Summer in Garden Suites & Beach Hotel

The staff have all been friendly and great. Rooms are a little better than basic, with a kettle and fridge. The hotel feels a bit out of the way, but taxis are easy to get, and the local bus stops right outside. My elderly mother and I found the buses easy to use and enjoyed trying out the local transport.

I agree with the negative reviews and wouldn’t recommend this hotel. The food was dreadful, repetitive, mostly processed or frozen meat, and sometimes smelled bad. They even control what you eat and ration some items. Cleaning barely happened during our eight days: towels weren’t changed, and they only made the bed and emptied the bin. The rooms are dated, especially the bathroom, and never smelled clean. The staff were unpleasant, particularly the blonde woman in the dining room and the room supervisor. The supervisor started mopping around the pool while guests were still there, getting my shoes and my partner’s phone wet. Be careful on the pool and bar floors, several children slipped, and an elderly man fell and hit his head hard enough that an ambulance was called. Bitez coast is beautiful, but seeing so many abandoned dogs, and the way some restaurants kick them, is heartbreaking if you love dogs.

We were there from August 31st to September 7th, and the staff at the bar, restaurant, and reception were warm and excellent. Tunclay at the bar deserves a special mention. He helped whenever we had a problem and gladly suggested places to visit in Bodrum. Our room was small, but that was fine, and it was cleaned every day. There’s a shop and a beach next to the hotel, while central Bodrum is about a 15-minute drive away. You can arrange full-day boat trips near the beach. We only ate at the hotel restaurant a few times, so I can’t say much about the food overall, but what we had was clean, tasty, and varied. I think the hotel deserves at least 4 stars. We’ll definitely come back 💙

The pool was a safety worry, especially with children around. The deep end is nearly 2m, there’s no lifeguard, and the walkway between the seating and deep water is narrow. Drain sections were broken, sharp, and had open holes; some were blocked, causing slippery flooding around the sunbeds. The steps were hard to see, sharp and slippery, and the deep-end ladder looked ready to cause an accident. The small slide wasn’t always switched on, even when we asked at reception, and there was little else for kids. Entertainment only happened on Wednesday at 10pm, with music so loud it sounded like a rave in our room with every door shut. I wouldn’t call that child-friendly. Our room for four was split into two areas, one with twin beds and one with sofa beds. The sofa bed area had no air conditioning, and the unit in the other part was very weak. We pushed the single beds together, but all four of us ended up with about the space of a double bed. Across two weeks, the room was never cleaned. We had to ask for towels, toilet paper, and clean sheets, and even after asking, pillowcases and blankets were never changed. My feet went black within 30 seconds of getting out of the shower. The toilet smelled so bad I bought bleach myself. The fridge seal was hanging off, there was black mould on the top shelf, and someone had glossed over the seal. Sharp bits of grout were in the shower, and the shower head was mounted so high that water sprayed over the screen. Every morning there was a dead cockroach at the bottom of the steps. On our last day there was one on the balcony; we told reception, but it still wasn’t removed. The food was poor, with few hot choices that seemed to be reused from the day before, and hardly anything for kids at breakfast. I was served raw chicken twice. When I showed it to the “executive chef,” he just said “ok.” We spent a lot eating out and buying food from the mini market next door, which isn’t acceptable at an all-inclusive. Three of my family members got ill, as did around five other families staying there. I don’t know the cause, since there were several possible factors: poor hygiene, unsafe food, a dirty pool, or something else. Communication with staff was harder than anywhere else I’ve visited in Turkey, even though I’ve been eight times. Most staff seemed to be teenage boys with little or no experience. The manager didn’t care what guests thought and seemed to believe his hotel was amazing, when it wasn’t. Tui should drop it as a destination. This hotel isn’t fit for people looking for a pleasant holiday in a beautiful country, and it ruined ours. It definitely isn’t a 3 star standard.