ONE Resort Premium — Hotel in Maghreb

Sadly, this hotel does not deserve the 4* rating it has received. To note, we are two young girls (20-25) travelling together. ||||We were feeling less hopeful then when we booked the trip as we’d read some disappointing reviews whilst travelling to the resort. ||However, arrival staff were friendly and helpful, with a gentleman taking our bags at the door and being told that we should get ourselves some dinner as they closed at 9pm (around 8:45pm). ||||Unfortunately, it was very much downhill from there. We woke up the following morning to a rather disappointing breakfast buffet; lukewarm food with (most of the) staff that seemed genuinely uninterested in being there.||||Later that night, (02/05) my friend got food poisoning around 20 minutes after finishing dinner. Luckily, she was feeling a little better by the following afternoon, but this had ultimately derailed our spa plans for the next day. ||When we went to speak with reception regarding my friends reaction they were completely dismissive and claimed no one else had reported the same so nothing more than an investigation would be done (into what exactly, we are not sure). ||It is certainly not a coincidence she had 3 meals at the restaurant prior to this and 20 minutes after the 4th was severely unwell. ||The reception staff were entirely dismissive/uninterested/unconcerned/unapologetic and tried to blame my friend for ‘not being used to the food’. That food being beef. Lol. ||05/05 Once she thought the worst over, unfortunately became ill yet again after having only ate “safe foods” e.g. plain mashed potatoes, soup and bread, which she (and I) pretty much ate for the rest of the trip as she did not properly recover until back home.||||Reception staff (particularly the women) are rather blunt and seem annoyed whenever at the desk, especailly when you are trying to ask questions or raise a complaint.||||On 04/05 we decided to stay in the room that afternoon as the weather was rather miserable.||We kept the door open (see above re air-con), and after a restful afternoon, we were affronted by this awful smell coming into our room, which after looking out of our balcony door, we spotted workmen appearing to carry out some sewage works. ||Which again is fine, but some notice would have been greatly appreciated as we could have turned our air-con off and shut the sliding door. Very unpleasant.||||Overall, the food was majorly underwhelming the whole week, with the 24 hour food bar offering mainly junk food, spoiled fruit (which seems to be a common theme) all of which the presentation/execution was sloppy in general (see pictures below).||||No minibar in the room despite that being promoted on their website. We did get a bottle of coke and 4 macarons on our arrival which was a nice gesture.||||For an all inclusive, the drinks are an important part of your stay and experience. All bars had only a limited handful of cocktails that were just rubbish by any standard and no sugar-free options for soft drinks ect.||||Housekeeping are rather persistent about coming in to clean, knocking a lot in the morning despite us saying not now. Whilst we understand that they have schedule to adhere to, pushiness is never appreciated and unnecessary. We then mentioned that they hadn’t serviced our room for a couple of days, which unsurprisingly we were blamed for as the door was locked, despite us saying to come back later please. ||||The rooms “look” is altogether very nice and spacious however the air-con is pathetic with a trickle of lukewarm air floating in, making the room very hot to sleep in at night. ||Our shower was also leaking (fine, we understand things can go wrong) but when we told the reception staff they said someone would be up to fix it the next morning as maintenance had gone for the evening, shower still leaked perhaps even worse that evening making me doubt very much that somebody had been up to see to it. Eventually (after 3 complaints of leaking) then sent somebody up to fix it which helped but did not fully stop the leak so we, exhausted, just let it be.||||On a note about staff in general, many of the beach/bar staff (all men) were very flirtatious with us: endlessly speaking to us, asking for me and my friends numbers and trying to convince us to have them take us out of the resort to “see the local area”. This one particular member of staff (lifeguard) was relentless despite me saying I had a boyfriend (a lie I told to get some peace and for them to leave us alone). ||Regarding this we did decided to let the Guest Relations manager know, he was very apologetic and handled the whole thing very professionally I will say, we have been told that we will be informed of the results of the investigation into his behaviour (which has happened to others as well as me and my friend).||||On our last day we went on a guided tour into the city which was amazing so we would definetly recommend this ! As well as a quad biking sessions which was incredible and such good fun. We wanted to make up for the fact that my friend had not been well and end our holiday on a high. ||A make up/apology offer of a spa treatment or booking in one of their A La Carte restaurants (on them) was appreciated but due to the lack of time (given that it was our last day) and the fact that we were eating rather plainly (to avoid||any upset of illness) we were unable to take them up on any of these options. ||||Some positives: ||Lovely clean beach.||Nice pools and lounging areas. ||The spa staff particulary are welcoming and seem like they genuinely care about the experience that you have whilst in the hotel.||The room is lovely, newly renovated (apart from the above mentioned).||||Special mentions to the following members of staff who were all wonderful:||Rihad (spa)||Ali (gift shop)||Youseff (maître de)||Emira (spa)||Walid (waiter)||Nanoud (guest relations)||Mamdouh (front of house manager) ||||Overall, working in hospitality myself (with my friend having a background in it) we feel this could be such a wonderful resort. It’s such a shame that (most) staff clearly have not received any proper training regarding customer experience/service, with the majority seeming to just want their shift to be over and done with. ||Sadly, we could not recommend this particular resort to visit and will...

This is hopefully a full review. I spent a week at this hotel as a solo traveller to relax/ switch off. For this, I can say it definitely served its purpose.

Food/ drinks: I have mixed thoughts about this. The best way to describe the food would be “hit and miss” in my view. I’m not a fussy eater and love to embrace the local cuisine when travelling to new places. Whilst there were traditional Tunisian dishes offered at each meal occasion, unfortunately, I only enjoyed one or two dishes out of the week I spent. Whilst there was a fair variety, I felt a lot of the food lacked flavour, and I’m not sure whether this comes down to poor-quality ingredients or a lack of ingredients for the chefs to make things tasty. As a foodie, I was slightly disappointed but managed to eat well throughout the week, mainly sticking to salads, cheeses, and pizzas (which were all decent). There are a few different snack bars which offer more dishes and desserts like waffles, crêpes, etc. Again, whilst most of this food was edible, I wasn’t blown away by it. I had my à la carte night in the Italian restaurant, which was tasty but not a classic Italian experience (meatballs with rice?). The drinks I would also say were slightly disappointing. Whilst there was a variety of own-brand spirits on offer, cocktails were not widely advertised on menus, nor could I see them being made. Soft drinks were served out of bottles, which would often mean they were slightly flat or warm, and whilst they would add ice, it was not quite to my taste. I would recommend the hotel invests in a drinks dispenser/ pump to solve this issue. I also feel that a wider variety of sugar-free/ diet drinks would be beneficial for those who can’t consume too much sugar, although I understand that diet drinks aren’t widely available in Tunisia.

Rooms: Really good, large, and very clean. The cleaners did an excellent job every day and were always friendly and smiley. I didn’t find the bed very comfortable (very firm); however, I understand this is personal preference.

Facilities: Pools and beach were both lovely and clean. There was sometimes music played during activities; however, this wasn’t all day, so there was the right balance between calm and activity in my opinion. There was a good schedule of entertainment throughout the day and evening, although I can’t comment too much on this as I didn’t participate. I had a spa experience (about £75 for a Turkish bath, hydro massage, and 50-minute full-body massage), and this was genuinely the best massage of my life. Really lovely.

Area: In a good location, 15 dinar into Hammamet or the local town via taxi, which waits outside the hotel. There are also a few shops/ restaurants along the same road as the hotel. Be careful in Hammamet as there are some scam artists (I stupidly fell victim to a man who said he was from my hotel and wanted to show me a good Tunisian shop), and the shopkeepers can be quite in your face. I got some henna done in the town, which cost a ridiculous £22 and lasted no more than 5 hours!

Excursions: I took part in the day trip to Carthage, Tunis, and Sidi Bou Said. This is offered by the Easy Jet rep within the hotel. It cost £60, which whilst I would say was reasonable value as it included lunch, I do believe you can get better value online. There was also quad bike riding, camel rides, water sports, etc., available.

Staff: This is what makes the hotel in my opinion. Every single member of staff was extremely friendly. I am not sure if they are trained to say hello to each guest as you walk through, but it really does make you feel welcome. Reception was extremely helpful and friendly. I felt that the staff go above and beyond to make your experience the best it can be, and this was very appreciated.

Overall, this hotel was nice for what I wanted. As a big foodie, the food and drinks experience is why I give this 3 stars, but if this was improved, it would be a 4 or 5. For the value, I would recommend, however I would happily pay more if the food and drinks...

An honest and genuine review…

Transfer - we used a private taxi for transfer and paid 100 dinar (£25) one way. It took about 45 mins. I believe when you use the coach transfer it takes over 2hrs due to being the last drop off

Rooms - really nice & clean. Spacious and have everything you would expect. Fridge, aircon, safe, hairdryer etc.

We stayed in a swim-up, number 310. Our row had sun all day but it looked to be the only row that did. The row opposite us, to the side and the sea view tend to be in the shade from about 3/4pm.

The TVs are restricted and don’t allow the use of the HDMI ports so our fire stick wouldn’t work. The Amazon prime and Netflix applications are also restricted. You get about 30 channels of mixed languages. 2 are English. We had a problem with the connection so they kept freezing. After several requests and conversations with managers etc they did come and unrestrict the tv.

The bed was hard but not uncomfortable.

The fridge had a bottle of water and a bottle of coke in on arrival. We asked if they would be replaced/restocked and was advised it’s just the 1 bottle of each you get for free. You can purchase more at the shop in the hotel.

Cleaners come in daily and are really lovely. I’d recommend giving them a tip as they massively appreciate it.

Food - absolutely terrible. Very limited range at the buffet and you see the same stuff day after day. Picky eaters need to be aware of this. There are some labels out letting you know what food is what but not on everything, unfortunately you have to guess. Food is fried in the same oil so all tastes fishy, chicken nugggets for example. My fella was served a raw chicken skewer which made him sick. We reported it to be told that it’s normal to be served raw chicken as guests like it that way and often request it to be raw/part cooked. Absolutely ridiculous! The food in the snack bar and the beach restaurant is ok but basic. The burgers are tiny, it’s worth asking for a couple to be put in one bun. Fries portions are also very small, you get about 10. Good that it’s available 24/7 though and all food is made to order so is fresh.

Drinks - soft drinks are from bottles which unfortunately have the lids off and tend to be covered in flies and wasps. They add ice but the pop is generally flat and warm. No diet options available. Coffee, tea and hot chocolate is available and from a machine.

Alcohol - limited options including, vodka, dark rum, gin. It’s all 40% proof but tastes like paint stripper. Not very good quality at all but I found if you don’t have too much and plenty of mixer it’s ok. They have a local lager on tap. Of the 3 wines, I only tried the Rosè and that was nice. They do a couple of cocktails but again not very pleasant.

Pools - we stayed at the beginning of may and the pools were freezing cold. They are skimmed each day and we saw a guy adding what I presume to be chlorine. They always look clean. The adults only infinity pool was the busiest but by no means was it cramped

Sun loungers - loads of availability, no reason to be up early to reserve any.

Beach - stunning!

Local area - if you haven’t been to Tunisia before I’d do some research. It’s not a rich country and you can see this in the local area to the hotel. Streets are dirty and lots of run down/derelict buildings. There are shops and restaurants within a 10 min walk away. We got a taxi to the Medina in Hammamet and Nabeul market. Each one cost 20 dinar each way (£5) Having been to turkey many times we thought we was prepared for how pushy the men are trying to get you to look in their shops… we were not! They grab you as you are walking past and stand infront of you to prevent you walking past. They can get very aggressive and hostile if you ignore them. My fella is big bald and tattoo’d but it still didn’t stop them doing the same to him. If I was alone or only with other females I wouldn’t have wanted to leave the hotel. Although there are restaurants etc we didn’t find anywhere that looked nice/clean...