All Inclusive - NOT!!!!
Check-in: 1am arrival at Amwaj Rotana, shown a photo of my room view and then shown a photo of another room view. Asked if I would like to upgrade at a cost, no thank you. Asked to download the Rotana app in order to book any of the restaurants, all menus are shown on this app.
Arrived in room on tenth floor to a double bed for three of us - really??? Had to wait for a new small hard bed to be brought up to the room and made up - sheets were not clean.
Spoke with guest services at 1.45am requesting a new room with suitable beds for three! Told I would be moved later in the day.
Another 4 phones calls later with many excuses: - new room on the 19th floor was not ready yet, looking for a better room, housekeeping were still sorting the room and so on. Every call finished with the promise of a call back but this never happened! On one of the calls at 3.20pm I pointed out that their check out was at midday so still looking for another room was really questionable! We wasted a day waiting for a call back and the promised new room. Finally at around 4pm we were given a new room on the 22nd floor.
Lifts were a joke - three lifts for 25 floors, I saw most of the floors in my one week stay, often with no one actually waiting to get into the lift.
Drawers in room smelt musty which meant my clothes didn't smell so nice.
Bathrooms are small, two towels for three of us. Had to request an extra towel every time they cleaned the room even though housekeeping could see there was three of us. Had to request toilet roll on two occasions - 1 roll given each time.
Hairdryer worked for about three minutes before it had a burning smell and turned itself off but if you waited another five minutes, it would begin to work again.
Do not allow customers to take towels to the water park and didn't really care nor have an answer when asked what the options were for towels at the waterpark.
Swimming pool: 1.5mtr depth all around, no shallow area so no swimming for me due to my height. Parasols around pool - old and bleached by the sun, three of us shared one sunbed for an hour on the only day we went to the pool. What a real let down!
Food: All inclusive dine around - shocking to say the least.
The hotel has three restaurants and each has two menus, one menu for the paying customer and one menu for the customer who has already paid (all inclusive) - absolute discrimination. Servings are minimal, food is basic and plates are taken away as soon as one has finished eating regardless of others still eating at the same table.
Felt rushed at times, mains brought to the tables when still eating starters etc. Incidentally, we could not book any of the restaurants on their app as they were all showing with no availability until after September 12th - made management aware on my first day! Horizon for breakfast with anaemic sausages and overcooked pain au chocolate. Service was abysmal, no one offered tea or coffee on the few mornings we went there.
On our final night, we paid for two out of the three main courses as we were tired of the menu, however, some of the food that night was over cooked, the dine around menu dish was not eaten as it tasted revolting.
The pool sundeck bar also has its own menu for All Inclusive which it's not as you can see in the Rotana App.
On entering the hotel, there is a café on the left where tea, coffee, soft drinks and juices are included in the A/I, however the food on show is not included in the A/I.
After researching many other reviews, I expect I’ll receive the same generic response others have received over the last few years, that lessons will be learned & solutions will be found.
On the plus side, the majority of the staff were helpful but there were a few despondent workers. Location was great for the beach and shops but the traffic around the hotel was a nightmare for the taxi's.
I'm amazed at other reviews saying it's outstanding, I realise horses for courses, but this is definitely not a 5* luxurious hotel, far from it. I will not be returning nor would I recommend this hotel.