"Excellent Kids’ Club Activities, but the Service Needs Improvement
My husband, our four-year-old son and I spent 13 nights at Crystal Prestige Elite. Overall, the hotel has many excellent features, especially for families with children. However, during our stay, we also encountered several service-related issues that, in my opinion, should be improved at a five-star hotel.
What We Really Enjoyed
1. Fantastic Kids’ Club Activities
This is definitely one of the hotel’s biggest strengths!
Almost every day, the children can take part in various creative workshops and shows. Our son participated in candle-making, slime-making, figure-painting, perfume-making, mask-making, spoon-making, Harry Potter magic, and car-painting workshops.
It was fantastic! Our son looked forward to the workshops and took part in them with great enthusiasm.
The evening activities, such as inflatable attractions and digital games, were also excellent. The pool games were very entertaining as well.
The Kids’ Club staff do an outstanding job. Their work, enthusiasm and genuine involvement in the children’s activities were exceptional.
Many thanks to the Kids’ Club for the wonderful activities and positive attitude!
2. Air Conditioning
As someone who dislikes excessive air conditioning and gets sick easily from cold air, I was very pleased with the hotel’s air-conditioning system.
The rooms were pleasantly cool, but the cold air was never blowing directly on us. Even when sitting under an air conditioner, I did not have to worry about getting sick.
For me, this was a major advantage, especially compared with other hotels.
3. Food
The food was absolutely delicious!
It was almost disappointing that there was not enough room in my stomach to try everything I wanted. I do not eat meat, so I especially appreciated the wide variety of options available. Even after trying many dishes, there were still plenty of things I did not manage to taste.
My husband particularly enjoyed the fish.
I would especially like to praise the delicious potato gözleme. The gözleme area also has a wonderful atmosphere, made even more charming by the three roosters.
4. Pool and Water Park
The pool is huge, and the water park was very exciting.
For families with children, this is definitely one of the hotel’s strongest features.
What Could Be Improved
1. Lack of Cutlery in the Main Restaurant
We quite often experienced problems with cutlery in the main restaurant.
For example, the dirty dishes had been cleared from a table, and we sat there because there was simply nowhere else to sit — the restaurant can become very crowded — only to discover that there was no cutlery on the table.
Several times, we had to walk around the restaurant looking for other cleared tables in order to collect knives and forks for ourselves.
In my opinion, the solution would be very simple: the restaurant could provide additional boxes or stations with clean knives, forks and other necessary cutlery so that guests could take them when needed.
2. The “Waiter Service System” Does Not Always Work
The hotel has a system whereby a waiter is supposed to approach guests after they sit down and bring them drinks.
However, during our 13-night stay, there were more occasions when a waiter did not come than occasions when one did.
This would not be a major problem in itself — we have no issue going to the bar and getting drinks ourselves. The problem is that guests are not allowed to order alcohol directly at the bar in the main restaurant.
On one such occasion, the bartender explained that a waiter would bring the alcohol. I returned to our table and waited. After approximately 10 minutes, no waiter had approached us.
This creates the impression that the system exists in theory but is not always properly implemented in practice.
3. Coffee Machines in the Main Restaurant
During breakfast, getting coffee sometimes felt like a matter of luck.
One coffee machine would be out of water, while another would be out of milk. That would not be a major issue — I would simply look for another machine. However, that one would not be working either. Eventually, I would find one that worked, as shown by the long queue in front of it.
It was relatively easy for me because I drink black coffee.
For my husband, who only drinks coffee with milk, the situation was much more difficult. In the main restaurant, milk was available from the coffee machines only if you happened to be in the right place at the right time.
In my opinion, this is not what guests expect from a five-star hotel.
As a result, my husband often went without coffee, even though he would have liked one.
4. A Confusing Situation with the Pavilion Service
Our experience with the pavilion service was particularly confusing.
When I reserved the pavilion through Guest Relations, the staff member explained that there would be a QR code in the pavilion, which we could use to order food and drinks.
At approximately 10:40 a.m., we arrived at our reserved pavilion, left our belongings there and went away. We returned at around 12:00 p.m. and wanted to use the pavilion service.
However, the promised QR code was not available in the pavilion.
I also checked my email, but the QR code was not there either.
After approximately 30 mins , I noticed a woman in a hotel uniform near our pavilion and asked her how I could obtain the promised QR code. She called a staff member who introduced himself as the waiter assigned to our pavilion.
He asked what we would like to order. We explained that we did not want anything at that moment but might want to order something later. The waiter told us to contact him when we were ready.
Later we decided that we wanted to order food and drinks.
However, the waiter was nowhere to be seen.
I went to the beach restaurant, where a very helpful staff member assisted us in finding the pavilion waiter. We eventually placed our order.
I asked again about the promised QR code, but it seemed that the pavilion waiter either did not understand my question or chose to ignore it.
The whole situation seemed very strange.
Why does Guest Relations promise a QR code during the reservation process if it is not actually available in the pavilion?
And even more importantly, why was I not given the QR code after asking for it twice?
Do the Guest Relations staff not know how the pavilion service is organised, even though Guest Relations is responsible for making pavilion reservations?
At the same time, I would like to point out that the pavilion service improved significantly after approximately 2:00 p.m. The waiter frequently came to our pavilion and asked whether we wanted to order anything.
We had no complaints about the pavilion service after 2:00 p.m.
5. SPA Staff Member Enur Left an Unpleasant Impression
I can communicate in both English and Russian, although neither language is my native language. I simply feel more comfortable communicating in English.
We had an unpleasant experience with the SPA staff member Enur.
I communicated with him in both English and Russian. When I was leaving the SPA, I had not even left the SPA reception area when I heard him say to a colleague in a tone of disbelief:
“Strange. She can speak Russian, but she speaks English.”
First of all, I do not understand why I should not speak English if that is more comfortable for me.
Secondly, as a guest, I find it unacceptable for a hotel employee to discuss a guest with a colleague while the guest is still in the room and has not actually left the SPA.
I can only guess why the employee Enur may have been dissatisfied. Perhaps he was offended because I did not want to listen to the SPA service offers.
However, I simply was not interested in those offers. I wanted to relax by the pool, not listen to information about services I did not want to use.
And I certainly did not want to hear hotel employees discussing me afterwards
Overall Impression
Overall, the hotel has excellent potential, especially for families with children.
The Kids’ Club activities are outstanding, the food is delicious, the pool and water park are excellent, and the air conditioning was personally one of the best I have experienced in a hotel.
However, the level of service does not always meet what one would expect from a five-star hotel. The issues with cutlery, coffee machines, waiter availability, pavilion service organisation and the communication of certain staff members may not be major problems individually, but over the course of 13 nights, they occurred often enough to cause disappointment.
Therefore, my overall impression is this: the hotel offers excellent facilities and activities, especially for children, but the organisation of the service and the attitude of some staff members still need improvement."
