Royal Taj Mahal Hotel

We really enjoyed our stay at the hotel. The location is ideal; you're right on the beach, the dolmus (shared taxi) stops just across the street, and shopping is within easy reach. We have absolutely nothing negative to say about the hotel. The staff is very friendly and helpful. Everything was clean. The food was excellent, with a wide variety of choices. Our room had a terrace with sun loungers, a table, and chairs. We stayed at the hotel over New Year's Eve. A special New Year's Eve party was organized for guests who weren't attending the gala program. We can confidently recommend this hotel.

Overall, our stay was very pleasant and a great experience. It was our first holiday in Turkey. The hotel is quite large and impressive. However, you can also see here and there that the hotel is showing its age. Signs of wear and tear are visible almost everywhere if you look closely, especially in the rooms. The beds were a bit hard, but after a brief request to improve the situation, we had an extra mattress over 10 cm thick on each bed an hour later, and from then on we slept really well. The resort is very large; we were there in October, so it was by no means overcrowded. There are many pools, so the tourists can spread out. There were also plenty of sun loungers and spots on the beach. The service in general surprised us very positively. Whether at the beach bar, during meals, or at the hotel bar, the service was always very courteous and generally very friendly and helpful. The children had fun. There are several slides. However, these are not open all the time. It was perhaps a bit of a shame here and there to have to hold the children back and wait until it reopened. The food was consistently excellent, the selection enormous, and there really was something for everyone.

We stayed at this hotel for 16 days. It has a fantastic beachfront location and a great view from the outside, and for the most part, the bar staff and fitness trainers were good, but that's about it! Relaxation was out of the question. The rooms are incredibly noisy! For the first four days, it was as if our neighbors were sitting in our bed. For the following days, people moved in on either side of us every other day! Especially at night! So much for sleeping and relaxing. The receptionist just said that's how it is and was extremely unfriendly! More on that in a moment! Ants in our room on the 4th floor (see photo), mold in the bathroom (the manager explained that this is normal when people are constantly coming and going), dust several centimeters high on the doors, baseboards, and electrical outlets, torn wallpaper, and holes in the floor under the carpet (you had to watch your step). In short, the problems are everywhere in the hotel. The organization of the New Year's Eve gala dinner was a disaster! Too many people for the windowless, dim room. You couldn't move around, or even lie down. The salad was served without dressing and the promised Parmesan cheese, and the main course took forever to arrive, and then it was cold! The dining room was more than half empty at 10 pm. On January 1st and 2nd, beer was only available in limited quantities (bottled beer was completely unavailable)! Likewise, no cream was offered on coffee. The waiter simply said they were out. (Five stars, indeed!). The beach bar was only open sporadically; it was open on one day when the outside temperature was 9 degrees Celsius and closed on the day when it was 19 degrees. It gave me the impression that they were trying to save on drinks. The food was nothing special, almost always the same, and after New Year's Eve, it was simply leftovers. It was also almost always cold. The front part of the restaurant was very smoky from the grills, making it unpleasant to eat there. From January onwards, there was also free construction noise (jackhammers) every day from about 7:30 am. When I asked about it, they simply said they were renovating the rooms. There was no prior notification, and other guests reported that staff suddenly appeared in their rooms and demanded they pack immediately and move to another room. When we got new neighbors again on day 12, who were practically sleeping in our bed, we'd finally had enough! This time we complained to the tour operator, and even the receptionist tried to weasel her way out of it with empty phrases. The assertive tour guide put her in her place, and although we didn't get the large comfort room we had booked, it was quieter and somewhat cleaner than the first one. In the end, we learned that the hotel's greed alone was to blame for the inconvenience, as they didn't want to close for a few months for renovations like other hotels. Furthermore, the receptionist admitted that they had overbooked the sea-view rooms. Overall, the hotel gives a very dark (little natural light) and dreary impression, whether in the lobby bar, the night bar, or the entrance area. The restaurants were closed for the entire 16 days. The Wi-Fi was very poor in the gym and barely available on the beach. Overall, this hotel is nothing like a 5-star establishment. It's an outdated and dirty hotel that shows no regard for cleanliness, hospitality, or attention to detail. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone! We've been to Turkey many times before, and we've never stayed in such a bad 5-star hotel.