Rixos Sungate

What was meant to be a nice holiday and friends catch up turned into disaster. We are two friends and wanted to go for a holiday together with my 3 yo daughter. We bought a tour with flights from Tui for 10 nights. At the very last moment my friend could not leave her son with his father and had to take him with us and flew to another country to pick him up. We contacted Tui to add another 3 yo, however been told they could only add him plus flights, which we did not need as they were no longer coming from the UK. Tui advised us to speak with the hotel directly on check in. At the check in, my friend has arrived before us and been told that need to pay £650 extra for her 3yo son staying with us, all in 1 room. In my opinion £65 supplement per night for a 3yo ( who just turned 3 at the end of July!) is a bit too much as he would not eat for this amount of money. But thats fine we paid it. On the second morning of our stay the little boy started vomiting badly. I straight away went to the front desk to notify them that he is not well and this might be contagious. I kindly ask if they could upgrade us to two separate rooms as we also have a 3 year old little girl in the room and even adults can catch viral stomach viruses easily. The receptionist said he can give us family suit with two separate rooms for extra £250 a night for another 8 nights, which is a bit too much as we already paid lots of money for our holiday (the only thing they offered complimentary is mountain view suite with sliding doors for the seating area and it was after I mentioned that our friends, who were staying at the Hotel as well, got it upgraded right away on check in, as a manager said that suite would be better and bigger for them with two small children. Yet, nothing was offered to us and we are too staying with two small children). The same evening the little boy started having diarrhoea as well and feeling worse, we notified the guest relations and they kindly told us we can order room service meals for the mum and the boy as they were unable to leave the room. We did ask for an extra room again, but yet this was not offered to us and several members of your stuff told us the hotel was only half full!! Myself and my little daughter had to spend 2 days out from morning until evening, to give some space for the boy who was not well and, also, not to get infected with a viral virus. I must say it’s not ideal to putting a little girl to sleep outside two days in the row, especially when you have a dj playing in the afternoon rave kind of super loud music by the pool.. the situation has gotten worse and escalated to the point that the boy had to be taken to the hospital, were he was treated with IV and other several medicine. Viral Gastroenteritis have been confirmed. Only after trip to the hospital guest relations have finally took our situation a bit more serious, but yet told us the hotel is not responsible for gastroenteritis as the child could have been infected by another child in the kids club. They have sent us a bottle or Champagne, fruits and kids amenities.. I must say this is a bit irrelevant in an all-inclusive 5 star Hotel. Only after another several calls, finally we were given garden family suite (5122). The suite was lovely and modern and we had a direct access to the garden and pool, where the mum and boy finally could get some sun. For our surprise the next day on Thursday we received a letter saying that from 10am to 4pm our rooms will be disinfected from insects, and that those chemicals are not dangerous for humans. When we got back, rooms had a strong smell of bleach or some similar chemicals… I repeat we have 2 small kids who constantly playing on the floor, dropping their toys on the floor and one child has not yet fully recovered from Gastroenteritis, why would you allocate us to the rooms that needs to have a chemical insects disinfection in a half empty Hotel??? Unfortunately, the disinfections did not help as in a few days the little boy started having some itching red dots on his body which by now have gotten really bad (you can see the fotos) On Sunday, on our checkout day, I also notice few itching spots, yesterday after arriving home I examined my body and found several bites which seems to be bed bugs bites. I just don’t understand if this is some kind of a sick joke to allocate us in the rooms like that?? After suffering half of our holiday with a poor little boy who was seriously ill, why on Earth would you “upgrade” us to the rooms with bed bugs??? On the positive note, those rear days when no one was sick or bitten, we did enjoyed the Hotel, it is beautiful and the food is very nice, has lots of choice at the buffet restaurant, we visited as well a’la carte Japanese and Mexican, which are amazing. I must say a word about fantasy bar and their team who serves delicious coffee and cocktails, it’s a real gem at the Sungate. The entertainment is also really good, every evening there is a different concert, we loved Boney M and Miss Aura the most. Well, everything else apart of the two major above issues were great and it saddens me that instead of recovering our first issue properly, your administration has made it worse by allocating us in the room with bed bugs (they knew this as were disinfecting the rooms!!) and completely ruining our holiday, leaving just bitter aftertaste instead of good memories …

We have just returned from ten nights here. It is one of the best hotels I have ever stayed at! We have also stayed at Rixos Dubai and this hotel outshines that. We have 2 small children who were constantly fussed over by the wonderful staff. There are drinks a plenty and you will not go hungry here. The food was amazing, and there is so much to do for small children. Rixy kids club has pool restaurant and disco. It also has a soft play and amusement area. The mini bar is stocked up all the time and rooms kept immaculate. The hotel is mainly Russian guests but that did not bother us at all, all the Russian guests we encountered we’re friendly enough. We also took a trip to the theme park which was brill. First time we have been genuinely upset to be going home! We will definitely return.

The hotel is luxary but missing abc hospitality concepts. No priority desk for accor, no smile or even welcome at check in with mask face, no follow up for guest satisfaction, no seat for the in guest relations office (guest relation not reception desk), during check in you will be welcomed by champaigne, guice and some delights in a shiny reception looby while during check out you will go from old furnished dummy hall with no water cup. Comparing the level of hospitality, welcome, to other rixos chain hotels worlwide is significantly inferior and below average in comparing to other repurable chains.

This time surprise was how convenient it was to have business sessions at Rixos: plenty of quiet places to have workshops and seminars, while still being able to relax in the evening at great Spa or Beach Gym or whatever one prefers. Yet another indeed unique is Rixy Club where kids just can't get tired of it and rush there every time: classes, staff, atmosphere are just fantastic. Highly recommend!

Two weeks, two families.