IL Mercato Hotel & Spa — Hotel in South Sinai

So there are a few positives to this hotel, but far more negatives and I’ve been to many places in Egypt that are far better.||I went with my wife and 2 young children for 21 days. Spreading from end June to middle July 2025.||The hotel has a lot of work going on and I’m sure it’ll be better in a couple of years. But right now, I would avoid. ||I’ll start with some positive points and finish with the negatives. Sorry for the lengthy review, but it is honest. ||Positives:|Aqua park for my kids was phenomenal, kids loved it and enjoyed each day we went. Wife and I did also.||Staff: every single bar person was great, no complaints and really nice. Ahmed, moustafa, Mohammed and the rest. All brilliant and focused on making everyone’s holiday special. ||Room: our first room was horrendous, but reception manager dealt with our complaint and allocated a better room for a family. No complaints with the 2nd room, clean and tidy and not with a view of the restaurant (or from the restaurant and hallways).||1 member of the animation team: Vika, amazing with the kids, lots of love shown and my kids have returned to the uk talking about her. ||Terrazina beach: really good staff that I assume work for the hotel or the beach bar/restaurant. We went a few times, got lovely area without tipping and also purchased food and drinks from the restaurant, which was decently priced and really good!||Negatives:||Food: for the size of the hotel and only having 1 buffet restaurant is appalling. Food is pretty basic but edible, however, each day was almost identical. Even when there was a theme night, the food selection was essentially 1 additional dish. |No staff ensuring people did not jump the queue and it seemed like some of the staff prioritised others, and allowed queue jumping, |The restaurant upstairs for an Italian meal: I assume is was something on our night, but it was terrible. Food worse than the buffet, someone was sick and it wasn’t cleaned up, drinks were the same as the bars. Food was not Italian in any sense. ||Drinks: lager was generally ok but also warm unless you asked for cold, cocktails were terrible. Ice was not always available. ||Pool staff: a few of the yellow shirt life guards pay too much attention to people outside of the pools, instead of doing their job. They do not control anything and it’s a bit of a free for all. Although my kids enjoyed the pools. I felt like I needed to take extra attention on them as there wasn’t many staff looking at the people in the pool, ||Toilets: not cleaned regularly and quite poor. Staff smoke in the toilets so no cubicles available on some occasions. Not ideal to take a girl in the men’s toilets or as my wife said, boys in a woman’s. ||Animation staff (other than Vika): nothing on time, no effort to include people. More interested in relaxing and not working. Kids club was good because of Vika, but the room is dirty and needs updated. ||Evening entertainment: we did not hear a singer upstairs, once. Just someone playing an instrument alongside a record. Some dancers were ok but basic stuff. It was quite normal for the upstairs stage area to be half full at 10pm because it wasn’t great, ||Shops opposite front of hotel: hair dresser and market over inflate prices and are not normal to the shops on the left and right of the hotel. Avoid the small one’s opposite and you’ll be fine. ||Like I said, there are some positives but many negatives. I will not be returning although I am sure as work is completed, the hotel will become better. I also think 1 week in the hotel would be pretty good, if you go with kids and take advantage of the splash pool. ||I have given the hotel 3 stars because of the splash pool area and the bar staff. Without them, it...

Firstly, the staff are amazing and doing an incredible job with what they have. They made our holiday, go above and beyond for the guests and are just great guys. ||I probably would have given a higher rating if it hadn't been for all of the false advertising. |There are approximately 2 places to eat within walking distance, the majority of Il Mercato promenade is now rubble with a hint of building works, though mostly rubble with a hint of the shadow of what it must have once been. ||Einstein's cafe is a 5ish minute walk and do a cracking breakfast, evening meals are also tasty and reasonably priced. ||Sweet corner has the best coffee in Sharm, and you're guaranteed a friendly welcome. Venture back more than once, and your order will be remembered as you're welcomed back in like an old friend. ||The Fake Museum has plenty of trinkets and beautiful papyrus at a fraction of the price in Naama Bay.||There's also a couple of local supermarkets, the one by the Mickey Store has some incredible bargains, as does Mickey store.|A couple of pharmacies and that's about all that's within walking distance. ||The Mango Market is OK, but nothing special and Old Sharm is much more vibrant.||The shops and promenade shown on Il Mercato's social media page no longer exists and is not part of the hotel grounds, rather an area named after the hotel.||The activities and entertainment shown on Il Mercato's social media page were not from the day, week, or year that they were posted and many of the activities posted, such as exotic birds on the hotel grounds every Wednesday, did not materialise.||Most attractions listed within walking distance are now closed, unfortunately the dolphin show remains open even if the crocodile show is no more.||If I had known that the hotel was a taxi ride from most shops and restaurants, and if the social media page had shown what is actually on offer, I would have probably awarded 4 stars based on the hotel itself and the staff. ||As we had all been expecting a full resort with local restaurants and full shopping centres rather than empty buildings and empty spaces where buildings had been, we started our holiday disappointed and quite frustrated. ||Once we had adjusted our expectations, it wasn't too bad.|The hotel is clean, the rooms are comfortable, the food is the usual buffet food but is cooked well and my wife and I did not go hungry.||There are shuttle buses to the beaches, security is very good and will log if you leave the grounds in any transport not provided by the hotel. ||The local alcohol is awful, but I'm not overly bothered by not drinking, so not really an issue for me but may be for others. ||I cannot praise the staff enough, all were very respectful and professional, and none could do enough for you.||Ahmed, Abanoub from the upstairs bar and Muhammed from the relaxation pool were especially attentive and absolute gentlemen. ||Ultimately, the hotel is clean, friendly and the food is edible. Personally, I don't think it was quite worth what we paid for it and we have booked another hotel in Sharm for around the same price but with much more amenities, so it's possible that the false advertising is the only way Il Mercato can compete. At least until the empty stores a rented out and the restaurants and cafes rebuilt.||What few businesses that remain are very good, though very far away from literally anything else and seem to have few customers as a result, which is a shame. ||I would stay at I'll Mercato again, though I wouldn't pay more than 75% of the cost of my first visit, now that I know there's very...

The hotel has changed almost all of its staff this year; some are unprofessional! They do not talk politely with guests. The way they deal with you depends on your nationality (Racism). This is why you will find conflicting feedback about how the staff deals with gusts. If your nationality is superior, they will respect you and provide good room service. Otherwise, the room service will be moderate, and the receptionist may talk disrespectfully, and sometimes they have side-talk on you and laugh. I had other friends I met in the hotel who were treated differently, they had a fancy room with towel decoration daily on the bed, which did not happen for us! One day we found they did not change the towels in our room.

The animation team has also changed, and the current team's performance is low compared to last year. One of them, Zezo, kept asking us to have a photo on the beach where we pretended that we were doing activities to send it to his manager! He told me, and I noticed the same behavior with others: "Just come one minute and have a picture pretending we are doing stretching for my manager". In addition, I stayed there for about eight days; we only had one day where the animation show was international (really amazing) and another day for the fire-man show. On the remaining days, they brought Arabic shows, which annoyed me. In particular, they did bring a live Arabian signer twice when we expected to have live music instead based on the show schedule. Furthermore, the animation team's parties and discos to gusts are unsafe for girls. Bad men out there trying to sneak and touch girls. I believe the main reason for having this kind of man is how the animation team uses it for advertising parties. I noticed they mention that a party/disco has girls (foreign girls) to make it attractive for men to pay for tickets. I did notice they only use this way to advertise the parties, which eventually ends with disaster for the parties later. Lastly, Palma beach no longer has a bar! So no more drinks on that beach.

In contrast, the bar staff was nice and kind, and they offer a variety of drinks (Hot&Cold), which wasn't the case last year. Same for food and chiefs crew. They are so professional and serve you at the dining table without asking.

Last comment about the management of the hotel. I notice that the way they deal with negative feedback is to fight back instead of having constructive actions to tackle the issues. I did post my review two days, and the management contacted my friends in the hotel to ask me to delete my feedback. When I refused, they replied to my feedback stating that I had bad behavior with hotel clients. I am being honest here since I am getting nothing from that. 🙂 I was recommending this hotel to my friends, even foreign ones, but I will not...