Royal Azur Hotel

the royal azur sits between sol azur and bel azur. it is a five star hotel. situated in a beautiful place right on the beach. the view from the bedroom is stunning.the entrance into the hotel is lovely with the fountain. i really liked it but i would not say it was five star. the bedrooms are a bit dated could do with being modernised. i found the food was good it was buffet style. the ice cream was brilliant. the staff were very nice and friendly. the maids were lovely and the room was cleaned every day. i would go back

Relaxing. Nice pool good choice of Buffet food. Lovely clean beach. No kids club or disco which is great when you want to relax. Not really 5* standard but neither was the price. As value for money goes a very good. To expect 5* you would need to be paying a lot more. Very enjoyable relaxing Holiday.

Nice hotel in good position. Have stayed there before 5 years ago, but the standard has dropped a good deal. Lovely beach and close to the town centre. Very good restaurants across the road and supermarket.

We had a great holiday at the Royal Azur, it's a holiday for rest and relaxation, no games round the pool or late night discos. Maybe not quite 5* but look at the price? Great value for money, we are going back at the end on September.

The Royal Azur Hotel in Hammamet is not at 5* hotel. I would rate it at a 3* hotel with no nightly entertainment. After taking three hours to get from Monastir airport to the Royal Azur Hotel, we had missed our evening meal and we were told we they could cook us something or give us tomorrow's lunch for free. We asked for them to cook up something for us as we were hungry. We waited in the room for over half an hour and nothing came. We didn't even receive our welcome drinks. We went to reception and cancelled the meal. We went to see if we could find any restaurants, and we found one that was across the road and that was it. That night while we slept and most nights after that, we were woken by loud noises. We didn't realise what the noises were until a few days later, but it was the doors in the corridor. When you opened the door it would swing backwards and forwards for ages. However, it wasn't just the door we could hear on our floor, as we could also hear the doors swing on the floor above us. If you are a light sleep it can be very hard for you to get any sleep.

On our first day, we had been for lunch and been to our welcome meeting. When we went back to our room the maid had not closed our door probably. This is because the doors are so hard to close. You have to slam the doors shut, and we know it wasn't just our door handle that wasn't right, because someones elses door handle had fallen off while they were trying to shut there door.

The first time we had breakfast we were told to sit where we wanted, so when we went to get our evening meal we just assumed that we just sat where we wanted, as we weren't told otherwise. We sat down, ordered our drinks and went to get our meal, and while we were eating the head waiter asked if this table was given to us, and we told him 'no'. He then started to raise his voice at us as if we were in the wrong. First of all we were given no information at all from reception when we arrived. Second of all we walked past all of the head waiters when we came in, and they didn't say a word to us.

The next night we went for the meal, we went to see the head waiter and he gave us a lovely table (not) in the corner right near the doors.

If you pay for something and have to wait for change, you will either be waiting for it for ages or you will not receive it. That happened to us twice. Once we were round the pool and ordered drinks that came to four Dinar, and the waiter was given ten Dinar, and then he never returned with the change. He didn't even come out of the bar area. We asked one of the waiters that was round the pool for the change, and only then did the waiter come out of the bar area. The other time was when paying for a meal, and it was a lot similar to the other time.

As for the night time entertainment, there was none. We had to walk to the sister hotels, the Bel Azur and the Sol Azur, although it didn't take us that long to get there. The entertainment wasn't that good, and most nights there was traditional Tunisian dancing and music, which I thought was quite boring. There was a comedian night and karaoke night, which were good.

The hotel altogether was a big let down, with most things not working, like the indoor swimming pool. Also, not always getting hot water and having a rusted shower head.

We will never return to Tunisia ever again.

Hammamet resort was like Baghdad after a series of bombings, nothing could have prepared us for the scenes from the high street - derelict buildings, people sleeping on the road, men shouting abuse at us and shouting in our faces, people tugging at us, the roads were unsafe to walk on, it was midday and I was more scared then I have ever been.

After this I decided not to venture outside the Royal Azur hotel as the baby was distressed and obviously so was I.

. I used the hotel phone to book a flight with Sky deals - I was on the phone 3-4 minutes and it cost me £9. I have never heard of such ridiculous pricing.

. On Tuesday 6th December at 9am we woke up to no water. The toilets would not flush, their was no running water from the taps or the shower. We called reception who informed us there was a problem with our side of the building and they were looking into it.

. By 2pm the water was trickling through but it was YELLOW/BROWN. What did the hotel/rep advise us to do? Run until its clear, well we left the taps and shower on so we could clear the yellow/brown gunk that was coming from them. It took another 5 hour until the water was a paler shade of yellow and even them it was only trickling through.

As a six month pregnant women was I really expected to wash myself in other people's filth. This really was the most disgusting thing I have ever experienced and along with my sickness, the lack of facilities, the lack of service, the rude unhelpful staff, the rotten food selection, and the fact that there were thieves who had access to our room to steal our belongings made me realise that I was far too stressed and upset to continue my holiday.

. The hotel is not a five star, it does not deserve a five star rating at all, it was more like a 1 star hotel.

. The majority of facilities in the hotel had to be paid for including gym, indoor heated pool, internet, all restaurants (except buffet).

. The rooms were extremely basic, the beds were 30 years old, the floors dirty, the bathroom basic, the shower was broken, the taps old and hard to twist and the bed linen was from the sixties and dirty too. In the three nights I stayed the rooms were cleaned twice and the linen was NOT changed at all. Only two towels are provided per room, I have never heard of such a measly allowance.

. The porters on the hotel when we arrived would not leave the room until we had given them money - when we politely explained we did not bring any currency into the country as we were following the government rules he told us he wanted English money anyway

. First Choice did not at any stage inform us of all the extra charges in the hotel, for example we have to pay 15TD to use the gym for day, approx £7.50 for a half day, which was £15 per day, or £105 for a week - this is disgusting, even Chelsea Harbour Club monthly membership is £70 PER MONTH. With these prices we expected something amazing - but of course not, they had two exercise bikes, two treadmills and a few weights. How on earth can they charge these prices and why were we not informed.

. The food was absolutely disgusting, the breakfast selection was poor, the cereals were inedible, the toaster did not work - it only heated bread and did not turn it brown! There were flies all over the fruit, the plates were from a mix and match collection from the eighties and were at least twenty years old and covered in scratches gained from years of washing and scrubbing. The juice run out very quickly and was not replaced and the staff were lazy, unhelpful and could not speak good English. The buffet style dinner was the smallest selection I have ever seen, certainly not a five star selection. The dessert selection was the same every evening I stayed.

. The staff were ignorant, rude, invasive and unhelpful. An example of their behaviour is this - we complained one evening as we had paid 5TD to use the internet, but it did not work, when we asked the man for his money back he pretended he did not speak English, therefore could not understand. Yet the next evening when we refused to pay for a soup, which they served stone cold and half empty, he ran after us and demanded the money speaking to us IN ENGLISH !

. The hotel openly admits FEEDING STRAY WILD CATS- I spoke to the manager about this and he confirmed that they do this. This is DIGUSTING, these cats were everywhere, over 100 of them, and their excrement was all over the floors, the dinner tables, by the pools, on the stairs to the bedrooms. Absolutely everywhere was covered in their excrement. If we ate outside at least 25-35 cats would surround the table pawing at us for food.

. Once we had finished eating our food the cats would jump unto the table and eat the leftovers, the staff would just laugh and the staff were certainly in no hurry to clean the plates away or put in place any preventive methods to stop these wild cats. These cats are aggressive and wild and they run at you, pawing and scratching at us looking for food. I witnessed other guests (all 4 of them) take their food outside the restaurant just to the door and feed the cats, right in the view of members of staff. What five star hotel would endorse this?

The good points of the Royal Azur Hotel in Hammamet far outweigh the bad points. More information with regard to money changing would be helpful. Eventually found very good ATM on resort. The staff are all very helpful, and whilst it may not be top end 5 star, it definitely was a resort where you could pamper yourself and relax. I am sure that once visited it would be a resort that would draw you back. Go on a diet beforehand to allow yourself to enjoy their great choice buffets.

Royal Azur Hotel:

Customer Service/Head Receptionist shrank from dealing with complaints by either being late(1 hour) for meetings or did not show at all. His promise of having us speak to the Gen Mgr was unfulfilled.

This is not a 5 star hotel compared with the excellence of the Cliff Bay, Funchal, Hotel d'Europe, Avignon and the Conrad, Dublin. ISO 9002 - How?

Poor value for money with patchy disinterested service, tired, worn out accommodation and management which appears to be locked into the attitudes of the hospitality industry which we in UK left 20 plus years ago.

Although the Royal Azur Hotel is a 5 star the service does not live up to this - staff can be surly and at times rude. The hotel is 20 minutes walk along the beach from old Hammamet Medina but the new medina (Yasmine) is much better and has less hassle. Booking spa treatments is confusing (there are two levels and three different desks depending on what you want). Overall hotel and spa are slightly past their best and could do with renovation to be truly 5 star. However it is comfortable for a week stay and the food is good though uninspiring.