Hotel "Kristal" — Hotel in Varna

We started this whole vacation on the wrong foot, once we arrived at the hotel we were greeted by an employee who told us to quickly unload the car and take it to the parking lot they have a contract with (somewhere 400 meters from the hotel in a dusty parking lot). When we got there, we were greeted by a guy (in flip-flops with his belly out, with 3-centimeter-long, black nails who told us very briefly that we had to pay for the entire parking fee directly and that we couldn't pay for 1 day and then take money out of the card and pay for the rest) 20 leva per day x 7 nights...Directly 455 lei for parking. (The receipt is only available upon request and I recommend that you ask for it because we had more surprises when we left) At the hotel, initially they didn't want to check us in until we paid for the parking, even though we were with small children who obviously needed sleep and not this kind of crap. (they said, "Let me check in...parking is more important") During the stay, we managed to make all 3 families I was with get a full-blown enterocolitis (not from the food...from the drinking water - so don't take juices and water from the dispensers because you risk it, the water had a strange taste...you couldn't taste it in the juice) The bathrooms at the pool next to the football field smelled terrible. The sunbeds, obviously occupied by the good morning with towels Queues for the snack at 12 o'clock, super long queues - waiting time 30 min+, one of the employees who made the shawarma moves like a turtle The elevators, small and hard to catch The room being located on the 6th floor (the last floor) was quite hot, the air conditioning couldn't cope, the technician said that this is... the 6th floor is not the 3rd floor and that there is nothing he can do (although the reception said that they would cancel the card operation part so that the air conditioning would work all the time - they didn't) On the food side - at breakfast - many bad salamis, parizer etc. Lunch and dinner - horrible pasta sauce - and sliced salamis for the sauce A lot of plastic waste, extreme I would say... each drink comes in a 330ml plastic cup, you practically drink 20 beers or juices and throw away 20 glasses..super waste On departure, the guy in the parking lot wanted to make us pay 20 leva…because that's what the system told him that we had exceeded by 18 hours…with scandal and talking to his boss he said he let us leave…but anyway under any criticism of the parking lot. ASK FOR THE VOUCHER SO YOU CAN PROVE IT…otherwise..pay..only to take advantage is desired

As for the good parts, the cooked food is good and you have a choice, thematic evenings (Italian, Asian, etc.) The rooms and the hotel are clean They have a (small) playground but they have The pools are clean, they are cleaned with a robot in the evening You get towels for the pool (based on a card you pick...

Overpriced facilities, shocking customer service, boring for children and families and dismally untrained staff. I'm not cheap I'm happy to pay for most things as long as they are worth it but £25 for an hour of football and £2.50 for a game of pool is shocking. Adults rent pitches back in the UK for this price, this pitch is run down and aimed at the users of this 'kid and family friendly' hotel. And we all know it's 50p maybe £1 for a game of pool. Both of these amenities were a waste if time anyway because the pitch flood lights didn't work and the pool table was broken.

Next comes the terrible customer service which to be fair I don't think is the employee's fault. I think they are very much lacking in training. It is the begining of the season so hopefully it will get better but currently they appear to have opened a hotel which isn't family friendly, is certainly not catered to English speakers, is lacking any kind of customer service apart from the dining and bar staff, and totally lacks any life and soul. I am by no means a 'party animal' but nothing on at night around the pool, dining or bar areas apart from the kind of things you'd expect in your local conservative/labour/working men's club; actually their entertainment is far superior. My children are so bored, the pool is the only thing that is entertaining.

Rooms and hotel in terms of appearance are really appealing but clearly looks are very deceiving.

I will be discussing all of this with the manager tomorrow, he isn't here at the moment, the hotel has been left in the hands of people with no authority to make decisions and who don't understand much of anything relating to the hospitality industry.

I will be in communication with the company we booked with also to discuss the misleading description of this hotel.

And depending on the outcome of tomorrow, I may just do all I can to salvage my holiday and pay for another hotel. I can only assume the positive reviews I have come across recently and before I booked were either not legitimate or that things have changed a lot since they were written.

I am three days into my holiday and problems have escalated from day one. If you have a family and want to be entertained and recieve even a standard level of customer service you are accustomed to, i strongly recommend you look alsewhere, I am and I will update this review with my...

Travel from Varna airport to the hotel takes about 1h15m. We were at the hotel in August 2021. Kristal is typical 4* Bulgarian hotel, rooms are cleaned every day but furnished without taking care to do job properly, especially in bathroom (loose handles, a broken tile, loose tap etc.) but it is a problem of every touristic hotels. The hotel staff is polite and do everything to clean after some difficult guests. Pools are quite clean but the are too little sunbeds vs number of guests so at 9 am all sunbeds are reserved by “towels” (hotel should equipped pool area with more sunbeds). Animation program is the same in every hotel in Bulgaria (volleyball, table tennis, darts, water gymnastic and standard activities for children). Food is very good and everyone can find something tasty. Drinks like juice, tea and coffee are poor quality (especially coffee). All inclusive is without whiskey (gin, rum, brendy, vodka, beer and R/W wine). In our room air conditioning was quite noisy (it was a problem for me during night) and worked inefficient probably because it is a centralized A/C. Walk to a tiny free zone of beach takes 15 minutes (1,4km because there is no straight way between the hotel and the beach, check on google maps!). This part of beach was really crowded. A sunbed or an umbrella costs 6 lv/day. To summarise: the hotel is not perfect but quality vs price is acceptable in my case. If I arrive to Bulgaria next time I will choose a 4* hotel in Sunny Beach region (more free zones on beach, shorter distance hotel-beach, more shallow coast (100m off the coast water depth is about 2m), shorter distance...