Ephesus Princess — Hotel in Kuşadası

My husband and I have recently returned from two weeks at the Labranda Ephesus Princess, Kusadasi. We specifically asked our travel agent for this hotel due to a past, wonderful holiday there, but what a shock we had. What has happened to this hotel? The standards and quality have plummeted and bore little resemblance to what we remembered.||Before I start, I wish to acknowledge two staff members, Burak, our Jet 2 rep who was very friendly, helpful and professional – he deserves credit for his efforts and Ismail, on reception who always greeted customers with a smile and tried his best to help.||Accommodation.||Based on past experience, we booked and paid for a 1 bedroom bungalow in the grounds which would give us access to amenities but provide us with the peace and quiet that we crave when on holiday. We arrived late at night to be told we had been upgraded to a room in the hotel. This room turned out to be in ‘party central’, on the ground floor, overlooking the main path between swimming pools opposite the large entertainment auditorium, the path down to the beach and adjacent to the slot machines and assorted interactive games machines. The privacy was non-existent and the noise awful. The air conditioning unit was only half open and did not get any cool air up to the bed which was on a raised mezzanine so it was stiflingly hot. The disco music started at 10 am at the main pool and went on until after midnight. We were woken at 6.30am with the chairs being scraped across the dining room floor immediately above our heads. We had people cutting across our patio and resorted to keeping the curtains shut to give us privacy. I spoke with reception that first night and was told that people paid extra for these rooms; we did not ask nor expect an upgrade and just wanted what we had booked and paid for, we’d gone there for a rest. We were told the hotel was full and we couldn’t be moved. We lasted 5 nights but by then were so exhausted (and now ill – details to follow) I tried again but got nowhere. At 61 and 62, gone are our partying days, we needed a rest. Eventually we were offered a ‘pool room’ which was I guess, a back-up room in case of need. These rooms cannot be booked online so officially do not exist. With the help of Burak this was sorted but although it was a nice large room and quiet (with functioning air conditioning), it was essentially one of 4 rooms in a long cabin-like building overlooking the main drive. It had no balcony or terrace but it did have a stacking system of different cleaning materials and chemicals outside the back window to look at if we climbed out of the window. One week on and the reception told us to move out of the room in the main hotel by 10 so they could clean it and the new room would be ready @4pm. We refused. They had not cleaned the room for a week so why start now? We’d had clean towels every few days and the bed was made but the bins were not emptied, the floor not swept and the cockroach that was dying outside the room on the Friday was not moved until the Sunday when it was dead despite showing it to a cleaner. We did move later that day but still not to what we had booked and paid for. ||Food and dining areas.||The salads were good but the ‘hot’ food was atrocious, quite the worst we have ever experienced in a hotel. ‘Cooked’ food was left in tins placed in water in an attempt to keep them warm; this resulted in congealed food, undercooked chicken wings (mostly gristle), spaghetti dried up and stuck to the pans and there was no way we would risk the fish that had just been left to stay warm. Some of it we could not identify despite the labels. By Friday I was ill, followed shortly by my husband, but we had some consolation that we were not the only ones as many people we spoke to were ill and complaining about the food. I finished my course of antibiotics yesterday. We’ve travelled independently in India and South Africa on a couple of occasions and never been ill so this was an unwelcome first.||There are just 14 tables on the outside terrace that in theory should be smoking free – yes, right! At dinner on the second Thursday my husband noticed a smell, it turned out to be a large lump of cat faeces on the ledge right next to the table. We reported it to a member of staff and told him that it was a health issue. That poo was still there on Saturday morning. ||The specialist restaurants, with the exception of the fish restaurant which was very good, were very, very poor. We were rushed through in under an hour so there was no experience involved. Again, the food was poor.||The bars ran out of spirits several times during our stay which was causing an issue with some guests. ||Apparently Labranda’s parent company has gone bust; there is definitely a trickle-down impact on this hotel that is so evident in the slow decay in quality and service. The situation of the hotel is stunning, it has such potential but I regret ever asking to go there. I would not touch this hotel with a barge pole now and advise anyone thinking of going there to do likewise. ||I have attached a few photographs to this email to evidence what I...

Some adjustments to the review have been made on day 4 due to minor adjustments by the guest relations team, they're marked with "update").

Checked in Yesterday, will be updating this review as i stay.

First off, what the pictures don't tell you: The hotel is built into a cliffside, the lobby is in the 8th story, the restaurant in the 2nd, the beach is at an estimated -3, but no elevator to the beach, you walk from the ground floor to the beach (3-5min) so this is not for elderly people. There is, however, a tractor that keeps driving from the lobby to the beach every 10 minutes or so, when the weather is good.

The location is nice nature-wise, and if you're here by car, like me, you can visit nearby historical hotspots without any issue, i cannot say anything about public transportation though.

Positives: Very nice Staff and hearty welcome, i booked a more expensive bungalow but was redirected to the rooms in the first floor for convenience, not sure if its a better room quality-wise (downgrade or upgrade) but i appreciate the thought and first floor is indeed convenient. Food is OK, not en-par with other 5 Star hotels but i was lucky and had to pay less than usual for the room, so I'm not complaining. We're here on Honeymoon and guest relations was very nice, sending us a gift to the room and also allowing us an extra booking of the a la carte restaurants! - we even got bathrobes! Staff here cannot be topped, very happy. Same for the man who carried our luggage, very forthcoming. Rooms cleanliness on the first day was sub-par but was improved the next day, so also happy! (update: Cleanliness generally improved after a short chat with guest relations!, i bumped up room rating from 3 to 4 stars)

Negative: It's an older hotel so i assume a lot of this is due to age.

Starting with the room, it's smelly, i recognize the smell is coming from the drains, it's very pungent, we keep vetilating the room to combat this. (update: This was fixed after i reported this to guest relations thankfully).

The wall outlets next to the bed don't work, i think they're decoys even, because i can't plug in anything at all. TV Remote doesn't work, so no TV for us, we didn't complain to guest relations though, we just use the laptop. We're here off-season (start of May), it's cold outside (11 - 18 degrees) heating in the room does not work, so we're freezing at night, i assume this is not an issue on hot days though.

While the room is decently clean, the bathroom was cleaned in a sub-par manner, i know that because the cobwebs in the shower are still there on day 2.

I expected a few little things in the minibar like in other 5 star hotels but it's empty, not a big issue but worthy to mention.

General: The Spa area is nice and seldomly overcrowded, there is a sauna, steam room and a turkish bath (hamham) that can be used for free, as well as paid services. Only issue here was that for some reason the Spa staff is unwilling to hand out "Peştemal" to the customers (which is a snall towel used in the Hamham), they told me it's just for the paying customers, which is weird because from my experience all hotels do provide these towels on request, this was a first for me and i don't understand the reasoning behind locking a simple small towel behind a paywall.

The hotel itself has not enough elevators even for the off-season load of customers, we keep walking up and down the 8 stories from the lobby to our floor and the restaurant and back. Because the elevators fit around 5 people, or snuggly fit 7 people (which almost always exceeds the load, but that doesn't seem to be an issue YET). So at high-times for spa, restaurant and lobby, you're not going to be able to use them feasibly.

While none of these things bother me since i only paid around 500 for 7 days, i would be fuming if i paid the usual seasonal price of 1000 and more for...

We have just come back from this hotel yesterday. ||||To say I was disappointed is an understatement!||||I don't like putting negativity out there but I was so gutted coming back from this hotel. We work hard all year to get this one week of holiday together for it to be an absolute shambles. ||||4* no way. I have been to a 3* hotel in Turkey last year and it's been the best holiday I have ever had. We wanted to push the boat out and go one star better!! We arrived and they put is in the wrong room. Booked the bungalow ended up in the hotel ground floor staring at a wall. what ever not bothered it is what it is, but the room smelled like sewage all day every day. Cockroaches in the aircon and presuming bedbugs as we were eaten alive every night! Rooms weren't cleaned all week all we had was fresh towels. Very few Brits there, but to the Brits that have made regular trips to this hotel over the years won't be returning. They have noticed a dramatic change over the last 12 months. Rumors are also going round that the hotel is closing and that would make sense as to why it wasn't the best. By day 4-5 we couldn't eat another thing there it was the same thing over and over. When we arrived the lad took our luggage which we never asked for them to do. He then expected a tip, we explained that everything was packed and we didn't have change. He then refused to leave the room until we gave him money. They are all very tip mad in this area just to be warned. He soon made a swift exit when he heard my scouse partner coming towards him. To get down to the sea you have to go down 150+ stairs (as they told us at reception). There is a shuttle bus that goes up and down for you to jump on. Not many excursions to choose from. Hotel on top of a hill so no markets around. A few shops inside. There are a few nice restaurants in town which we had to do as the food was becoming increasingly dull. Hong Kong was great, and a lot of people also said Murphy's. Drinks were just as bad as the food.||||Also if you hate tight spaces be careful with the lifts. There were 7 people stuck in the right sided lift for 45 minutes. They kept ringing for help to the point the woman became increasingly aggressive and not answering the phone. There was a lady in there that became unwell due to being so scared, but no medical staff came to her after dragging her out of it!! ||||Positives - the view is incredible when you see it. From the pool and from the beach down the bottom. ||||If you do book meals they do come and pick you up and drop you off which is very handy. ||||We went to get a tattoo there and they do the same. The studio was incredible, clean and safe. It does all sound a bit dodgy as they come for you and walk you through the town haha ||||Unfortunately that's all the positive comments I have for you. ||||We also found plastic in the ice cream that I nearly choked on and nearly took all my teeth out, being thankful I nearly came home with turkey teeth! I just wish I had seen the negative comments sooner I wouldn't have bothered. ||||Everyone have different tastes. We are easily pleased and just get on with stuff. But this we weren't happy with. If the food had have been incredible we potentially would have overlooked...