"**Excellent staff, but overcrowding, noise and inconsiderate guests of certain nationalities affected our stay**
We had a good holiday overall, and the hotel staff deserve considerable praise. They were friendly, hardworking and professional throughout our stay, often remaining patient and courteous in circumstances where some guests were far from courteous themselves.
Often, in large hotels, I find that reception staff are the ones who struggle to genuinely greet guests and deal with them in a welcoming and happy manner. That certainly wasn't the case here. The reception team were excellent and deserve five stars from me 👍. The same can be said of the staff generally, but I particularly wanted to give the reception team a special mention.
Unfortunately, the hotel can at times feel seriously overcrowded, particularly around the dining and pool areas. If hotel management were to put this down simply to it being peak season, I would have to disagree. Peak season should not come as a surprise, and guests are paying premium prices for a 5-star experience. I therefore expect the hotel to be able to manage its capacity without the guest experience suffering.
For example, you want to operate as a 5-star hotel, yet there is no proper table service in the main bar in the evening and guests can find themselves waiting around 15 minutes for a drink, with the bar staffed by only two people. When the hotel is operating at full capacity, this simply isn't sufficient.
The overcrowding was made considerably worse by the behaviour of some unruly and inconsiderate guests. During our stay, there were repeated examples of queue jumping, pushing in, loud conversations, shouting and guests behaving as though communal areas belonged exclusively to their group.
I want to be very clear that I am talking about my experience during this particular stay and am not suggesting that every guest of a particular nationality behaves this way. However, I cannot ignore the fact that we particularly noticed this behaviour among some of the larger groups of Israeli guests staying at the hotel. The size of these groups, combined with the behaviour we experienced, made the issue particularly noticeable.
After returning home, I did some research because I was genuinely surprised by what we had experienced and came across the expression **“the ugly Israeli”**, which is apparently used in discussions about Israeli tourists behaving badly abroad. I appreciate that this is a stereotype and certainly isn't something I would apply to every Israeli guest, but having experienced repeated examples of loud, rude and inconsiderate behaviour from some of the larger groups during our stay, I could understand why the expression exists.
I also noticed that the guests whose behaviour caused us the most problems were predominantly from outside Europe. Again, I recognise that this is an observation about the particular groups we encountered rather than a statement about an entire nationality or group of people. Nevertheless, I feel it is relevant to explain what we actually experienced rather than simply describing the problem as “other guests”.
The issue became repetitive enough to have a genuine impact on our enjoyment. Large groups congregating together, excessive noise, queue jumping and a general lack of consideration for other guests — and at times for the Elios staff — were recurring problems.
The hotel management may reasonably argue that once guests are inside the hotel there is only so much responsibility they can take for their individual behaviour. I understand that management will not want to cause unnecessary confrontation or upset paying customers. However, allowing persistent poor behaviour to continue can simply mean that other paying customers become the ones who are upset.
Some examples included:
* Children running around the restaurants screaming, which was an almost daily occurrence.
* Guests dropping food and plates on the floor and simply leaving them there.
* Older children and adults repeatedly going down the slides in large groups, including on inflatables, with little consideration for younger children who had already entered the slides.
* Guests repeatedly queue jumping or pushing in rather than waiting their turn.
* Large groups creating excessive noise in communal areas.
### Stairways and access routes — a serious safety concern
One issue that I believe the hotel needs to take much more seriously is the stairways and access routes, particularly in and out of the amphitheatre.
During our stay, other guests were allowed to sit on the stairways and block routes in and out. One announcement over the speaker is simply not enough to resolve this issue.
In my opinion, the stairs need to be made much more visually obvious, perhaps by painting them a contrasting colour, and there should be a member of staff present during busy performances to ensure that the routes remain clear.
At one point, the act on stage actually had to stop and become involved in helping people down from the stairs. That really brought home how serious the situation could become.
The hotel also needs to remember that some guests may have visual or mobility difficulties. Blocking stairways is not simply an inconvenience — it is potentially a serious safety hazard, particularly when access and escape routes are obstructed. The situation is made considerably worse when large groups congregate in these areas.
This needs to be actively managed rather than relying on guests to behave considerately. I strongly believe management needs to police this much more proactively.
### Noise levels
Noise is another area that needs attention. The noise levels in both the Asian à la carte restaurant and the main restaurant were, at times, excessive.
Restaurants are naturally going to have background noise, particularly in a busy resort, but there were occasions when the volume of conversations and large groups became uncomfortable rather than simply lively.
Once again, this was particularly noticeable with some of the larger families and groups of certain nationalities. I am not saying that everyone from those nationalities behaves this way, but the hotel needs to recognise that when it accepts large groups, particularly during peak periods, it also needs to manage the impact those groups can have on other guests.
I genuinely believe this is something management should address before it starts becoming a recurring theme in reviews from UK and other European guests. The experience we had was not something we would have expected when paying the premium price for a 5-star hotel.
It is a shame because the staff themselves were excellent and clearly work extremely hard. They should not have to continually deal with rude or unruly guests, queue jumping and inconsiderate behaviour while trying to provide good service to everyone else.
Another couple of things to mention. The beverages were just OK. The beer was a bit rubbish and so too was the rose wine. Very cheap and looked like Ribena juice.
The club cars to help take guests up the hills can be great- but they need to slow down. They are going to hurt a little child running out of one of the walkways soon if they continue to driver so fast.
### A special mention for the animation team
I would like to take this opportunity to make a special mention of Bianca and Lorelai from the animation team. They work incredibly hard and were fantastic with our daughter, Florence. They are both a real credit to the hotel and helped make our daughter's holiday particularly enjoyable.
### Overall
There is a lot to like about this hotel, particularly the staff, who were excellent. However, management needs to address overcrowding, unruly guest behaviour, excessive noise and, most importantly, keeping stairways and escape routes clear.
These are issues that should not simply be accepted as an inevitable consequence of the hotel being busy. Peak season is predictable, and guests paying premium prices for a 5-star holiday should be able to expect appropriate standards of comfort, consideration and safety.
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I would happily return because of the hotel itself and, particularly, its staff. However, I would not be prepared to pay the very high prices we paid unless I was confident that these issues had been addressed.
**Would I recommend it to a friend?**
Only if I knew that the concerns above had been taken seriously and acted upon.
**Would I return?**
Possibly, yes — but I would not pay the same premium price unless I saw meaningful improvements in the areas mentioned above."
