Shark Club Hotel

The food was awful and almost exactly the same at breakfast, lunch, snacks and dinner each day. They might change the meat on the buffet now and then. The hotel tries to fit in too many people. I have no idea how it got a four star rating, two stars at a push. Please save your money. At night, entertainment started at 9:30, but there weren’t enough seats, so we had to stand and watch or join in, or just head back to our room. Sunbeds were impossible to get until around 4 or 5pm unless you were up before 6:30am. It was our first all-inclusive holiday, and it was the worst experience. We were put in room 232, tucked into a corner with no proper balcony. There were exposed wires in the bathroom by the shower, which leaked all over the floor, and long brown hairs on the bed. We asked to move and got a slightly better, smaller room.

The pool setup is diabolical. Sunbeds are crammed together on two sides with nowhere for bags, while there’s lots of unused space along the back wall. The hotel says towels are removed before 8:30, but that wasn’t true. I counted 37 towels out before 7:30, with nobody sitting there, and none were taken away. You have to pay £9 a week for hotel towels, and you can buy a cheaper one on the street. They’re tiny, too. Staff are very friendly and the rooms are quite spacious, but the beds are low and uncomfortable. Food is hit or miss. When I asked what kind of meat one dish labeled “meat” was, pork, lamb, beef, whatever, I just got “yes, meat” as an answer. There’s nothing for a healthier option, just one lumpy yoghurt and watermelon as the only fruit.

I’ve stayed at more than 10 all-inclusive hotels in Turkiye and they’ve all been fantastic. This one is a 2 star hotel, and that’s generous. The photos on the JET2 APP are heavily photoshopped, and it says all-inclusive, but it doesn’t feel that way. I don’t drink, but there are only three alcoholic options: Turkish gin, Turkish vodka and Turkish beer. Anything else costs extra. Food, if you can call it that, was spaghetti, rice, chips, chicken and lukewarm kebabs every single day. No egg station, a first for me. You could only get fried eggs every other day, or a plain omelette with no cheese, peppers, onions or anything else you’d usually have in one. The soft drink machine dispensed some green and orange toxic-looking liquid that stained the cheap plastic tables and wouldn’t wash off. I lived on salad and soup for a week and mostly ate out. Breakfast, lunch and dinner were each limited to two hours, another first for me on a supposedly all-inclusive holiday. Staff walked around in flip-flops and smoked in front of customers. The kind of people who go here every year aren’t people I’d normally see in my day-to-day life or at hotels I’ve stayed in before. Anyone writing a positive review probably doesn’t know any better and thinks a Travelodge is a five star hotel. If you’re happy with lukewarm, cheap quality food and drinks, this place is for you.

We had a great week here, six 21-year-old girls, and it was just right for us. The location was really good, there was a mix of people, and the staff were lovely. We especially enjoyed aqua gym and water polo. Everything was consistently clean. The one letdown in our room was the awful view of a wall. For food, drinks and karaoke, we liked ‘Peter’s Place’, and ‘48’ (fun pub) was good for drinks and dancing.