We had booked a seven day all inclusive stay in the Radisson SAS Sharm el Sheikh with German travel agency Schauinsland. At the check-in the concierge offered us to upgrade from a standard room to a Marine Club room with sea view for an additional special price of € 150, 00 instead of € 300, 00 per week. We refused. After having spent the first night in our room we found out that they had given us exactly the Marine Club room for which they requested € 150 the evening before. It seams as if they didn’t have the room category that we booked available and were thus trying to let us compensate for it. This was by far not the last negative impression this hotel made on us.
Further criticism:
Food, service, cleanness:
Breakfast:
dirty tables, dirty cups and plates as well as missing cutlery. We had to take these things from neighbouring tables as the waiters were sometimes more than inattentive. This is also the reason why we had to wait for coffee until we had finished the first slices of bread. The tea water at the selfservice was never hot, so that it was impossible to make a tea.
Warm buffet:
lousy quality, poor choice, no local or traditional recipes - we had the impression that food which was offered for lunch had been presented sometimes in the same way sometimes modified again for dinner. The mottos of the live-cooking stations that were especially anounced during the day offered the same pasta every evening, special motto dishes were not special. When staying at the shores of the Red Sea one might have the hope that the buffet offers at least some tasty fish dishes, but the only fish we found was a cheap fish with more bones than meat. The offered local red wine was disgusting. The beer was not fresh but filled tens of minutes ago in a plastic pitcher.
All-inclusive:
Being an all-in guest was more like being a second class guest: the waiters were sometimes unfriendly, drinks were only offered in plastic cups while paying guests got glass cups. Alcoholic drinks such as gin, whiskey, rum etc. all tasted like vodka. Big bottles of water seemed to be reserved for paying guests. The last day the concierge advised us that the all-in service terminates at 12: 00 noon although we had to wait until 18: 00 for the pick-up to the airport. At the arrival day on the other hand, we did not receive any food as we arrived after 22: 00. Honestly, we have never experienced such fussy behaviour in any other lower class hotel before.
Room service:
The service itself was good except the fact that the room had not been cleaned until 17: 00 more than once.
Beach:
The wooden sunbeds are in a more than morbid condition. When moving the beds you risked to hold a piece of wood in your hands; dangerous rusty nails everywhere.
We were very much looking forward to a relaxing holiday in a top hotel of the Radisson SAS group. The above described circumstances however did not let a feeling of a 5 star hotel come up at any time. We are more than disappointed. Having presented our view about this hotel to other people staying in different locally owned hotels nobody of those people had experienced the same in terms of all-in service, entertainment, service in general, cleanness etc.
It is really a shame that this hotel calls itself a 5 star hotel of the Radisson group.