JAZ Makadi Oasis Resort — Hotel in Makadi Bay

Brace yourself! The following, outlined in categories, is a little snippet of the stellar experience we've had during our stay.

Pool bar: First and foremost I would like to commend Aziz on his top notch service. He is professional, calm, and quite experienced at making the best pool bar drinks. He has a great demeanour and can create the most creative drinks. They have a great team and he was especially quite extraordinary. He will quite literally make your stay. Salah and Ibrahim were also excellent at making cocktails. They were our go to people when it came to drinks.

Gym and Spa: These amenities are not included in the all inclusive package, so we've signed up for a week gym membership. The facilities is well equipped with the basics you would need for a short stay. Mahrous is the gym manager and he is quite professional and helpful. He would bend over backwards for us and makes such a huge difference in the facility. He was so friendly and we really enjoyed getting to know him. He takes excellent care of the facility.

Buffet: The food is fresh and delicious. They had a good variety of food catering to various cultures. The foul and falafel in the morning was one of my favourites. They also had a variety of cheeses, cold cuts and veggie platters. Something about their salads kept me coming back for more.They were alao famous for their many Ragou dishes.

We've had the best experience with the service of a few of the restaurant staff. Waleed, Tarek, and Mohammed (working the the small restaurant). Waleed would cater to all of our needs. He was keen on making sure we were always satisfied. He greets everyone with a smile and is super friendly. He has phenomenal customer service skills. We were always so happy to see him and chat. Tareks grill station located outside of the large restaurant was to die for. Always such great options. There was usually beef, shrimp, and chicken skewers. He was always ready with all of our requests. Mohammed greeted me every morning at the small restaurant. He is so professional and kind. His service was super. The small restaurant does have a little less variety but it's perfect for a quiet bite to eat.

The desserts are to die for. They have a crepe and waffle station that was always running for breakfast and an icecream station for lunch and dinner. That station was my favourite. The gentlemen taking care of it were so great. They also have an assortment of cakes and middle eastern delicacies.

Entertainment: The entertainment was epic. They had an amazing team that didn't seem like they were working. They had great chemistry amongst one another which transferred to all the guests. Their Aqua zumba and yoga classes were my favourite to attend. Ryan, Shehab, and Mohammad "aka mohammadovich," were always making everyone feel welcome with their friendly demeanour and their great sense of humour. I've been to alot of resorts and this is by far one of the best entertainment teams.

Amenities: They have two pools that are both well kempt. We always saw maintenence and cleaning services regularly. They also have pool and pingpong rooms. The only downside to these rooms is that they are not air-conditioned. Even though they have AC units they aren't well equipped to maintain cooling in such large rooms.

You also have access to the Aqua park included in your stay. The slides range in difdiculty and made for all ages. The only downside to the park is the food. It was quite salty and not appetising. I would recommend bringing snacks.

Check in: Check in was seamless and easy. We were greeted first by Mahmmoud and he was helpful thought the trip. He made check in super easy and gave us all the information we need. They also have everything posted online which makes it super convenient.

Rooms: The room is beautiful with such an interesting outline. It was also well air conditioned; a great way to escape the heat. They had little toiletries in the room and it was super clean. Ahmad kept our room clean and even created the best Swan ever. Such excellent...

A Mixed Experience at Jaz Oasis, Makadi Bay

We recently stayed at the Jaz Oasis for 11 nights as a family of three. While there were some highlights to our stay, several aspects left us disappointed.

The Positives:

The food was definitely the highlight of our trip. In addition to catering to a large German clientele, the hotel also attracts many Arabic guests, which is reflected in the cuisine. We were pleasantly surprised that the food was predominantly Arabic, offering a more authentic experience compared to the more international options we've seen at other hotels. Having stayed at Sunrise chain hotels before, we felt that Jaz Oasis far exceeded them in terms of cuisine, thanks to its focus on Arabic dishes. However, be aware that the grilled options are quite limited here.

Our room was comfortable, with a decent layout. The second section of the room, separated by a curtain, had two sofa beds, which worked well for our family. The terrace was spacious, and though the internet wasn’t the fastest, it was stable – a significant improvement over what we experienced at Sunrise hotels.

The beach itself was beautiful, with vibrant coral reefs. While not as stunning as those at Fort Arabesque or Cleopatra, the reefs were large and full of colorful fish. In fact, the coral reefs here were far superior to the ones near the Sunrise hotel. The only downside was that the sunbeds were packed a bit too closely together, but overall, we really enjoyed the beach. It took about 7 minutes to walk from our room to the beach.

The Negatives:

Unfortunately, the service was a major letdown. Despite tipping nearly 100 Euros over our stay, the service from most staff members was disappointing. Even after being tipped, many servers, bartenders, and other hotel staff didn’t meet our expectations, and those who weren't tipped often wouldn’t even smile. At checkout, there wasn’t even a simple "goodbye" or "safe travels," which felt cold and unwelcoming.

There were a few exceptions. Mohammed in the buffet provided excellent service even before we tipped him. Mohammed in housekeeping was also great, always keeping our room spotless and greeting us daily. The staff at the gym, including the young man cleaning, were friendly and kind, as was the beach/gym manager, also named Mohammed.

Speaking of the gym, it was quite disappointing. Charging a substantial extra fee for an outdated, un-air-conditioned gym with partially broken equipment felt unjustified. With outside temperatures reaching 35°C, the gym was equally stifling, and it closed early at 7 p.m. In comparison, even budget motels in the U.S. offer free gym access, so we found this charge surprising.

The Downsides:

One notable absence at Jaz Oasis is the lack of any animation or entertainment team. If you are looking for daily activities or a good amount of evening shows, you’ll need to visit the neighboring Jaz Saraya, which offers a full animation program.

The service at the beach food court was just as lackluster as inside the hotel. Sadly, we all fell ill during our stay. We experienced vomiting, diarrhea, nausea, and headaches, and I even had a mild fever. We believe it was caused by some uncooked salads we tried, as our symptoms started after eating them and subsided once we stopped. Thankfully, our son only threw up once.

Why I’m Giving 4 Stars:

I feel that the 4 stars I’m giving are very generous, and this rating is largely due to the incredibly low price compared to nearly all other hotels in Makadi Bay. The good food, decent rooms, and nice beach for such an affordable price justify the 4 stars, despite the very lackluster service. If the price had been higher, I would have rated the experience much lower.

Overall, while Jaz Oasis has some excellent qualities – particularly its food and beautiful beach – the poor service and unfortunate health issues left us with mixed feelings...

So, we heard great things about this hotel, saw the gleaming reviews, and for the most part the stay started off fairly well, but things turned sour. Mainly, my friend with whom I shared my room became dangerously sick with bacterial food poisoning (there was blood, it was scary). The onset of this came as a result of the hotel food. Whilst the hotel staff, and the kitchen staff (who were wonderful, Eid is the manager and he couldn't do enough) were very supportive once my friend was sick, the management of the hotel were not so great. It turned out that unless you are willing to tip, generously, you don't get much there (kitchen staff excluded). But essentially on arrival we had a man take our luggage with impatience and bad attitude (he was not tipped!), and everyone was your friend until they had your money. The spa staff took exceptional tips from me for arranging a birthday spa session for one of our friends, it turns out they happily took my money but did nothing extra as they'd promised. Like I say, everyone there is your 'friend' until they have your money or they decide that you haven't given enough.

If you have specific food needs (gluten/wheat free) do not trust the labels in the restaurant (ever). On several occasions our friend took a chance only to find wheat in dishes and deserts, so be mindful of this.

Another annoyance was that the room service teams would leave the doors open whilst they changed your bedding and towels, and the mosquitos would come in. Each day we'd hunt them to kill them, after the third day I asked the room service team if they could avoid leaving the door open as they were allowing mosquitos to spoil our nights sleep. They ignored this. One kind chap did give us a plug-in repellent but it didn't work, so we still had to try to flush out the blighters each night. Our friends who didn't do this ended up with swollen feet because they were bitten so much! It is a simple thing to keep a door closed and be mindful not to open doors and windows if a guest has otherwise asked, it got to the point that we just asked them to leave the room service to avoid the nightly exhaustive hunt/kill ritual!

One of our group of 5 did not speak English or Arabic, she'd never been on holiday before and was unaware of the late checkout fees. She was out of her room before the time they stated and put her belongings into our room, but she hadn't then handed in her card to check out. They hit us with a €50 charge, even though we had paid for late checkout as had the third room we booked, but despite pleas for them to consider all the generous tips and her naïve mistake they kept us waiting whilst our transfer was waiting for 20 minutes only to then tell us we had to pay another €50. This was after the £600 medical bill for getting my friend on an IV and a shot of antibiotics and pain relief. As I say, the only nice people were the entertainment staff, the room service (generously tipped) and the Kitchen manager and waiting team. Otherwise don't expect anything without lots of money, and even then don't expect them to keep their word! Lesson learned, we won't go back. Note - the friend who was poisoned posted a damning review on Trip Advisor and the hotel staff have tried to make out that this is nothing to do with them.

In summary, don't expect anything without tipping. Don't think a single tip will buy you favour for long. Don't believe them when they say they'll do something, they'll still take your money anyway, but nothing will be done in most instances. And don't eat the chicken or salads if you don't want to end up with a fever and sky-high medical bill - I would suggest you stick to the cooked vegetables only, and this was...