Belek, Cornelia De Luxe Resort

Cornelia " the crown of Disaster

Did you work for an entire year and you finally have a few days break? Do you want to spend them in the best possible manner? Do you want to have everything included, and be treated like royalty? Well Cornelia DeLuxe? Resort is the best place to ruin your dreams.

Let me tell you what happened to me at Cornelia last summer. If you have the patience to read it, I promise that at the end I'll give you some free advice on how to avoid what happened to me. ;-)

Day 1:

We arrived at Cornelia in the evening (6 pm) and everything looked fine. Except for they said that only for the first night they can't give me a double room as I reserved, so they will give me a family room which is bigger, and the next morning immediately after breakfast they will give me my reserved room. I accepted that, even if was not very happy with moving again the next morning (because this would mean that I couldn't unpack my luggage until next morning).

The room was very nice, I can't complain about it but there was nothing in the mini-bar. I notified the reception staff, they promised me that someone will fill in the mini-bar right away, but it didn't happen, so I had to stay all night with nothing to drink. I must mention that the mini-bar drinks were already paid for, since I paid DeLuxe All Inclusive package (more than 2000 euro for 10 days for two persons, including transport, food and room). I said, ok, lets remain optimistic, tomorrow I will move to my room and probably everything will be fine.

Day 2:

I went to the reception immediately after breakfast, as they said, I asked for my room and they said I'll have to wait until after lunch.

I went again after lunch and they finally gave me my room. I had some problems with the access cards because they forgot to activate them for the new room, so I had to go one more time to the reception, but finally I got inside. Inside I had another surprise: the safe box was already blocked. I went again to the reception and asked them to solve the problem, they said again that someone will come right away, and again no one came.

In the evening I met with my travel agent, I told him all the problems I had, he talked to the reception and finally unlocked the safe box and promised me that everything will be fine from now on.

I thought I can finally relax and enjoy the pools, the sea, the sun. After all, I deserved it after an entire year of work

Day 3:

Everything went fine until evening when I found again the safe box blocked, this time with my things inside.

Instead of going to the reception I tried easy combinations . It worked.

Day 4:

In the morning I got a message on my TV saying that this is a reminder that this is my departure date and I should leave room by 12 o'clock. I went to the reception to explain them that I paid for 10 nights, so I still have another week to stay there. No one wanted to listen to me, they were impolite, they told me to talk to my travel agent but wouldn't help me anyway because they didn't have enough rooms and it was 100% certain that I will leave the hotel that day. I asked them to show me my voucher (where was written my real departure date) but they refused, I asked them to talk to the hotel manager, but they also refused (although at the reception was a picture of the hotel manager and was written that if you have problems, ask to talk to the hotel manager). But it seems that for those useless, unhelpful, impolite reception staff nothing matters but the tips.

I was really desperate " no room to stay, no flight ticket for that day, to go back home

I asked my travel agent to come to the hotel and solve the problem, but the travel agent could not persuade the reception staff either. So he called his general manager, who called the hotels general manager and the problem got solved. I lost half a day, but I finally got my room.

What I think is important is that while staying in front of the reception waiting for my travel agent to come, I saw other people having the same problem as mine. I don't know if they were lucky to get a room too in the end, like I did So I think this is not an isolate incident, but the hotel's policy to fully reserve the rooms, even if this means kicking off some tourist out of the hotel.

If you plan to go to Cornelia then, of course, 99% of the hotel's tourists don't have the same problem as me, but would you risk it?

Day 5 to 8:

Nothing unusual. For a few days I could finally enjoy the sea and the pools. The hotel has really big and nice pools, too bad that the services are awful.

One day I wanted to make a reservation to an a-la-carte restaurant. I thought that I can call to make the reservation, like in all the others Turkish hotels I have been in. Wrong. You must go to an office at 9 am where you can see a paper with the words Please make a queue . :-) And you must really make a queue, since a lot of tourists must come to the same office at the same time. As a suggestion to the hotels manager, wouldn't it be nice to call instead of waiting in a queue?

Day 9:

In the evening I took a bottle of water from the mini-bar, I started to drink it but I realized that it tastes strange so I stopped right away. In the bottle was not water but something that tastes like a powerful alcoholic drink. Thank God it was not something toxic.

I didnt notify the reception, I knew it was useless. They would have probably said that it is a joke.

I was glad that I will leave Turkey in 2 days. I didnt feel safe anymore. Turkey is a very nice country, Turkish people are nice, but, unfortunately, this hotel is a disgrace to the Turkish tourism.

Day 10:

In the evening I found again the safe box blocked. I used again the combination 111A, the door opened and everything seemed ok. But it wasnt. There was 50 Euro missing.

Again, I knew there is nothing I can do. So I decided to do nothing while in Turkey (it would have probably only cause me more problems), but I promised myself to enter all the review sites I know and tell the others the story about this miserable place called DeLuxe hotel, so that they can avoid having the same problems.

Day 11:

I had a nice flight back home. Relaxation at last

Finally, the tips I promised you:

Tip 1: Never go to Cornelia. You have no reason to go there, except that the architecture of the hotel is pretty interesting and they have really big pools. There are a lot of nice hotels in Turkey with better and chipper services. I went to Turkey 4 times, and this hotel had worst services, even if they claim they have DeLuxe services and they are The Crown of Quality . Try for example a High Class All Inclusive hotel in Belek area, there are some very good. I will not tell you my favorite one because I dont want anyone to think that I posted this to promote a hotel.

Tip 2: If you go to Cornelia anyway, never use the safe box. It is not safe at all.

Tip 3: If you use the safe box anyway and it gets blocked, don't call the reception. Youll have to call them several times, and they expect tips anyway. Try the combination 111A, it will work.

Tip 4: Check very well your departure date on the room access cards. If they make a mistake, it will give you a lot of headaches to solve it.

Cornelia De Luxe Resort in Belek's accommodation is clean and staff ever so friendly. The hotel did all everything for all guests and catered for everyone. Transfers were good to the golf courses but beware the cattle rush for the buses by people who do not like to queue. This has no reflection on the Hotel but you should be prepared for this.