The Makadi Spa Hotel — Hotel in Makadi Bay

Despite its name and the fact that SPA is included in property facilities on booking, receptionist is fooling me claiming that name is tricky and everyone thinks that it must have a SPA as it is called Makadi SPA hotel.

Too many people to deal with upon your arrival at the reception; someone collects your documents and asks you to wait then another brings you document to sign then a third tells you info about hotel then first pass your document to a fourth to get you back your documents then you go back to first to pay and ask for room access card then tells you it is with another person, it was really annoying.

Our guide to the room kept illustrating to me the room and its contents for too long in a way that only means he wants money, then in less than 5 mins someone kept endlessly knocking the door and when I opened I found the cleaning guy introducing himself and asking for much details in a very annoying way.

Mobile network and hotel Wi-Fi are awfully poor and it is hard to communicate with anyone through cellular network or internet. Bedsheets weren’t clean with dark stains and visible signs of wear and tear and when called reception to change them it took them hours.

Receptionist informed that there is minibar full of free items and it only contains 1 liter of soda drink.

Price for three nights were 160 dollars more than the price shown on booking.

Bedsheets weren’t clean with dark stains and visible signs of wear and tear

Electricity went off twice in the first day once at the room two hours after my checkin and a second time at the restaurant while having dinner

There is no gym

Waiter showered myself and my wife with coke and they apologized justifying he is in training Food quality wasn’t good

There is no ventilation in elevator with bad smell you better always take stairs if your stay in second or third floor

Cleaning guy is so annoying almost knocking door everyday asking to clean the room despite that I told him first day I will call room service when I need it

Third day electricity outage one more time 9:30 in the morning

Swimming pools in general are not clean and not well maintained

Untrained staff specially those who offer massage, photography, ..etc asking too much questions like where you from, when you checked in and when you leave

Food at all restaurants is below average and can’t be a 5 star hotel. They provide poor open buffet for breakfast with low quality coffee, I believe it is local Nescafé. For lunch and dinner it is a la Carte menu which should supposedly make food quality better but it doesn’t and it takes too long to serve food and food portions are kind of small. Despite the all inclusive offer, you are not allowed to pick more than an item per menu category per person appetizer/soup/main dish/desset

I had a big room with weak AC

I had two guests with me who had already registered their information with the hotel management. We planned to visit a cafe on the premises, but since it closed at 10 pm, we decided to go to a cafe in a neighboring hotel, intending to pay for our orders. However, upon entering the neighboring cafe, the manager suddenly noticed that my guests didn't have the hotel bracelets. He treated them rudely and turned the situation into a big problem, despite us following his rules and leaving the cafe immediately. The situation didn't stop there, as both the security personnel and the manager of the neighboring hotel pursued us in an irritating manner. They questioned us extensively and then reported the incident to my hotel. Upon returning to my hotel, I was confronted by a group of security staff who asked me to go to the reception for further questioning. The whole situation turned into a dramatic ordeal, all for the simple purpose of enjoying coffee and casual conversation with my guests.

This is way too far from being a 5 star hotel 3 maximum 4 would be fair Poor value for money Strongly not commended Better alternatives: Albatross Citadel Sahl Hasheesh KaiSol Sahl Hasheesh An Airbnb unit in a cool place like El Gouda...

We found the Markida Spa to be a very palatial hotel, with excellent customer service. The rooms are large and fairly well equipped. Our room came with a US King-Size bed (very comfortable / lots of pillows) and a large bathroom with toilet room and wet-room style bath and shower. The ‘rain shower’ attachment leaked horribly but the standard shower head was fine.

Our room was partitioned by a large, lit shelving area (complete with large pots/vases), which looked nice but completely obstructed the view of the TV from the bed.

Considering that the hotel gives the appearance of being built out of solid rock, we were disappointed by the amount of noise from adjoining rooms.

Our balcony was large and provided a sea view. The balcony had nice seating but was very open to people in neighbouring rooms and provides no privacy.

The room’s air conditioning seemed to be operating but struggled to keep our room cooled to our desired temperature (approx 19 degrees). We left it running all night, which was noisy but preferable to a hot bedroom.

Outside, we had no problem finding sunbeds although the hateful habit of ‘reserving sunbeds’ and not using them for hours on end was very evident. I understand that the hotel is more inclined to address this problem as its capacity increases.

The pools are large, the water is clean and (at the time of our visit) a tad on the cool side! The problem with the pools is the terrible state of the tiled floors, large patches of which are missing making it very unsightly and a little hard walking on. This desperately needs to be resolved because it looks shoddy. Pool towels (nice ones) are provided but there is no ‘towel station’ to have them replaced. Instead, towels are left outside your room each evening and a chap walks around replacing them. This seems highly inefficient.

The route to the beach/sea is easy and there are additional sunbeds, etc on the beach although some are charged – and the sun-bed reserving practice is very prevalent in this area. You need water shoes because the rocks entering the sea are very rough to walk on.

There are loads of showers to wash off the sand and ‘stickiness’ from being in the sea – and, of course, the sea life is plentiful.

The Markida Spa has a plethora of a la carte restaurants to choose from within the hotel and the additional hotels (and ‘mall’) on the same complex. We had no problems booking. We also used the main buffet restaurant in the hotel (and used it for breakfast). Unfortunately, we find the food to be a bit bland – beautifully presented in most cases – but just not very flavoursome. All of the a la carte restaurants have a menu where the number of ‘non-inclusive’ choices equals or outnumbers the number of inclusive dishes you can select from. Personally I’d like to see more inclusive dishes with the odd ‘special’ that needs to be paid for.

Similarly with the drinks, if you want anything that isn’t considered ‘local', be prepared to pay. This is certainly the most restricted variety of inclusive drinks/brands that I have come across on similar priced all-inclusive holidays.

So, we generally had a very positive experience – but not without the odd concern mentioned above. Most important to failing for us was the complete lack of any hand hygiene stations at any of the restaurants. We’re lucky enough to cruise quite regularly and any cruise go-er will know that you can’t get near any food without being actively encouraged to use the hygiene stations. As someone who can suffer from a ‘dicky-tummy’ I’m all for it and worry when such facilities are not present. As a 5-star hotel, I think this is something that the Markida Spa must address – and we raised this with them.

Other things were simple silly oversights, like the fact that toilet rolls are not replaced frequently enough. A very nice towelling dressing gown is supplied but none of the little flip-flop slippers that usually accompany them. Our balcony door...

My wife and I spent a 14-day vacation in the first half of August at the Makadi Spa, which is part of a resort with several hotels of the Red Sea Hotel Group. I would like to start by saying that every review is subject to individual perception and is therefore clearly subjective. Therefore, for a better classification for third parties: We love tasty, varied food from all over the world, gladly also on a higher culinary level, we like to drink red/white quality wines and preferably look for quiet hotels (adults only) in higher price ranges.

The conclusion right away: The price-performance ratio is good. We paid 1680 euros per person for the entire arrangement with Austrian flights Vienna-Hurghada-Vienna (travel agency booking). And it certainly goes even cheaper, as we learned from German guests on site. However, other guests who spent several en suite vacations at Makadi Spa prior to Covid said the hotel had suffered an overall decline in quality.

Now to the special aspects: The complex is beautiful to look at, especially at night with lighting; the two pools are generously laid out; the cleanliness of the pools, however, left much to be desired at times; but it improved significantly after several interventions. At times there was construction, hammering and sawing going on in parts of the complex (supposedly on a new spa area), which I personally found annoying. We had a room on the second level with a view of the pool area and into the bay. The cleaning service was very attentive and omnipresent; was also adequately appreciated by us with a tip.

In the hotel, guests can choose between several themed restaurants and a buffet restaurant. The selection was extensive, the food also largely tasty, but after a few days, gastrointestinal problems set in with both of us, which accompanied us until the end of the vacation, although we obtained locally recognized medications (Diax, etc.) from the pharmacy in the hotel complex. According to our perception, we were not the only guests who had such health problems. We also got an impression during our vacation at the Steigenberger Makadi golf hotel; there they pump seawater up to the hotel, desalinate and filter the water centrally, and only then distribute it throughout the hotel. How this infrastructure is in the Red Sea Hotels is beyond our knowledge. Perhaps a word about the wines: The house wines of Egyptian provenance are flat and usually not properly chilled. So those who prefer European quality wines will find less palate pleasing here; only the red Jardin du Nil (chargeable, around 30 euros for the bouteille) is drinkable from the perspective described above.

As in other hotels, the usual run on the sun loungers in and around the pools starts in the early morning hours, although all unoccupied early reservations are removed by 07:00. Late risers, however, usually still find a place ...

The resort is probably experiencing the first strong vacation season after the past Covid waves; infrastructurally, there was apparently little work or renovation during this time; this is noticeable in the details in the rooms, in the corridors or in the hotel grounds (pools, etc.). When it comes to staff, the Egyptian tourism industry seems to have similar problems as in Europe. Many employees changed their orientation during the Covid closure or did not return to the hotel business. Nevertheless, the service teams at the reception, in the restaurants, on the toilet facilities, etc. were very eager throughout, although the employees are subject to greater stress in all respects than workers in Europe (working hours, etc.).

We would especially like to highlight the young, attentive and also inquisitive employee Mohamed Rabiea (bus boy), whom we wish a successful career; this also in the hope that the hotel management may consider our feedback...