The Arkin Colony Hotel

We’ve stayed at this hotel several years in a row, but this Christmas trip will be our last. We bought a two-day Christmas package, and it ruined the holiday for us. The rooms were incredibly stuffy. Staff wouldn’t lower the temperature, and leaving the balcony door open only brought it down by one degree. The corridors smelled strongly of cigarette smoke, with ashtrays full of butts at every corner. Reception was unfriendly, rude and indifferent, especially Aybuk. She said she’d print the programme and issue a payment receipt, then forgot both. She made a bunch of promises, but apparently those aren’t her duties. At Christmas Eve dinner, the welcome drink was hot mulled wine. The programme promised unlimited wine, but that turned out to be hot mulled wine too. The snacks were tasteless vegetable mixes. The dessert table looked beautiful, but the desserts were all margarine whipped with sugar and covered in glazed gelatin that was impossible to cut. The food colouring from the cream was hard to wash off my fingers. I don’t want apologies. My Christmas is ruined. I’d be grateful if you could show that changes have been made to how the hotel operates and explain what measures were taken.

We’ve been coming every year for the past 6 years, but we think this will be our last. Reception never offered help or service when we asked. The receptionist Aybuke was absolutely useless at her job. She should take a course in helping customers instead of saying she’ll do something and then doing nothing. Our Christmas package promised a welcome drink on arrival and free unlimited wine all night. They gave us hot wine at the entrance and then said wine wasn’t free, even after we showed them the programme. Plain cheating. The room was set to 24.5 degrees and couldn’t be adjusted. When we asked them to lower it, they said they’d have to lower the temperature throughout the whole hotel. We were put right opposite the lifts, which we didn’t like. They said every room on that floor was taken when we asked to move, but that wasn’t true: the rooms on either side stayed empty. The gala dinner food was terrible, and the cakes and desserts were cheap sugar cakes. The Christmas Day cakes, though, came from another supplier and were great. It felt like the hotel was trying to save money at the expense of quality and customer service.

The service was terrible and the staff unfriendly. The casino managers were dishonest, rude and lowbrow, shouting at customers and unable to control themselves. Avoid these cowboy muppets and choose another professional place for your vacation. Never again!

The only good thing about this sham of a hotel was the rooftop pool. It’s old and tatty, and so many things didn’t work, including sockets, lights and remote controls. The air conditioning wouldn’t go below 25 degrees, even though it was 28 outside. We had to sleep with the windows open beside a noisy road. The staff were rude and untrained. They ignored requests and stood around chatting as if they didn’t see you. The man at reception was the rudest, most ignorant receptionist I’ve met. I’d checked out and paid that morning, then was heading to a hospital appointment with my baby. He sent someone to the taxi to stop it and say I had to speak to reception. He wanted to check the minibar. It took 15 minutes while my baby waited in the taxi, and I felt like a criminal. I paid 5€ even though I hadn’t used anything, just to get out. They had all my luggage, so I had to come back to the hotel. He’d been extremely rude at check-in too. In the restaurant, a man refused to bring my sister the bill. I presume it was because she’s a woman. He only agreed when my husband came back, and smirked when asked why he wouldn’t bring it. Avoid this hotel at all costs. Maybe the worst place I’ve stayed, and 2-3 stars at best.