Herbert Samuel Opera Tel Aviv

The gym was a real highlight, fully equipped and better than most hotel gyms I’ve seen. The hotel is right across from the beach, with lots of great areas along Tel Aviv’s beachfront within walking distance. There’s garage parking, too, and a nice pool, though it closes in winter. A comfortable stay with good service and an unbeatable location. Highly recommended.

The location is wonderful and, as several people have mentioned, breakfast is great. The service, though, was truly atrocious. We first called at 17:45 because we couldn’t adjust the room temperature. The evening front desk was staffed by Ilana and a security guy who may be the boy described preening in another review. After several calls and promises that an engineer was coming, nobody showed up. We went down to the lobby and got more incompetence and outright lies. They insisted their system Indicated the thermostat was working. Only when the engineer came to see the problem himself did we finally get moved to another room, two hours after our first call, at 19:50. I’m still waiting to hear from the manager. There are plenty of better places to stay.

I came in excited to stay here, partly because it’s conveniently located and I was moving over from the same chain in Jerusalem. That loyalty now feels misplaced. What began as a small request turned into a hostile and disrespectful experience, and the manager seemed absent and uninterested. The bedside USB socket didn’t work, so I called reception. They said they were busy and hung up. I tried again 20 minutes later and was told they knew about it, but their system was down, whatever that meant, and they’d get back to me. Another 20 minutes passed. The boy at the desk insisted on speaking Hebrew, even though I was speaking English. After I repeated that this was an international hotel and I wanted to use the language I know, he laughed and said, “OK, I can speak English,” very fluently. I went down to reception and saw him flirting with a female client and stroking her American Express card. It was completely inappropriate. I waited patiently, but he kept the conversation going, then was incredibly rude and hostile to me, showing off to her. She seemed bemused, and his behavior only seemed to put her off. The female check-in lady tried to reach the manager, who had already left. At check-in, the lady struggled with English, which seemed strange for an international hotel named after an Englishman. The boy behind the desk had been flashing his watch and smile but offered no help. I can’t say every staff member is like this, but so far customer satisfaction has been awful. It felt like respect wasn’t part of the package.

Our meals were good, and the staff were exceptional. The hotel is comfortable and in a great location, though it’s currently under construction. We weren’t fans of how noisy our room was facing the atrium, and the Shabbat elevator was out of order. The hotel could use some upgrades.