Radisson Blu Resort & Spa, Cesme — Hotel in Çeşme

We stayed at this hotel for 5 nights as a summer holiday. The reasons we picked this hotel were because it was reasonably priced, recently renovated, a large hotel with a private sand beach and part of Radisson group which I have a Diamond status. ||We arrived to the hotel with our car and there were plenty of car parks on the hotel grounds. There is no valet parking or such, but we didn't need such a service anyway. The reception quickly checked us in and explain the stay related information quickly. They mentioned that we get 15% off due to Radisson status, but there was no other mention of our status. When we went to the room, we noticed that we were upgraded to a sea view room but no suite upgrades were offered as per the hotel program indicates as a possibility.||Our first impression of the room was that it was a pretty nice and clean room but there was a cigarette smoke kind of smell which was hard to ignore. Ventilating the room with aircon helped a bit, but the smell kept coming back even on our last night. There was a nice sea view but it also came with a night club view, which was quite noisy until midnight even when windows were closed. The bathroom was wall mounted shampoo and body wash but the conditioner was not mounted but put on the floor. Even though the room was cleaned throughly, the balcony has a lot of bird poo on the hangers and railings. All in all, our impression of the room was a mixed bag with the biggest issue being the cigarette smoke smell.||The hotel has a super large and very clean pool. They offer beach towels here which were consistently clean and smelled very nice. The beach was also quite good with plenty of recliners and a nice mostly sandy beach. The sea water was a bit chilly due to the winds and being out of season. However, it was still an enjoyable swim. The main problem with the hotel grounds is that, the public toilets are extremely far from the beach ( like a 10 minute fast paced walk from beach and back) and they aren't cleaned frequently enough as they were smelly. Another problem is the surrounding spaces that are just outside to the right of the beach. The abandoned bar (?) was a true eye sore when enjoying the beach. ||In terms of service, the staff were very invisible. They were only cleaning the tables or bringing your orders to you. However, they were nowhere to be found apart from that. There was no easy way of ordering drinks and stuff while you were at the beach apart from going to beach bar and trying to get the attention of the staff there. The only employee who was enjoying their job and giving a personalized attention to customers was the red haired lady at breakfast service (unfortunately we didn't catch her name). She was truly kind and welcoming in her approach to customers.||We only had breakfast at the hotel and it also provided an sunpar experience. There was a huge variety of choices as you would expect from Turkish hotels. However, many items didn't feel fresh. The simits felt hard as if they were from the day before. The tomatoes, cucumbers were dry. The fruit juices were cheapest powder based options. So was the coffee - only available machines were instant coffee based ones. The restaurant was also dark and not inviting. ||Another annoying experience was with the security at the front door. On a windy day, we wanted to try another beach at the south to avoid the wind coming from north. We took some beach towels with us and without intending to hide from reception, we got in our car. We still had 3 more nights at the hotel at this time. A security staff ran behind us to the car, knocked our window and said we are not allowed to take towels with us. We explained that we were just going to a different beach and we will bring it back, but they said that they need to check with the reception. Then another security staff came and he said it is normally not allowed to take towels but as long as we bring it back, it would be ok. I found this attitude quite disturbing as we normally didn't get approached by any staff until then but only to be accused of stealing towels even though we didn't even intend to hide that we are taking those towels. The situation could be handled much more gracefully, at least getting informed about it beforehand and not get chased to the point of getting our car window knocked to tell that by two staff members.||Overall, this is not a bad hotel. It is simple, basic and does the job of giving you a decent summer holiday. However, it has so much potential and it is not fulfilling that potential by chasing small gains and missing important details (smoke smell in the room, staff trained to give an experience with a personal touch, unattached bath supplies, no clean toilets at the beach). I would love to visit this hotel when it gets to that level because it is at a great location and it has room to do a lot more. But I didn't leave the hotel with a...

Vodka & tonic £16!!!!! Very diluted too.|Pint of beer £12!!!! Flat because noone is drinking it.|Lunch|Burger & chips £21!!!!|Kids burger £13!!!!! ||What on earth is management thinking? It's more expensive here than Dubai , London or New York & certainly NO comparison. This isn't even a 5 star hotel!|A wise man would charge less and sell more. ||NOONE is drinking hardly anything day or night.|The bar staff are just hanging around which I have NEVER seen at a beach bar or pool area at a holiday resort ever. Even when the football was on at the beach bar people were holding onto 1 drink. In the main bar, full of men watching football , 1 person had a drink on the table.|Obscene prices! ||The supermarket at the end of the beach sells EVERYTHING for "normal" prices open til 1am. He's a really lovely kind & friendly owner. ||There is a fabulous local restaurant between the tennis courts and the next apartment block called Kir Kahvesi, fresh meat & fish cooked outside. Lovely staff and welcoming. Full of local families.|A meal for 2 with drinks , wine & beers £44 !|That's equal to 2.75 drinks in the hotel. Really worth a visit or 4. ||I checked in as a single female .|I was completely ignored and dismissed at reception, the bar, the beach bar & at the beach. ||I had a kettle and cups in my room but no tea / coffee etc. I asked but it never appeared. |Mini bar fridge was empty, I asked but nothing came.|I had reasons to ask to change rooms but they were "full"|I sat in the bar & beach bar waiting, waiting ........each time I had to get up to find someone to ask for a drink etc. Waiters just walking past and looking away.|Just to name a few experiences. ||When my husband arrived 24 hours later, WOW what a difference!!!!|Nothing was too much trouble . Menus given to us, greeted everywhere  , drinks orders taken,|Coffee / tea in the room, fridge filled. |Room changed!!!|Everything he asked for, the same as I had the previous day and was ignored, was sorted and staff were  attentive & accommodating. It was an obvious change in attitude immediately. He was not happy I was treated this way. ||This is their "normal" & it's not my first experience of this in certain countries when alone but I'm sick of it.......... It's 2024 for goodness sake & my money is as good as any mans money , yes I PAID and it is certainly very expensive to stay here. It was made blatantly obvious I was not regarded with as much respect as my husband. ||Shame on you. ||Ali was the only staff member who took interest, tried to help & was friendly. Thank you Ali you were taught well.||Loads of sunbeds and different areas to go with lots of shade. |Breakfast , lots of choices.|Everything is clean|Comfy bed , quiet, dark rooms, very dated, very 1980's. First room sweltering with old fashioned air con. |TV in the bar wakes you up at 8am .......noone is in the bar so why?|Beach is perfectly set up. Beautiful sea & view. ||Sadly once your first 24 hours is is spoiled & you're getting ripped off, it's hard to be enthusiastic about the positives. ||*I've seen similar reviews.........therefore NIHAN KORKMAZ whoever you are, do not bother replying with your generic copied response it means nothing as you are obviously...

The standard of service in this hotel is severely lacking. Upon arrival in my room, I found that my pillows were extremely low quality. I prefer to sleep on softer, feather pillows rather than harder synthetic ones. My friend, who was staying in the room next door, had two pillows that were of desirable quality. I phoned the front desk to ask for similar pillows, and they sent a worker to my room who not only did not speak one word of English, but also demonstrated a terrible attitude towards guests. He did not understand the situation at all, and behaved very rudely. He was not at all qualified to interact with guests. I made the mistake of giving the worker one of my friend’s pillows, instructing him via google translate to bring back two pillows that are identical. Instead, he came back with a disgusting synthetic pillow and the decent quality pillow was gone. Now, my friend had lost one of his pillows. Again making the mistake of believing that no worker could be so incompetent, I gave him the second pillow. He returned 10 minutes later with a badly-worn foam pillow. Now, starting from 2 decent quality pillows, we had 0 decent quality pillows. At this point I called the hotel manager and asked him to come to the room to explain the situation. He gave the worker detailed instructions, and after at least an hour we were returned the two good pillows my friend had originally, and two additional for me. The worker did not even apologise, instead just walking away without making eye contact.

As if my night was not already completely ruined, I soon found out that the air conditioning did not work. Not wanting to deal with this incompetent worker again as my blood pressure was already sufficiently raised, I opened the balcony door and submitted to dealing with the morning noise.

It also may be noted that the quality of room service is similarly low. The cheese burger I ordered on the first night tasted as if the meat was leftover from a midnight kebab shop. The arrabbiata I ordered on my last night was disastrously prepared, as the sauce was not fresh and the penne was overcooked.

The hotel is in bad need of a renovation. The rooms are outdated and damaged. If the property was sufficiently renovated and management overhauled, the Radisson Blu of Chesme would benefit from an excellent location, attractive lobby and pool, and view to the sea. It is my hope that as Chesme continues to gain traction as a resort for European that the experience offered by Radisson will improve. Only at that point would I consider staying in this...