Dar Hammamet Guest House & Hammam

I don’t usually write reviews, and I was hesitant because I don’t want to define a place by one bad experience. But while we were staying there, a very positive review appeared that didn’t match what we were experiencing, so I feel I should share an honest account. We stayed from January 17th to January 24th. Apart from one guest who was there briefly before leaving abruptly, we were the only guests in the Dar all week. The five-star review posted during those days didn’t reflect what the property was like at that time. The Dar itself is beautiful and well kept, largely thanks to Mariam, who cleans and looks after the whole place on her own. She deserves real recognition. Breakfast, though, wasn’t varied: the bread was stale and the ingredients weren’t good. There wasn’t a cook, and the same person caring for the whole Dar was making breakfast. For what this place costs, they could afford to do better. We arrived around 9 p.m. on January 17th and no one was there to welcome us, which we accepted. We were offered an airport taxi for €20 more than we would have paid arranging one ourselves, which already made us uneasy. From January 18th through January 21st, during a Mediterranean storm, there was no electricity, hot water, or heating in the Dar. The house was extremely cold and lit only by candles. We also went without breakfast on consecutive days and weren’t offered anything else. Bad weather can happen, but the lack of care, organisation, and clear information was unacceptable. We kept being told power would be back “soon”, but it took days. Even after some power came back, the water pressure and temperature were still inadequate. Earlier reviews mention this too, which makes it seem like there may be existing problems with the infrastructure. After two nights freezing in the dark, the only other guest left late at night on January 20th. That evening, we were told we could leave in the middle of the night, find our own taxi, and stay somewhere else, leaving all our belongings behind. We were also asked to pay upfront and “get refunded later”. That felt alarming and inappropriate. On January 21st, my birthday, I woke up with no electricity and no updates unless we asked. There was no coffee offered and no breakfast for three days, even though a local coffee place around the corner was open. The power only came back around 3 p.m. after we asked repeatedly. If the Dar couldn’t host us safely, they should have arranged somewhere else for us or refunded us. After days of exhaustion, we accepted a refund for only two nights just to end the ordeal. The refund process was confusing and concerning. We were told cash refunds weren’t possible and that partial refunds through Expedia were “not possible”, which isn’t true. At one point, we were even asked to pay for the whole stay again in cash and get a refund later through Expedia. They offered a 30-minute massage as a gesture, but after Expedia was contacted, we were told the therapist had an accident. It was never rescheduled. There’s no 24-hour reception, yet people on the street were presenting themselves as hotel workers or cooks. When we raised concerns about scams and safety in the area, they brushed us off without giving us any warning or guidance. At the same time, management watched the CCTV and messaged us to lock the main gate “for our safety”, even when we were the ones outside on the terrace. That contradiction felt unsettling and invasive. This was, without exaggeration, the most neglectful and manipulative treatment I’ve experienced in more than 15 years of travelling worldwide. The problem wasn’t the storm itself, but how guests were treated: no responsibility, pressure over money, and invasion of privacy. The Dar may look beautiful, but there was no Hammam as advertised. For a price way above Hammamet's strandards, there’s no justification for this. I strongly advise future guests to be extremely cautious, especially in winter.