Botanik Hotel — Hotel in Alanya

We travelled as a family and were assigned rooms in the "Rose"-building. All facilities and restaurants were shared with the Botanik Platinum, where we also ate our meals.

Pros The hotel was very clean and maintained well. Room, common areas, and outside were all really clean. Internet connection had both wide coverage and good speed. The guest relation staff were proactive in asking for comments. There was a lot of staff at hand at all functions. Staff interactions were almost all pleasant. Plenty of facilities for kids. The beach looked good, was well organised and had good facilities (e.g. showers). The pools looked good, and were comfortable to swim in. There was one heated pool outside. It was easy to find free loungers no matter time of day. There were two separate areas with water slides: One for kids and one for bigger people. Both had plenty of options and fun slides. The buffet had a very big selection of dishes. The a la carte restaurant meals were nicely presented and we had access to a la carte restaurants every day (except Saturday when they were all closed). Plenty of bars to choose from, both inside and outside. Besides the bars, there were wagons setup with refreshments around the outside area. There was a good selection of non-alcoholic cocktails. Queueing usually wasn't needed, most of the times we were able to get service directly. Bar-staff made frequent rounds to loungers and chairs to take drink orders

Cons The two main languages heard among guests were Russian and German, meaning that some staff did not speak much English but instead Russian or German. With the big influx of Russian guests it seems staff sometimes adapted to that culture: Case in point was a Russian woman very clearly cutting in line at the reception, but anyway being served first by the receptionist. The hotel shop was full of counterfeit brand goods (clothes, bags, etc.). I pointed this out to the shop owner who refused to acknowledge, claiming the merchandise was original. I would have expected this at an outside market, but not inside a high-class reputable (?) hotel. There was no overview presented of what services were available where and when. A la carte table reservations had to be made 9-17 the day prior. In practice, the restaurants were fully booked already in the morning so to ensure you got a seat you had to start queueing at 0830 every morning. The a la carte restaurants' service was very stressed. Staff were running and you got your dishes served even too quickly. Drinks were very bad. Almost all drinks were basically just vodka + juice/soft drink (even Mojito was served with vodka instead of rum!). Negroni was literally served as gin + bitter syrup + cherry juice (instead of gin + vermouth + bitter liqueur). Visiting the "Irish pub" simply meant that you had beer mixed in every drink (see image). The evening buffet was pretty much the same every day, not much was varied. While there was a very big selection, many of the dishes tasted pretty much the same. There were plenty of outlets to get the desserts (bars, lobby café, restaurants, etc.) but they were exactly the same everywhere and of poor quality. The Turkish desserts (e.g. baklava) were pretty good but their tries to make cakes/mousse failed miserably with cakes being full of "resort cream" (instead of real cream) and mousses being almost bouncy rubber. Outside there are almost no places that are quiet. The main pool has speakers so loud that they are heard to all other pools and outside areas. In the evenings the shows were so loud that even though our room was facing away from the entertainment venue, we could clearly hear what was going on on-stage even with balcony door closed. This went on until late evening. Acoustics in the main restaurant was poor, which made for an unpleasant environment during meals.

To summarise: The hotel is well-maintained, well-staffed and has good facilities. Food and drinks are a big letdown. I probably will not return...

My family and I arrived around 2am and were greeted at reception and each given a red ai bracelet to wear. We were escorted to our room in the Mimoza building just beside the main platinum hotel. The room looked dated but it was just somewhere to put your head. We went to the Irish bar for food and a drink then went to bed. Although I never really slept well due to the bed being like a brick. Again I thought I would get used to it. Anyway, breakfast at the platinum hotel was plentiful and tasty with fresh omelettes and orange juice. The grounds are immaculately kept with gardeners and cleaners everywhere. All pools were exceptional with a decent entertainment teams at the main pool. There was also a foam party every Tuesday. The buffet restaurant was amazing with a huge selection of food. It was one of those places where you felt sorry for the staff as they looked afraid to stop working. They worked extremely long hours. However, on day two myself and 2 others in my family got diarrhoea and stomach cramps which last several days. I was extremely disappointed. We obviously contracted a bug in the hotel. To compound this the beds in the apartment were extremely uncomfortable. I didn’t sleep properly the whole stay. There are also several restaurants you must book in the mornings wich can prove very difficult. We managed to get a booking in the Italian restaurant. Again, I was not impressed due to the service and food. I’m not a picky person at all but it wasn’t great by any standards. The most bothersome thing about this hotel are the guests. I’m from Ireland thought the hotel doesn’t really cater for people who speak English. Most of the guests are Russian and German. They have to be the some of the most rudest people i have ever encountered on holiday and for this reason alone I would never come back. You have to experience it to believe it. They walk about so entitled and the walk through you. The night entertainment at the hotel is average to say the least with an amphitheater that is far to small for the amount of guest staying.However, there was a pool party once a week which was amazing.The best thing I liked whilst there was the Pier. It had a bar and plentiful beds to chill in the sun. There was also lifeguards on duty who did a fantastic job. It was nice to visit Botanik but I...

This hotel was one of the best hotels we ever stayed in, it was big, clean plenty of room different pools that was catered for,|| very busy hotel but no issues with the overall experience.||Breakfast and lunch was a very repetitive, evening meals were themed and very good? We did not try the restaurants due to young children not wanting to eat the food. Tip download the App to book the restaurants? Gets a bit of a queue to book in the morning.||The big pools had staff come around and serve you drinks instead of you going to the bar. ||Each pool was different some a bar or a way for you to get a drink which was great, some had food for snacks though the afternoon which was good.||Slides were fun for the kids the fair was good maybe not open for long enough in my opinion.||The Irish bar was good not much room to sit down, but from 22:00 they do food which is good if you arrive late and have had not food. ||The main pool was busy and sometimes confusing, the entertainment through the day in different pools needs to be more understandable for guests either put it on the App or make it more visually rather than a sign that just says pool games?? Or if there is something going on?||They had day parties on one was a sweet party which was crazy people and children just going mad and grabbing bags and bags of stuff not fun. They had a seafood party on the pier, which I was excited about but is all it was, was grilled fish salmon and 1 other and that was it.|Nothing to do with seafood.|| Only 3 things that I did not like! 1 early morning drinks tea/coffee was only available at the beach bar which was a bit of a walk from the hotel, waking up early you can’t make hot drinks in your room due to the noise. And the other bars don’t open until 8:00, || 2, one of the bars did not have enough staff to deal with the amount of people that were waiting for drinks, it was only a small bar and everyone was there from either the fair or the mini disco. ||3. The games room was too expensive for what you get? It was 12 credits for 25€ which is 2€ per ride, if you are all inclusive the hotel could charge 1€ per ride. That would bring more people in. ||Overall the hotel was excellent I recommend it already and would love to come...