Tui Blue Oceanis Beach — Hotel in Municipality of Kos

Booked holiday to Oceanis 3+ yrs ago - delayed due to covid. When we booked, was 5* and by time we arrived it was downgraded to 4*. 5 months before we were due to arrive, we stumbled across pictures online of jacuzzi balcony rooms - they looked nothing like the suites Tui boast on their website. I emailed the hotel to see if they could ensure the beach front room and was assured it would be fine. I also added 'quiet room' as a preference on our Tui booking. On arrival we were given a balcony room with main pool directly in front and one room away from the evening entertainment. It was a very noisy room! When queried, were told they are the same rooms but we can move in 2 days, which we did. The lady that sorted this was very nice. They're definitely NOT the same rooms and should be separated when booking. Our beach front room had a better mattress, air con actually worked and bathroom was roomier, not to mention it was way more stunning and peaceful out front. The downsides were that WiFi didn't reach room (patchy throughout whole hotel) but just about worked in the garden area - same with phone reception. You can barely read room numbers from path, especially at night. And don't look under the bed... grim. We found the food disappointing. There is only the main "restaurant" which felt more like a canteen/food hall to eat in at night - plus 2 a la cartes - but you can only eat at one of them for free during your stay which seems silly to me. Nobody really made any effort to dress up, despite a supposed dress code. The choices and quality was below par (stale food, over cooked food, gristly and fatty meat) and there isn't enough tables for the amount of people considering there's only one place to go. If you don't get there when it first opens, you have to queue and wait til a table becomes available. Breakfast, also in the main food hall was exactly the same every day and again the quality wasn't there. We used the Mediterranean a la Carte one evening, the food was presented beautifully but was mostly overcooked and lacking flavour. The ice cream was exactly the same as is served round the complex. The ambience was lovely until the evening entertainment blared out over the top of it. Food all round lacked imagination and was repetitive and boring. Having stayed at a Sensimar before it was really disappointing. Nothing anywhere to find out what theme food will be each evening and amount of flies was really annoying. We found staff mostly unfriendly/rude. Noticed we were frequently ignored (one morning table either side of us served coffee but not us) or spoken to differently. For instance one morning: "Good morning! How are you? Would you like some coffee?" To the table behind us.. then to us: "coffee?" I saw it happen to another English couple too. The tall, slim older man was the worst for this. They definitely pick and chose who they're nice to which is sad and totally unnecessary. The friendliest staff we came across was the Irish and Romanian barmen and an older Greek man in the restaurant. One evening I slipped down top step of dining room, nearly fell to bottom and staff all stared at me. Nobody asked if I was ok, just started chatting amongst themselves! Not enough seats for even half the guests wanting to watch evening entertainment. Notices saying towels left on sunbeds pre 10am will be removed - this didn't happen but most sunbeds are taken by 9am anyway. Again, not enough for everybody as we found out a couple of times - we walked up and down beach but they were all taken. We enquired in the spa (once we found it - severe lack of signage at this hotel) but found it overpriced. Liked the sound of crazy golf until we saw it. Tired and boring. Overall our stay was not what we thought it would be nor worth what we paid and left us disappointed - we couldn't wait to leave. We wouldn't recommend nor return. We can only assume those that thought it was fantastic haven't been to any nicer...

Okay, before I start this review please know that my overall experience was good!

The hotel - the hotel is on a beautiful beach with lots of sun beds and trees for shade. There are two pools, one main and one quiet. At the pools, if you try to leave a towel on a sunbed before 10am and leave the staff take them away, which is great. The quiet pool is smaller but is what it says, quiet. Which leads to one thing... One day, a couple brought a little speaker to the main pool and played some music for everyone, the music was good and created a nice atmosphere. However, the staff made them turn it off, even though EVERYONE in the main pool "booed" the member of staff to keep it on. They still made them turn it off. The pool is nice but a bit boring and some nice background music just made it environment better.

The food - the food is great! There is something for everyone (I'm a fairly fussy eater) and i never struggled to enjoy a tasty meal every day! Well done to all those providing the food, you are the heroes of my holiday!

The service - this is mixed for me. The reception staff were great. Two members of the bar staff were so friendly and would have nice conversations with you. Some others were quite rude and often got drink orders wrong. there was only one person at the bar making drinking for everyone during the day. They need more staff as this poor guy was so busy and couldn't do anything about it. They should install water fountains for drinking around which will decrease waiting times at the bar. The TUI reps we're amazing!

The cleaners - okay, firstly I understand that cleaning that many rooms is not easy and I'm wasn't asking for perfection but they really started to annoy me for the following reasons

A) we went into Kos town for a day (left at 9am, returned at 5pm). When we got back the cleaners had left our bedroom door open all day. This should not happen, lucky everything was there but everyday after this I would go up to my room every 30 minutes to check. B) they didn't always clean! We often when back to find stains left on the side from drinks and one day I was sick in the toilet (nothing to do with the hotel, I drank too much), I cleaned as much as I could from inside the toilet but couldn't get it all, came back the next day and there was still sick in the bowl of the toilet. We paid thousands of pounds to be here and we're not high maintenance, but it was like they didn't touch the toilet. C) asking for something always felt like a problem. They left a bottle of water in each room every day, but it was a very hot summer and we asked for an extra bottle (which you're allowed to do) but the cleaners didn't always provide. D) because it's a TUI blue, you can ask your room to be "set up for relaxation" we did this once... Did it happen? Nope, they made the bed and that was all. I didn't know what to expect but we thought we'd try it, they also left some clothes (which we'd folded on left on the side) thrown on the floor.

The location - Great location!!! Not a long bus ride from Kos town (return on the bus is €3) and the bus stop is right outside. There is a bar on the beach next door which has a massive party with a Lazer show and fireworks every Sunday, free entry but drinks there are expensive (not related to the hotel). If you go to Kos, rent a buggy for the day and explore the island, it's so pretty!

Entertainment - this was a bit lackluster. They have Aqua arobics in the morning and that's it until the evening. Some of the evening entertainment is good, like the opera singers and the ballet dancers who also used fire. The rest was boring and we were lucky because we made friends with a few other couples so just had some drinks and played games.

Overall I had a lovely two weeks! I have stayed at a few TUI resorts and all the others...

It all starts on day one when we settle into our room. There is a strong smell of sewage and the door to the ground floor balcony struggles to close. The facilities seem relatively old and the general state of cleanliness leaves something to be desired. There is no door separating the bathroom from the rest of the room. We’re disappointed but move on.

In the evening, we return to our room and find a cockroach in the toilet. We immediately go to the reception and ask for a change of room. The hotel’s giving us what we thought was a present by offering us a room with a private pool. But that didn't take into account the ordeal to come..

On the second evening, we return to what’s the second room and notice another cockroach crawling around on the wardrobes. It flees at the sight of us and crawls underneath the furniture. Thinking we'd been cursed, we call for the reception again, that sends 2 very friendly cleaning ladies. They feel very sorry for us and apply insecticide product to all the cavities in the room. We are then at peace for 2 days and come to think that this awful experience is behind us.

But on the 5th evening of our stay, we return to the room and this time spot a cockroach on the curtains. We manage to capture it using the room's rubbish bin when we spot a second cockroach running around. My girlfriend immediately goes to the reception a first time at around 11.15 pm and faces a receptionist who tells her that someone is coming to our room in a few minutes. After waiting for 30 minutes, she returns to the reception and is told that there is not enough staff and that we have to wait until the check-in for new arrivals is done. After another 20-minute wait, we are forced to go to the reception for the third time. We rightly express our displeasure at not being given priority now that it is past midnight and that we've been waiting for nearly an hour in the room with one cockroach caught and another wandering around.

A baggage handler finally come to our room to extract the captured cockroach and apply insecticide spray. Except that everything didn't turn out the way it had on the second evening. My girlfriend, who had stayed in the room, was in for a real nightmare. First, she was hit by a cockroach running towards her while she was in the toilet. She then heard a succession of impact noises, which turned out to be almost a dozen cockroaches falling from the ceiling, fleeing from the insecticide and then agonizing.

My girlfriend, in the middle of a panick attack, saw a cockroach running towards our things and was forced, in panic, to take refuge on the terrace to escape from the bedroom. She had to wait for me to come and free her, then reassure her.

In the end, we were invited to move in a hurry to a third bedroom on the third floor, where we encountered no more problems.

Several members of hotel staff told us during our stay that there was a real pest problem on the ground floor of what’s considered the hotel's 'old' building. We were also shocked to discover that less than 36 hours after our departure from the second infested room, a couple was rehoused there.

We had full confidence in TUI and had invested the financial resources to enjoy the quality of service of a 5-star hotel. What happened is unacceptable in any hotel establishment, but particularly in a 5-star hotel at this price.

We deplore this holiday, which turned out to be not only traumatic, but also the worst of our lives.

The vast majority of the staff were helpful, kind and the food was good. The guest’s relation manager was really sorry for us and did her best to try to ease our pain. Unfortunately, the damage was done and irreparable.

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