I have just returned from 5 days at the Dorian Hotel with my 6 year old son. To say we were disappointed by the hotel and the travel agent would be an understatement.
We were originally booked to stay at another hotel but the hotel later informed me they were closing on the 25 October. On contacting and informing the travel agent, Sunsave, what was going on, i was eventually given the choice of 1 alternative hotel - the Dorian, which i was told was a suitable "4 star" alternative to my original. Having already discarded the Dorian prior to booking our chosen hotel after reading other visitors comments, to then be given no other alternative, other than to pay upto £200 "admin" charge to move to another hotel, i had to accept. I was even told that because a "suitable" alternative had been found, if i wanted to cancel out of the hotel, i would lose all my money. There is no way on this earth that, at that time of the season, the Dorian is 4 star - its barely 3 and for the travel agent (or their hotel booking supplier) to suggest it is, is mis-leading and wrong.
On arrival in the early hours of Monday morning, we were (eventually) greeted by a miserable guy who checked us in, showed us to our room, explained that someone would come and fix the missing lightbulbs in the room, and left us to it.
It would be easy to do a day by day account of what was good and bad, but an overall summary would be:
BAD:
Food - same everyday - poor. Nothing for kids, cold, unappetising to the point where we ate out one night (shouldn't have to do that on an All Inclusive), no snacks between meals for adults or children. Ice cream had to be bought from the onsite mini-mart.
Pool areas - quieter pool was dirty for most of our 5 day stay, spilt drinks left un-cleaned and not once was the water cleaned. Pool near the none existent entertainment area had green algae on the bottom.
Rooms - Ok, after asking 3 times to get the bulbs fixed. The only problem was the menagerie outside - and that godamn Cockeral drove everyone mad - it started at 4.30am one morning!
Staff - scruffy, not very enthused about having people staying in their hotel (who'd have thought), not very helpful and in some cases rude.
Drink - very poor choice. I stuck with beer in the evening, but that ran out one day (and not because i drank it all), little choice for kids as soft drinks were only water, very diluted orange or flat cola. (even the lemonade ran out)
Cleanliness - rooms good, pool area, eating area, paths were all poor - 2 star level.
Family friendly - no. There was no area for my son to play, other than around the pool. Not a great problem as he loves the pool, but a play area would have been good.
Evening entertainment - as far as i could tell, there wasn't any. The brochure says soft animation - but there didn't seem to be any kind of animation other than the evening staff drinking and socialising with a few female guests.
GOOD:
the resort itself is very nice, and the location of the hotel compared to others was good. It was not right in the centre but easliy walkable to the beach, shops and restaurants.
A visit to the Blue Lagoon is recommended, but don't be fooled that the Dorian has its own private beach - it doesn't, it shares it with other hotels. This is not a problem but you do have to pay for sunbeds, parasols, food and drinks.
Its only really the resort and lagoon that stop this from being a "terrible" review.
Overall: i appreciate that this was the last week of the season, but i had paid half term prices (more than the cost advertised on the Sunsave website) and would expect a certain level of service at the hotel.
In terms of service from the travel agent, i will comment once my claim is sorted.
This could be a really good hotel, it just needs care, attention, and an understanding that service is must, until the last customer leaves.
Room Tip: Difficult to say, as the quieter rooms away from the social area are near the menagerie and THAT coc...
See more room tips
This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC
