Pickalbatros Royal Grand Resort - Sharm El Sheikh — Hotel in South Sinai

Pickalbertros royal grand Sharm el Sheik

From the moment of being greeted by the reception staff, we have had a stress free, trouble free holiday. Reception staff We had been communicating vie email with reception staff and this paid off, as we were given an upgrade room (2119) in a quiet part of the hotel, which overlooked a swimming pool and this was hardly used and felt like our own. All our questions were answered, we had a problem with the room safe, security were knocking at our door within minutes and explained how to reset it. Rooms Our room was very large and immaculate, our room boy was so helpful and left our room so clean with various flowers left on the bed. The bed linen was good quality and made for a good nights sleep. The grounds Are immaculate the gardeners work tirelessly to maintain the grounds. No litter, plenty of bins. A simple hello one day to a gardener and the following day given a bunch of freshly picked flowers to give to my wife. It’s that simple. Curtesy is simple. Pools Well kept, tested everyday. As I have already said, we stayed mostly around the pool outside our room which was very quiet, the main pool, was, completely different. Pool bar, again staff were great, the animation team presented there daily schedule around the pool. There was music, but many other guests also had their own music playing, so it was loud but ok. There was a night time foam party, not for us, but the music did sound good. The lobby bar. A big thanks to Yashiou who made us feel welcomed and was so happy when he saw us. Beach bar Ahmed Eldhlab who again was always smiling always sat us down and served us drinks and was very attentive. Life guards Mohammed the towel man always happy to serve and many many more wonderful staff, including all the chefs. Soprano restaurant The main buffet restaurant, the food was plentiful, fresh and well presented. So much choice for breakfast lunch and dinner there was always something for everyone. Fresh omelette for breakfast, made to order pasta for lunch, fresh prawns and a whole roasted lamb was one of many dishes we had. The chefs are all well presented and thrive on compliments. The waiting staff, always happy to see you, always asking how you are, do you need anything. Please remember this is an international hotel with many different nationalities and cultures from Russia, Israel, Turkey, Japan and of course British. We only met one other English person staying in the hotel. Always remember a smile, a please and thank you and a “how are you?” go’s a long way in Egypt this was proven by the service given to us. Culina Restaurant You had to book this restaurant with customer relations, for dinner only in advance and we had to select our main course. The restaurant is outside. I ordered the seafood and was not disappointed with salmon, prawns, calamari, presented to me. My wife had chicken which again was presented very well. You also have a bottle of iced wine with your meal. The Spa On day one we had a couples full spa, steam,sauna, Turkish bath, scrub and massage, I’ve never had such a full massage like this it was truly great, we both felt amazing after this. You could also have a shower in the spa, if you are departing after checkout time.

Royal Grand you have some truly great staff who work very long hours and do an amazing job, we wish we could have rewarded each an every one of them. Would we recommend this hotel ? DEFINITELY Would we return to this...

many previous visits to Egypt Review of Pickalbatros Royal Grand Resort - Sharm El Sheikh We checked into our room and I was immediately disappointed, very dated and unimpressive. Our room was supposedly an accessible room my husband is disabled. The bed was comfortable enough but when it came to using the shower it simply flooded the whole bathroom floor, using crutches in such an environment is simply a death trap, the housekeeping solution was to put towels and “non slip” bath mats on the floor which made it worse than ever. We did eventually manage to move to another room which was better, however the shower in there was totally unsuitable/unsafe for a disabled person using crutches or a wheelchair ( my husband did discuss this with the front of house manager . The 1st week we were there the resort was FULL of young, drunk, aggressive men who literally made my 18 year old granddaughters life a misery, she was subjected to some terrible, inappropriate behaviour from these men, even myself and my sister in law were the subject of such behaviour. A close Egyptian friend of ours visited us and stayed overnight, at dinner that night he got up and moved away from the table behind , puzzled we asked why he said the group of young men seated at that table were disrespecting all our party, he said he didn’t want to listen to such “ nasty men and their comments “ he said he was really upset but wouldn’t tell us what they were saying for fear of upsetting us . One of these young men around the main pool with his friends during the day had a weapon tattooed under his left breast, others proudly parading inappropriate organisation support, very uncomfortable atmosphere.We couldn’t get near the pool bar for these men, and the pool bar area/surfaces were filthy. Every day from 10am the music was incessant, because of this we simply couldn’t sit around the main pool , far too loud and could be heard across the WHOLE resort and carried on until midnight. Large TV screen on the terrace, blaring out music all evening, not easy to have a conversation. The 2nd week Russians guests had checked in, yet again more drunk aggressive behaviour, however one young Russian lad did apologise to us for “ his countries behaviour “ The bar staff in the lobby bar, rarely got our drinks order right, that’s if it came at all, when asked where our order was Abdo simply laughed at me ! The very few good points about the resort ( Most ) of the staff were superb especially Mahmood in the main restaurant and Ahmed who worked in the beach bar during the day and main restaurant on a night, my goodness Ahmed was a complete superstar. The grounds and gardens are clean and well kept. Due to the constant VERY loud music and entertainment activities this resort is more akin to 18/30 age group. A member of entertainment team at one point literally uttered the immortal words “ don’t bother with those, they are English” Partly due to our family groups experience at this resort we will not return to Egypt for any...

Bar Staff - Really good service Food Staff - Really good service Beach Bar Staff - Really good service Room cleaners - Good Reception Staff, a mixture of really good people and a couple of ignorant receptionists.

Entertainment staff- Some male team members were annoying, however the girls know how to deal with customers. In general, the entertainment team do not understand their customer market and are often annoying when constantly trying to encourage clients to partake in preplanned activities. You will notice the main pool area is vacated by customers when entertainment staff play music too load.

Food Hall. You have sauces above the salad bar unopened, customers want convenience, not to be messing around trying to open bottles, taking off plastic packaging, wrappers etc. The general quality of food is okay but nothing special, food presentation is very poor with no attention to detail, people eat with their eyes.

Christmas Eve food looked and tasted exceptional; however, customer management was shambolic. Desserts were presented first, and customers queued for quite some time wanting starters but having to bypass desserts etc. Service was quite chaotic with customers struggling to find plates and understand were to queue for starters. Customers didn’t know if drinks were served via waters service or if they had to go to the bar. There were multiple members of middle management who didn’t offer any value, they were generally a hindrance to more productive of service staff.

On the whole Christmas service was a bit of a shambles which could be avoided by employing a professional catering, banqueting event manager for the evening. We have previously stayed at other hotels throughout the Christmas period who understand customer management, I would recommend this to Pickalbratros as an approach to explore for similar events in future.

General. The pace needs capital investment, (photos from first room 1330, and tired areas of the complex are available). I was electrocuted twice via my laptop. (Insert photo of socket before it was fixed). Has this incident been documented? The second time I was electrocuted via my laptop, again via the same socket we were offered a new room and moved to 1229. (22nd -23rd Dec 2024)

Outdoor entertainment. As mentioned, previous, customers avoid the main pool area at certain times of the day because the music was annoyingly loud, customers then come back at 3pm when the entertainment team have finished Zumba, and other poolside activities etc when its quieter. Not many people take up active entertainment activities, but the staff persist in hassling people to partake, a guy called Noir is particularly annoying and a little creepy when talking to customers, residents etc.

This is a 3/4-star resort, definitely not 5-star accommodation as advertised. See photos. There is a staff training requirement to understand customer wants and needs as opposed to what Pickalbratros think is 'what good...