Crystal Family Resort and Spa

Avoid this 2 star hotel , dirty hotel, rooms have dirty beds and damaged items , aircon leaking an hanging off

Very nice hotel, good atmosphere. Very friendly crew, clean rooms. Tasty food that you can find everytime. Nice cocktails. Special thanks to the animation crew.

Read this and seriously consider what I am saying before you book. This is not a disgruntled guest review, it’s an honest review to prevent hard working people spending their hard earned money here, only to be disappointed.

I’m not sure which hotel the guests who scored this place highly in previous reviews were staying but it cannot have been at the same place I stayed with my 2 boys.

I can only assume this is yet another hotel that bribes guests to leave good reviews and take down bad ones. This happens all too much sadly and I do hope Tripadvisor does something to crack down on this in the future.

Do not go to this hotel if you’re expecting value for money. It’s overpriced for what it is, a 4 star at best parading as a 5 star. You will get better service at a 4 star hotel in Lara Beach for cheaper!

Here’s my honest feedback and before you assume I have high standards, yes I do when you have paid £3000 for this and it is nowhere near 5 star at other Belek Hotels.

I have been to Belek many times, paid less at actual 5 star resorts and received 10 times better than this.

• Not 5 star, 4 star services
• Cheap, old sun loungers that are dirty and so are the tables. They are not cleaned with food and drink stains on them from the previous day

Broken parasols which don’t hold up. One of them fell on my kids!

• Tiny, thin towels for the loungers, barely covers it so you have to lay on the bare plastic, unhygienic
• Pool bar wasps everywhere, going in drinks, be careful not to get stung
• Cheap plastic cups for drinks at the pool bar but if you’re “friendly” with the bar staff or a local you get nice ones
• Locals get to push in line at the bar and get preferential treatment, my kids were ignored for over 20 mins trying to order a drink before I had to step in
• Animation team are ok, but poor communication. Ask my sons age for darts then told him to write his name to play, when we went to play he told him he was too young!
• Smoking everywhere outside, really annoying if you are non smoker especially with kids
• Food in restaurants are 4 star quality, underwhelming buffet and too many people using it, not expected at a 5 star
• Housekeeping did not clean our room, had to ask a few times. Also ran out of shower gel and had to keep asking for it to be replaced
• When housekeeping eventually came they simply made the bed and changed the towels, no cleaning of bathroom or mopping of floors
• Gym is full of rusty, broken equipment that should be decommissioned. The handle bars came off the spin bike when I was using it causing me to fall off and hurt my leg. I told the guy in the spa, he told me I need to speak to the lady who works in the gym when she comes as they are separate. Didn’t even ask if I was ok after falling and tried to sell me a massage instead!
• The gym water fridge leaks and leaves puddles of water on the floor making it a health and safety hazard
• Breakfast is advertised until 11am. We got there 10:40am, by 11:10 the waitress asked us to leave whilst we were still eating. They then turned the lights off. She came back 2 mins later and pressured us to leave again yet locals were still eating and not being asked to leave
• Main restaurant is extremely noisy, you have to get up and order your own drinks unless you find a friendly waiter who’s looking for a tip to get them for you.
• Staff walk around with trollies that have bins attached to them collecting plates and scraping food and rubbish into the bins. They park these right next to you as you are eating which is disgusting (see photo)
• Old and dated, needs renovation. Rooms look like a tired 3 star holiday inn with cheap soap dispensers that you get in travelodge.
• Drains in room smell
• Some staff are friendly and some are not. They look like you’re bothering them when you ask for something.
• One barman in particular was not very helpful. Told me there’s no Mojito when I could see it there. He also did not pay attention to my order as he was too busy speaking to someone on his phone. Gave us the wrong drinks 3 times
• À la carte is a joke. It’s advertised as 4 separate restaurants, Italian, Mexican, Fish and Turkish but is actually one area outside with 4 different menus. When we went, the staff ignored us. I eventually asked for a table, they told me to wait then came back and said it’s Fish only.
• No poolside drinks service, quite inconvenient as you need to keep getting up to queue at the bar and getting a drink can often be a stressful experience as you’re ignored and people queue jump.
• Coffee drinkers be warned, you won’t get a decent coffee out here. Tastes awful
• Whilst I respect this is their country and perhaps their culture, I find a lot of the staff impolite as well as most of the local guests who seem to be quite rude.

Plus:

• Some good shows, Michael Jackson was brilliant.
• Patisserie is nice for cakes, ice cream and sweet treats. Their coffee machine is a little nicer (cappuccino was ok).
• The Turkish pancake/pastry station outside is lovely. One of the ladies cooking them is lovely, the other one looks angry and annoyed when you ask for one
• Unlimited Sushi (until it runs out) was good

I sent my son to ask for a manager at guest relations. They wrote his room number down and it’s now Day 7 of 10 (yes I’m still here management team if you want to come and see me) with no sign of someone to speak to.

It’s a shame because this place has potential. Personally, avoid this place and go stay at Papillon Ayscha in Belek instead.