At the end I was counting the days to return home. In summary, the suite was anything but royal; the hotel staff provided very poor service not a 5 stars as the brochure mentions, the hotel restaurants had very poor quality food and some occasions the food was spoiled. Comparison of this hotel with other 5 stars hotels in the area is unfair. I had experienced over the past four years 1-2 weeks dreamlike holidays in Helnan Palstine, Four Seasons Sharm, Hilton Fayrouz, Moven Pick Algogouna, etc., all of which are 5 stars, but, nothing is remotely close to the horrible memories of Saraya Makadi.