The Russelior Hotel & Spa — Hotel in Maghreb

We really enjoyed our stay here, but there were some issues. Check-in was a nightmare.

We didn’t have a great start to the holiday. When we arrived for check-in, we were at the desk for a while before being attended to. We were then told to go and sit. After sitting and waiting for 30 minutes, we went back to reception and asked what the problem was. They told us the room was not ready yet, and we had to wait another 1.5 hours. It was bad enough that they didn’t tell us in the first place and we had to ask, but 1.5 hours is ridiculous.

The pool area looked lovely and wasn’t too busy, though my stay was not during peak time. I can see how it would be very difficult to get a sun bed or a place to relax by the pool when it’s busy.

It’s a 5-star hotel, but I would not rate it that high.

We had three rooms, and only one out of the three had no issues. My room was clean and well-kept but had a weird smell every time we entered. The mini-fridge was also not working and instead emitted a lot of heat. Another room had the same mini-fridge issue but did not smell. All the rooms are slightly dated, especially for a 5-star hotel.

Our room was quite far from reception, located in another building at the other end of the pool area. Every two days, our room keys would randomly stop working, and we had to walk all the way back to get a new one. The staff couldn’t do anything about it, apparently.

During our stay, we decided to book the spa. We booked a hammam and a 1-hour massage. It cost more than in other countries we’ve been to, like Turkey and Egypt, but we still thought it was worth it. The massage was great, but the hammam was terrible. It was nothing like what I was expecting, and I have had a completely different experience elsewhere. The hammam involved maybe 10-15 minutes in the steam room, followed by a very sloppy scrub by one of the staff members. The scrub literally lasted less than two minutes and was not detailed at all. They then told us to shower, and that was it. Very disappointing compared to other places which include much more. The staff member did not understand English, so she couldn’t answer my questions. I would not recommend the hammam at all.

Though I loved my massage, my sister and sister-in-law did not have a good experience. They were massaged together in one room, and the two masseuses were talking to each other the whole time, making it not relaxing. One of them kept stopping the massage to talk, which felt like it took 20-30 minutes off the massage time.

Also, one day we left chocolate (open but still in the wrapper) in the room. When we came back, there were hundreds of ants all around the wrapper, so there must be a large ant nest nearby. Maybe avoid eating in your room.

The hotel is in a decent location, and taxis were easy to find as soon as you come out. Though we had some bad experiences, we would stay here again if there was no other hotel available at a similar...

I had a wonderful experience. Staff were absolutely lovely. They went above a beyond to make my experience beautiful |Receptionist all fantastic on helping with request |Spa staff affectionate and had a warm welcome. |Kitchen breakfast bar staff and lifeguards all gave good excellent service |I arrived late in the night and it's was extremely quiet which I appreciated although we asked for separate beds the hotel was fully booked but our bed was a large queen size so it was fine the next day we got our room but the single bed room we didn't like the views so decided to stay where we were given as it felt much bigger and the ambiance of the water fall from the front of the hotel made us relax more it was a beautiful relaxing sound we appreciated. |The hotel itself is in a good location for the private beach their is a caddy cart that will meet you out the front of the hotel to take you but its literally 5 to 10 mins accross the rd and 15 mins walk to the main port Yasmine Hammamet, so after a few days I got use to the area and felt very safe to walk around or to medina Mediterranean alone if i needed to. |Room was absolutely gorgeous looking decor, lovely big curtains to black out sunlight, clean and tidy feel to it |It just needed more reachable charging power points I had to share with my friends side of the bed or put the bins on top of each other and a table for the second charging point was to high and far away from anywhere to place laptop or phone. |Bath room clean spacious with shower and deep bath lovely hot hot water.| |I found as long as I was cheerful and was pleasantly approachable, everywhere I went I was treated just as pleasantly by others absolutely lovely place and i adored all the staff here, they made me feel welcomed and made me happy if I had any problems they would try their upmost best to resolve it. Private beach was beautiful and I could request food to be delivered, best to do adventures and activities from the beach people connected to the hotel itself if you |Absolutely 💯 perfect.👌the hotel service was impressive just wonderful. 👍 ||Not much negative traits about the hotel, only that the breakfast traffic when events are taking place needs to be thought out more. After 9.00 it is high traffic time less 6 queuing and things run out to replace the small cups with bigger ones because reloading drink after drink of teas, juices and coffee after a few sips is what is contributing to the main reason for build up of queuing for food. | Resolution for me was to eat an hour or two early then there were only like 5 to 10 ppl instead of 60 to 80 people after 9am. I havd recommended this hotel others to return I will definitely return in...

Unfortunately, I did not enjoy my stay at The Russelior.

I arrived at the hotel in the very early hours of the morning. I am not sure whether it was due to the language barrier but, despite reiterating and confirming back and forth that our pizza order, they still managed to get it wrong. We ordered a chicken pizza, but they sent us tuna pizza. As you can imagine, after travelling for several hours, this was not a good start to our stay at the hotel. And in spite of their error, we still had to foot the bill.

Unfortunately, I did not enjoy any of the food that was served at Le Cristal. I found that the food, regardless of what time I went to eat, was bland and cold (or lukewarm, at best). In particular, I noticed that the rice dishes were always undercooked. If you stay at this hotel, you will go hungry. Le Cristal has a very limited range of drinks - just beer, coke, fanta and water, which is not included in the full board package. I was also taken aback to learn that they charge 8DT for a bottle of water at the restaurant, when you can purchase a bottle of water for 1DT at the local supermarket down the road.

Furthermore, on one occasion I tried to eat at Bonzi but was rudely shooed out. I noticed that the restaurant had sat a table and was being served, so I assumed that it was open to all. I walked into the restaurant, and after a confused exchange due to the language barrier, the waiter muttered something that made the guests at the table laugh and ushered me out of the restaurant without explanation. The staff member that he directed me to failed to explain why I was not allowed to eat there, which made me feel alienated. I will acknowledge that when I spoke to someone at the front desk, they explained to me the times when the restaurant is open a la carte to all. I do not have an issue with the restaurant limiting access to elderly and disabled guests. However, for a hotel that claims to be 5 star, I am surprised by the lack of signage on the door or even on the website for that matter.

Aesthetically speaking, I think that the hotel is quite outdated. I was comfortable in my room however, our toilet seat was not attached to the hinges so I could not use it comfortably without it sliding off onto the floor. In addition to this, I found ants crawling on the floor by my bed, to which the cleaning staff merely sprayed an insecticide and pushed the rug back on top of the affected area.

To summarise, I would not recommend this hotel. I had high expectations for The Russelior and ultimately, my expectations...