Sharm Plaza & Resort — Hotel in South Sinai

We arrived at Sharm El Sheikh airport at midnight where there were no facilities available to purchase drinks, outside the temperature was a sticky 37°c and after a 45minute wait we were taken to the hotel shuttle bus and arrived at the hotel complex a short while afterwards. Reception, at this stage, was pleasant and we were impressed with the initial decor. A bell boy appeared and we told him our room number - 9216. He smirked and we set off on a long walk away from the reception area, up two flights of stairs and along a long corridor to our room. The Aircon was on as was the TV, I tipped the bellboy and he left. It was at this point that it ALL started to go wrong - the room was absolutely filthy, the lighting was inadequate, the fridge was empty but that didn't matter as it didn't work anyway! There were skidmarks in the toilet and no toilet paper whatsoever, there also was NO toiletries in the empty recepticles in the bathroom. We called reception to advise and we're told "we'll send a colleague straight away", he was probably coming from Cairo as by 2am we gave up and fell asleep after a long journey. In the morning we woke and went to get a drying and breakfast as we literally had nothing since the flight - on the way we stopped at reception to be faced with the same guy we spoke to on the phone who advised "we'll send someone right away". After breakfast we went to the room and passed a very grubby cleaning trolly which I searched and found a partial toilet roll which was fortunate as we still did not see any indication of anyone to make amends to our complaints. Again we telephoned to complain and yes, we were told that someone would be sent straight away and all would be rectified by lunchtime which we discovered was another outright lie on returning to the room after lunch. It was then that we messaged Muhammed our Red Sea Holidays rep who arranged to meet us in the hotel lobby where we advised him of ALL our issues and he wrote them down filling a full side of A4 paper and off he went to the reception desk where we saw several authoritative hand gestures and after 20 or 39 minutes Muhammed returned and advised we were being moved to a Junior Suite. We were moved immediately and although it was not 100% positive, the room was acceptable and we had WATER and TOILET PAPER and a WORKING FRIDGE which was necessary for my 'keep cool' medications. ||We had further problems with our room key card that mysteriously expired three days in a row which meant walking 15 minutes back to reception up and down several flights of stairs in the 40°c heat to have it re-programmed only for another occurrence the next day.... ||The buffet food was atrocious and pretty much a bun fight to find anything reasonably edible, the claiming of tables by the Russians was a complete joke at every mealtime. The 'All Inclusive' drinks at the pool bar and evening bars were given in plastic 100ml cups which meant standing at the bar and getting refilled 2 or 3 times to get a decent drink - this was the same both for beers and for soft drinks and felt like being back at primary school being rationed. ||In an attempt to get away from the concentration camp buffet, we found out that you could book one of the other inclusive food outlets BUT this could only be done between 10am and noon by queuing in reception (yes, a long hot walk again) and booking for that evening. We booked the Mexican outlet where the food was marginally better and at least had some taste but not to any high standard. We ordered a beer and a mojito, ate our food and attempted to leave where we were confronted by the staff saying we had to pay in dollars for the two drinks. Amazed, as we thought "All Inclusive" meant just that but no, not here. I advised the manager that I had no cash of any denomination and after a lengthy conversation I signed a chitty to put these to our room, degrading to say the least.||On top of all this, the pool nearest to us was out of action until 'tomorrow' which turned out to be 5 days!! This meant we had to negotiate the many, many steps down to the other pool and then the many, many steps back up to the room or as was the norm, to reception to get the key card sorted or book a meal at another outlet?||All in all, I have begrudgingly given this facility ONE STAR as I am unable to give anything less or even a negative rating. So, to recap, the facilities are horrible, the food and drinks are atrocious, the rooms are dreadful to moderately acceptable, the reception staff certainly need customer liaison training. The waiting staff need a pay rise for dealing with certain nationalities of guests, the room boys need a huge tip for the relentless jobs they do to make an effort at least, AND, the Egyptian tourist authority AND Red Sea Holidays here in the UK needs to be aware of what a supposedly 4star hotel behaves like to it's guests.||My final words are, IF you are thinking of staying there............

I’ll begin with the few positives of our stay| 1. The beach was pleasant with very comfortable sun beds.||2. The pool bar had quick service of drinks - however was very limited options on all inclusive.||3. Room was suitable for our needs - comfortable bed with nice shower and plenty of storage space for clothes.||4. Cleaning service was good, done daily with fresh towels provided daily. ||5. Italian restaurant was the best of the ones available but was not saying much, however was the only place during the whole stay that we was not pestered about the new years eve party and was left to enjoy our meal in peace. ||Now onto the several negatives |1. Service at the C view bar for lunch was nothing short of shocking - waited for as long as up to 50 mins one day for a luke warm hotdog and cold chips, some customers were told to put tops on while others allowed to sit topless. There was no order people who came in way after us were served before, and when asked staff they just said “relax its coming”. We were told to sit to be served, while some people were allowed to just walk up and get what they wanted.||2. After arrival and check in we had to change rooms due to the first room having no working plugs. I found staff very unhelpful and rude during this process, they kept asking us to wait till morning to change rooms which i did not want to do to waste my day time moving rooms. Only done when i asked to speak to a manager and done with attitude from reception staff. ||3. The Lebanese restaurant was by far the worst a la carte restaurant i’ve ever visited at any hotel. Rubbish quality, selection on the menu and portion size of food served. This accompanied by staff of the restaurant constantly pestering us and trying to sell us new years eve tickets while we were eating and trying to upsell drinks constantly to pay for when we were all inclusive seemed pushy and over the line and made us feel uncomfortable.||4. The restaurant booking system - you can only book restaurants on the morning you wish to visit between 10:00-12:00 each morning. Had to queue daily to do this up to 25 minutes one day taking like 40 minutes of my day away from beach area to have to queue inside reception area to book an average a la carte restaurant. Has to be a better way of doing this like basically every other hotel does. || 5. The constant selling of a new years eve party - it was pestering and quite frankly annoying, must of been 50 times a day throughout hotel on the beach, in the restaurants, quite frankly anywhere they see you. It was $60 for food that was free in the buffet restaurant and some cocktails of which we tried a few on other days and were quite frankly awful and then the performers throughout the night which i’m sure were great but not worth $60 each. ||6. The wifi did not work for the duration of the 6 nights of our stay which for a supposedly for 4 star and 5 star hotel complex is embarrassing. Every time we asked we just got come back this evening or in the morning. |||Upon summary the beach and room covered up for a genuinely poor stay for some winter sun. Unless you like rude staff with extremely slow service in restaurants, poor organisation, or constant pestering to buy tickets for stuff throughout every single day i’d avoid this hotel. Shame as has potential but poor service ruins this for me and would not stay here again or recommend to any of...

Sharm Plaza and resort is a lovely place in a beautiful location. Most staff are very helpful and friendly, but, the reception staff, who should be the most welcoming first impression of the hotel, are very mardy and dismissive, which is just strange, so please, don't judge the rest of the staff on them. There are obvious signs that the place is still in recovery mode post covid, coupled with dwindling visitor numbers in Egypt courtesy of the troubles there, but Sharm el Sheikh is very far these troubles and very safe to go to. The rooms are very nice, basically decorated, huge comfy bed and lovely veranda/patio, depending on your choice of room. Housekeeping is spot on, my husband was super impressed, new sheets/towels every day if you wanted. It's not a 5 star resort, and I would have given 4 stars if it hadn't been for the diabolical standard of food for offer in the all inclusive restaurant. If you love salad, bread and cakes, then you'll be in heaven, cause they do them really well. Other than that, the choice is bare, with the same sludge being served every day. However.......the amazing thing is, they have 3 a la carte restaurants on site that serve delicious food, these must be booked in advance (the reservation guy sits at reception between 10 and 12 each day). We ate at all 3 during our stay and had delicious food and excellent service. Most items on the menu are free, but certain dishes have a small supplement, and they will show you the extra cost cocktail menu first, but you don't have to buy them, but they are good. So, the price you'll pay to come here all inclusive is on the lower end of the scale, if you factor in another 100 (for 2 people) to indulge at the a la carte, then you'll definitely be more than happy and get your moneys worth. One thing I'd say though, after you've left a tip when you pay, maybe slip your waiter a wee tip on the fly, cause I got the feeling that the managers see most of these tips. On site, the swimming pools are lovely, an abundance of sunbeds, especially at the sea front, beautiful sea views, a jetty which leads out to sea where you can swim off to explore the stunning corals and fish that live there. The dive centre is located by the pool at the sea front, they will help you book absolutely anything you want to do and give you a very good price and no hassle. Activities we done were 5 in 1 quad safari (camel riding, quad desert trail, star gazing, dinner and show), best experience ever), parasailing, all day boat trip to white island with snorkelling/swim stops, had a brilliant day, he even arranged a diving taster off the jetty for my husband. Naama bay is about 6 miles from the hotel, it has a lot of shopping and restaurants, it costs us 15 dollars round trip taxi organised by the hotel, we went a couple of nights and ate out, it was lovely, like everywhere abroad, don't get lulled into buying anything you don't want, we went in for a cocktail at a shisha bar, they brought bottled water with cocktail, we didn't ask for water, then added it to our bill at the end. We've had a great 10 days here and if we're looking for a cheap getaway in future, we'll...